Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published May 2017
304 pages
Genre: Thrillers
Publication Information
Perish the Day is a riveting new mystery from John Farrow, an author who "brings a literary fiction writer's sensitivity to nuance and feel for landscape to this fine, character-rich thriller with a bang-up finish" (Booklist).
A co-ed is found murdered on campus, her body scarcely touched. The killer paid meticulous attention to the aesthetics of his crime. Coincidentally (or not), a college custodian is also found dead.
While an epic rainstorm assails the Holyoake, New Hampshire campus, overflowing rivers and taking down power lines, a third crime scene is revealed: a professor, formerly a spy, has been shot dead in his home. A mysterious note is found that warned him to run.
Each victim is connected to the Dowbiggin School of International Relations, yet none seems connected to the other. The dead student was a close friend of Sergeant-Detective Émile Cinq-Mars's niece, so he puts his nose in; when internecine battles between police departments create a rift, he covertly slips into the crevice so he can be involved in the investigation.
Coming up against campus secrets, Émile Cinq-Mars must uncover the links between disparate groups quickly before the next victim is selected for an elaborate initiation into murder.
"Starred Review. John Verdon fans will be pleased by Farrow's pitting of his well-rounded lead against a puzzle worthy of the detective's acuity." - Publishers Weekly
"The revelations about the Dowbiggin community he ends up unearthing are as sordid as they are wildly implausible." - Kirkus
"The best yet in one of my favorite series - I love Émile Cinq-Mars." - Lee Child
This information about Perish the Day was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
John Farrow is the pen name of Trevor Ferguson, who has written eleven novels and four plays, all to extraordinary acclaim. His Émile Cinq-Mars crime series has been published around the world and cited by Booklist as "the best series in crime fiction today", while Die Zeit in Germany suggested that it might be the best series ever.
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