Your father is on death row. You have seven days to save him. But do you want to?
Alice knows her father is guilty of many things.
He’s guilty of abandoning her.
He’s guilty of being unfaithful to her mother.
But is he guilty of murder?
Now on Death Row, he has seven days to live.
Some people want him released.
Others will kill to keep him just where he is.
Alice has only one chance to save him. But should she?
A few months ago, I read a sampler of Robert Rutherford's Seven Days and was instantly hooked. Having now read the entire book, I'm happy to confirm that the rest of the book more than lived up to my expectations. I love a race-against-time thriller and Seven Days is certainly that but it's also a nuanced, engrossing novel about families, hope and forgiveness.
Manny's death in the prologue sets the scene perfectly for all that follows. In his last few moments, it is made clear that he was an armed drug dealer so definitely no angel but nevertheless, the nature of his death is still mercilessly cold and brutal. Alice's introduction in the first chapter immediately reveals her to be a woman with intense commitments and the bittersweet reality of caring for her mother following her stroke is beautifully expressed. Robert Rutherford understands that for a thriller to be truly compulsive, it needs to be about more than the high-octane action scenes; the complicated dynamics of Alice's family are gradually and empathetically explored as the novel progresses. It's obvious throughout that Alice is weighed down by the guilt she feels for her part in the break-up of her family, and the relationship she has with her younger sister, Fiona is particularly interesting. They clearly love one another and yet there is still an underlying tension which sees Fiona able to use Alice's conscience to persuade her to travel to France following a shocking conversation with their estranged father, Jim.
It's Fiona who informs Alice that their Dad is on Death Row in Florida and that he is due to be given a lethal injection in just seven days time. Unbeknown to them, he has been in prison for eleven years, convicted of murder with what seems to be damning and irrefutable evidence. Alice is angry at Jim but not because he is apparently a killer; she is still harbouring resentment at his earlier behaviour when they were children.
The first part of Seven Days sets the scene effectively, setting up a complex and emotional mystery and introducing believable, fascinating characters. Jim has a prison record but nothing approaching the scale of murder. He seems beyond hope and doesn't ask his daughters for help. Nevertheless, he asserts his innocence, despite the evidence to the contrary. Eventually she agrees to Fiona's pleas to look into the case and asks her old friend, FBI agent turned private investigator, Sofia Marquez to look into things. Alice is expecting to have his guilt confirmed but instead, learns the case isn't quite as straightforward as it appears.
Alice is a former attorney and although she has never worked murder cases, she is able to utilise her skills when interviewing people and decoding their responses. When her investigation takes her from Whitley Bay to Paris, she meets Luc Boudreux who is a serving agent with the Global Agency for Law Enforcement (GALE). She isn't sure whether she can trust him but acknowledges that needs his assistance. The shadow of past mistakes are still hanging over him but there is more to this flawed man than first meets the eye. The multi-layered narrative is shared between them and subsequently the dramatic irony created is cleverly intriguing – and frustrating at times. It's also interesting to note that despite their mutual reticence to trust one other, they are similar people; both are rather self-sufficient and lonely, with a need to prove to themselves that they are still good people.
Alice's actions lead to somebody else expecting her help and it becomes horribly evident that they are prepared to be utterly ruthless to ensure it. What was initially a pointless mission to appease her sister ends up becoming something far more sinister and she is in very real danger. The suspenseful cliff hangers would be nerve-racking enough but the ticking clock as the days count down towards Jim's execution exacerbate the tension to unbearable levels.
The creeping sense of foreboding engendered before the breathtaking conclusion is terrifically nail-biting. Alice and Luc face various barriers in their quest to uncover the truth, which turns out to be more terrible than anyone could have imagined, and the exploration of what justice means to different people is particularly impressive. With its first-rate sense of place, Seven Days is a brilliantly engaging, compulsive and fast-paced thriller. It is also a perceptive, compassionate look at disappointment, forgiveness and the importance of family, even those which may not be typical. Twisty, tense and superbly characterised, this global race against time and across the world is a top read. Very highly recommended!
Seven Days will be published by Hodder & Stoughton on 25th April 2024. It can be pre-ordered from bookshop.org, Hive, Waterstones, Amazon, Kobo or your favourite independent bookshop.
About the Author
What Falls Between The Cracks, the first in his Porter & Styles series, written under the name Robert Scragg, was a New Writing North pick as one of the 2019 Read Regional books of the year. Rob’s work has also seen him shortlisted for the Lindisfarne Prize for Crime Fiction in 2021.
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