Review: 'Les Sept Jours du Talion' by Patrick Senécal

4/5 stars ⭐

When I was 12, a friend showed me the trailer for The Human Centipede, and my nightmares were haunted for years afterwards by the visage of a psychotic surgeon – yes, solely from the trailer; yes, that is laughably lame. (And yes, I’ve now seen the movie… and its two sequels). Patrick Senécal’s Les Sept Jours du Talion (Seven Days of Revenge) brought me right back to those days with his gory tale of a talented surgeon who kidnaps the man that murdered his daughter, and by the end of it he had me thinking that maybe medical malpractice is okay sometimes.

From the start, Senécal hooks the reader with a simple but horrifying premise (see above: surgeon, kidnap, etc). I really appreciated that even though this novel has aspects of a detective story with the loner Mercure on the case, Senécal forgoes the classic mystery element and makes it plainly obvious to both the police and the reader who is committing this crime and why. This was helpful in keeping all the threads of the story tightly focused on the relationship between Dr Hamel and his captive. What kept me so engaged in this novel was the way Senécal explores the unravelling psyche of the surgeon as he commits more and more violent acts against the murderous Lemaire – I particularly loved the recurring motif of the barking dog, which was seeded nicely into the overall story so as not to stick out as A Deep Metaphor™ as these things sometimes do.

It’s difficult to comment much on the prose itself, because this is a translation, but it was solid enough; the real draw here is the thriller plot, anyway, which is good enough not to require Shakespearean-level storytelling to keep you entertained. I wish Senécal had leaned even more heavily into the unique skillset Hamel has, because the most brutal and visceral moments were when he utilised his knowledge of the human body against his captive. Any idiot can swing a sledgehammer, but not everyone can perform at-home colostomy surgeries! Let’s see more of that.

In a few words, I’d describe Les Sept Jours du Talion as brutal, engaging and strangely philosophical. It seeks to ask you the question: if your loved one was harmed, and the perpetrator was right in front of you, do you really think you could enact all the violent revenge you fantasise about? I’m not sure if Senécal would be very happy with me, because my answer is still a definitive yes. Free Dr Hamel, he did no wrong!