#BookReview of #TwentySevenMinutes by Ashley Tate

‘It takes one moment to call for help, so why did he wait?’
– Twenty-Seven Minutes

[ About Twenty-Seven Minutes ]

THE QUESTION
For the last ten years, the small town of West Wilmer has been struggling to answer one question: on the night of the crash that killed his sister, why did it take Grant Dean twenty-seven minutes to call for help? If he’d called sooner, Phoebe might still be alive.

THE SECRET
As the anniversary of Phoebe’s death approaches, Grant is consumed by his memories and the secret that’s been suffocating him for years. But he and Phoebe weren’t the only ones in the car that night. Becca was there too – she’s the only other person who knows what really happened. Or is she?

THE TRUTH
Everyone remembers Phoebe, but local girl June also lost someone that night. Her brother Wyatt has been missing for ten years and, now that her mother is dead, June has no one left – no family, no friends. Until someone appears at her door. Someone who knows what really happened that night. And they are ready to tell the truth.

With a shocking twist that will leave you breathless, Twenty-Seven Minutes is a gripping story about what happens when grief becomes unbearable, dark secrets are unearthed, and the horrifying truth is revealed.

[ My Review ]

Twenty-Seven Minutes is the debut novel by Ashley Tate. It was published with Headline February 1st and is described as ‘an astonishing crime thriller debut’.

Ten years ago Phoebe Dean died in a very tragic car accident on the night of a house party attended by many teenagers in the area. At the time of her death, she was a young woman with a very promising future ahead of her. Popular in the community, and among her peers, her death left a mark on everyone who knew her, in particular her brother Grant and another local girl Becca. Both were injured, but survived the crash. But, for reasons only known to them, the alarm wasn’t raised for another twenty-seven minutes. This gap had raised many questions over the years, with Grant having to endure comments and snide remarks but he has just about managed to keep his head above water. Becca has been in and out of therapy over the decade in an attempt to deal with the mental and physical scarring of that night but Becca has never really told anyone what really happened that night. Only Becca and Grant know the truth.

Now, as the ten-year anniversary approaches, and another fatality has occurred in a similar place, memories are stirred up and Grant feels like the world is closing in a little on him. Becca and Grant have a very odd relationship, bound by a secret they cannot reveal but how long more can they keep the truth of the past hidden.

June has suffered in silence for years following the disappearance of her brother Wyatt. Her mother’s dying has left June alone and lonely. Wyatt’s disappearance has remained a mystery but no one in the town of West Wilmer has given it much thought as Wyatt’s reputation was sullied by a misspent youth. Phoebe Dean’s tragic ending was all the townspeople could handle at the time, leaving Wyatt’s disappearance as just a side-note in history. But June has never given up hope that one day Wyatt might return or at least that she will get closure on the mystery of his vanishing. An unexpected visitor at her door shocks June but leads her to information that might finally unravel the ten-year old mystery that has left the folk of West Wilmer flummoxed and upset. What June discovers is something dark and sinister, a secret that has been buried deep for many years.

Twenty-Seven Minutes is a curious read that left me with quite an ambivalent feeling. I could not warm to any one character, finding the community of West Wilmer to be very insular and cagey. There was no sense of any one person being genuinely friendly or nice to each other. There was an undercurrent of nastiness floating through the story that genuinely left me disarmed and at times frustrated, with many instances of repetition throughout. The interaction of some of the characters was quite juvenile and I did wonder if the target audience was more YA than adult, as strangely the teenagers of ten-years ago still acted like teenagers today.

The premise of Twenty-Seven Minutes is good and that uncomfortable undercurrent is depicted well throughout but I couldn’t quite immerse myself in the book as I had anticipated. I definitely would read a novel by Ashley Tate again and I think I would enjoy it if she took her writing more in the direction of a Stephen King novel. Creating that sense of foreboding is very much evident throughout and there are twists that may shock some readers. Overall Twenty-Seven Minutes was a decent debut and I expect that Ashley Tate will sharpen her pen and be back with another novel in the next year or so.

[ Bio ]

Ashley Tate worked for over a decade as an editorial writer and editor for various publications as well as Canada’s first online magazine. Writing a novel and seeing it published is really the only thing on her bucket list and she’s ecstatic to be checking that off.

She lives with her husband, two children, and their dog, in Toronto, Canada.

X ~ @tate_ab