Twenty-Seven Minutes is a mystery thriller with a large cast of characters. The premise is how did the popular girl, Phoebe Dean, die and why did it take 27 minutes for her brother Grant to call for help.
This novel is told in two different time lines, current and ten years ago on the day Phoebe died. Each chapter is told from a different person’s perspective of their life now and their connections to Phoebe and her family.
The characters all have secrets and dreams they are hiding. Sometimes you don’t know what is reality and what is a person’s imagination. I found the characters to not be very likable. The one I felt the most empathy for was June, who recently lost her mother to cancer. Her brother Wyatt disappeared the same night that Phoebe died. What was the significance of that? Any coincidence?
The suspense of what happened on that fateful night was given to the reader in bits and pieces. It was up to the reader to determine who was telling the truth or telling lies. Lots of twists and turns, with the big reveal coming at the end. I have to say that I was taken by surprise.

Thanks to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press, an imprint of Sourcebooks, Inc. for the digital ARC to read in exchange for an honest review. Published January 30, 2024.

Despite my rating, I did not hate this book, I was just left disappointed by it. The writing is really well done and the characters were well developed. (That being said, 90% of the characters were unlikeable and made reading this a little more difficult because I just didn't really care about them).

The build-up to the twist was strong but I felt as though the reveal was a bit of a let down because I think I had guessed it, or it felt like it was anticipated to turn out the way it did.

This was a slow developing story and if you're just along for the ride you will probably find this enjoyable!

Thank you to Poisoned Pen Press and NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Twenty-Seven Minutes follows several characters through the present and flashbacks from ten years ago, when their lives changed forever. A teenage party ended in tragedy when Grant, Becca, and Phoebe were in a car accident, leaving Phoebe dead. Ten years later, Phoebe's family is ready to have a memorial for her and it is stirring up a lot of memories for those involved. Becca is still obsessed with Grant and has been protecting him all these years by thinking she cannot remember what happened that night.

At first I was thinking there were too many point of views, but the characters were developed really well. I can't wait to read more by Ashley Tate.

Thank you to Ashley Tate, Poisoned Pen Press, and NetGalley for the copy in exchange of my honest review.

This book was actually a slow burn thriller

Phoebe Dean was one of the popular girls in the town and she was found dead. Within twenty-seven minutes, she could have been still alive yet she died on the spot.

Now nearly a decade later, the town in holding a memorial in Phoebe Dean. There are so many questions arising, why did her brother Grant took twenty seven minutes to call for help? There is someone in the town, who knows what really happened to Phoebe Dean on the night of the accident.

To me, this was a slow burn thriller. Not much twists and turns, and not only that, it was outright a little boring to me in my opinion. The story is told in multiple POVs--Grant, Becky, and June. It was slightly a bit difficult to distinguish between past and present but other than that, I found the book less appealing. The twist at the end was OK but overall, in the end, to me, the book was OK in my opinion. Would have been better if unnecessary parts were eliminated and made the story more intriguing and interesting. Overall this book worth 2.5 stars.

Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC. The review is based on my honest opinion only.

I enjoyed this book! It was a slow burning mystery with lots of character building!
It was told through the viewpoint of multiple characters with flashbacks to the past. There’s a big twist in the story I was not expecting and I thought it was a great ending!
Thanks Poisoned Pen Press and Net Galley for this Arc!

The opening and closing paragraphs of this book are beautifully written. I love Ashley Audrain’s work, and the author of this book, Ashley Tate, is her writing partner. I can see how they influence each other’s writing with this debut.

Twenty-Seven Minutes is a slow burn kind of novel with lots of character building, and it took a while for something to happen and for all of it to make sense. But in the end, the author ties it all up neatly with this shocking plot twist that was just… wow. I don’t tear up easily but it made me cry.

Congrats to Ashley Tate for this moving and relatable novel. It depicted grief so well and made me remember that every life, no matter how flawed, is precious.

Thank you NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Ten years ago, a beautiful teenaged girl died in a car accident on a bridge…but what else happened that rainy night?

The town of West Wilmer has never forgotten the accident that took the life of Phoebe Dean in a car crash on a treacherous bridge in town years ago. Phoebe was smart, beautiful and popular, and over the years those attributes are what people most remember of her. There were two people in the car with her that night: her older brother Grant, who was a talented athlete being scouted by colleges and who was extremely close to his sister, and Becca Hoyt. Becca suffered head injuries in the accident and has little memory of what happened that night, but she and Grant both insist that a deer appeared in the road unexpectedly and that Grant had swerved to avoid hitting it, losing control of the car in the process. Grant sustained injuries as well that ended his sports career, and has also never been able to answer why it took him 27 minutes after the car crashed to go to a nearby pay phone and call for help. He has had to live with the knowledge that Phoebe might have lived if he had made the call earlier. His widowed mother, who had always favored Phoebe over him, now can barely stand to look at him. The town as a whole has condemned him for his actions that night, and he has to live with their scorn as well. He copes with the residual pain from his injuries, his guilt over failing his sister, and the dismal life he now leads by self-medicating with prescription drugs and alcohol. He and Becca have a relationship that he insists they keep secret, and Becca has agreed both because she loves him, and because she believes that she was the cause of the accident and that Grant has lied to protect her. She is getting tired of keeping things secret, though, and is making Grant nervous about what she might say and to whom. When an elderly woman from town dies in an accident on that same bridge, just three days before the tenth anniversary of the accident that took Phoebe’s life and the memorial gathering that has been planned to commemorate it, questions are being asked and secrets are coming to light. Another person disappeared from town on that stormy night ten years ago, which the town has forgotten, and he has returned at long last to reveal what really happened that night.
Twenty Seven Minutes is a tantalizing debut thriller that grabbed me right from the start and didn’t let go until the last page. The story unfolds in chapters which are narrated by alternating characters….Grant, Becca, June, Wyatt…and slowly the reader learns the story of the events of that fateful night ten years earlier as well as how the lives of the main characters have evolved. Each carries the trauma of that event in ways both physical and emotional, and none have had a particularly happy life over the ensuing years. As is true in real life, the death of one person has a ripple effect over the lives of those left behind. Survivor’s guilt, harsh judgements in the court of public opinion, and fault lines that open up in a family when a member dies all come in to play in the stories of these characters. Some of them are lying to others, some are lying to themselves; in short, the reader can’t be at all sure of what is fact and what is fantasy or obfuscation. There are points in the story when the brisk pace of the narrative slows down and becomes overly repetitive, but the underlying story is so tantalizing and with its truth remaining just out of reach I was determined to stay the course and find out what happened. Why would a loving brother let his sister die? What is the bond between Becca and Grant? And most critical of all, what happened during those 27 minutes on the bridge? I found it a quick and enjoyably suspenseful read, and recommend it to readers of Celeste Ng, Mary Kubica and Stacy Willingham as well to those who can’t resist a story that centers around the bad decisions that young people make and which alter the course of their lives. Many thanks to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for allowing me access to an advanced reader’s copy of Twenty Seven Minutes..

Twenty-seven minutes. The time it took for Phoebe Dean to die after a horrific car accident. 10 years later, and Phoebe's mother is planning a memorial for her, and the people most affected by the accident are feeling the affects of the accident almost as if it had just happened with another accident at the bridge where Phoebe died claims another life. The town reels and plans a vote to tear it down, and secrets from that night 10 years ago start to surface...

This book, it felt like I read it in 27 minutes. It's super fast paced, and you don't realize how quickly you're just flying through it. The characters aren't particularly likable, all of them are hiding some horrible things in their past. A brother that has been missing since the night of the accident suddenly turns up, miraculously alive while his sister is grieving the loss of their mother. Phoebe's brother is hiding more than one secret, keeping multiple affairs secret.
I liked this book quite a bit, and it was a perfect thriller to curl up with on these cold nights. I always wanted to find out what secret we would learn out next, which twist was just around the corner. I think the characters themselves could have used a bit more fleshing out, some of them were a bit stiff, but overall this book worked fairly well and I'm looking forward to more by Ashley Tate!

The town of West Wilmer was forever changed 10 years ago. Grant Dean was involved in a horrific car accident where his sister, Phoebe, was killed. The town is obsessed with this car accident and the mystery surrounding it. Grant says a deer ran out in front of him, but the question on everyone's mind is why did he wait 27 minutes before he called 911? There is a darkness in this town. You can almost feel the foreboding darkness while you are reading it. So many lives were destroyed on that fateful night. The 10 year anniversary is coming up, and as you read, you realize that the stories from that night are not truthful. Someone is hiding something, and someone knows the secret.

The opening scene is chilling. After the opening scene, it was a little slow at times. However, I could not put it down because I had to know what happened. My search for the truth would not allow me to stop reading. I can honestly say that I did not like any of the characters in this book. I do not think I have ever despised a group of characters so much. Dysfunctional families and relationships were the norm in this story. Self-centeredness was the name of the game. I pondered on the fact that I did not like the characters, and I believe this was by design by the author. I was not supposed to like the characters. The mind blowing ending will leave you reeling and also made me wonder why I did not see it before.

If you are looking for a thriller, this is not what you will get with this book. However, if you enjoy intrigue with a deep mystery embedded in the plotline, you will devour this one.

Thank you to Poisoned Pen Press and NetGalley for this ARC. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

It wasn't quite a 4-star read, more like a 3.75.

There are several main characters with quite a few supporting characters. The main characters:
Phoebe: West Wilmer's "it" girl who was killed in a car accident at 17. It is now coming up on its 10th anniversary.
Grant: Phoebe's brother who was driving the vehicle the night of the accident and why did he wait 27 minutes to call for help?
Becca-Also in the car that night & spent 18 days in the hospital recovering, as she will often remind the reader anytime she has a conversation with absolutely anyone. She was a very unlikable character and more than a bit delusional.
The Delroy siblings, Wyatt & June: Each have their trauma to deal with and have much to say about the night of the accident.

While several characters were telling their side of the story, Then & Now, they weren't hard to differentiate. Each one was very distinct so there was no confusion. I'm not a big fan of the Then & Now storylines but this one worked. I liked getting each person's recollections from the night of the accident.

I wouldn't call this book a thriller as it was more of a Family Drama/Suspense than anything. The buildup to the ending took up 90% of the book so it was a bit slow. I did enjoy the red herrings that kept me guessing wrong to the end. Be aware that there is a lot of grief and trauma in this book so keep that in mind if you've recently lost someone in your life.

This is a debut novel for Ashley Tate and I will be on the lookout for her next novel. I feel she will get better with each story as she continues her writing journey.

I'd like to thank Poisoned Pen Press for providing me with a copy for review via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

Twenty-seven minutes is a long time to wait to call 9-11 after a car accident.

The whole book by Asley Tate revolves around this accident that occurred 10 years ago and what happened to young Phoebe to end up dead using flashbacks of the event. The points of view from June, Wyatt, Grant and Becca gives us insight to these people and what each was doing at the time of the accident and the days leading up to the event. Why would Grant wait twenty-seven minutes to call? Did he love his sister? Why was June still in a state of mourning after 10 years? Where did Wyatt go for 10 years? Did Becca really not remember what happened that night? The author answers these questions slowly throughout the book. Painfully slow at times.

This book is not a fast mover, but I stuck with it to know the answers. It is not a bad book. It was written well, and I didn't like the characters, but I don't think I was meant to. I did feel the ending was rushed since the author spent so much time doing flashbacks to set the stage for the event. It was just a tragic accident and the aftermath that happens to people sometimes from a small-town. The twist at the end I wasn't expecting. If you like a book with different POV's, and more of drama mystery, than give it a shot.

Thanks to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for the eARC of this book.

What happened on that bridge ten years ago? So many people in the town of West Wilmer are frozen in a holding pattern. Now there is a push to take down the bridge. The vote is coming up. And before that is the decennial to commemorate a young life lost on that bridge.

Why did Phoebe Dean die? Was it the twenty-seven minutes it took for her brother Grant to call for help? Rebecca Jane Hoyt (Becca) was in the back seat of the truck. Why can't she remember what happened? June Delroy's family has not been the same since that night. What happened to her brother Wyatt?

Exploring themes of regret, loss, and grief; this new release uses the small town rumor mill and multiple perspectives to work through the trauma of that night and lead to new beginnings.

Thank you to Poison Pen Press and NetGalley for a DRC in exchange for an honest review.

Phoebe died 10 years ago, and the big question is, why did it take her brother Twenty-Seven Minutes to call 911?

I did like the dual timelines and multiple POVs, but the characters were really unlikable. That is not my favorite tactic in thrillers/suspense books. Alot of time is spent just learning about each person and their anxieties about what happened ten years ago. It was nice to have a story with character depth but some of it felt a little long for me.

The premise of this book is what intrigued me, but overall the book was just ok for me. I'm excited to see what Tate comes out with next.

Thank you NetGalley for the advanced digital copy in exchange for my honest review.

This was an admirable debut and premise… and I KNOW I could not do anything better. … but this was super hard to get through. Yes I wanted to know what ultimately happened. And the ending was good. But the middle parts seemed a little basic in the writing. A touch repetitive and circuitous. This writer shows promise!

“𝐒𝐡𝐞 𝐡𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐬𝐞𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐬, 𝐬𝐡𝐞 𝐚𝐥𝐰𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐡𝐚𝐝; 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐝𝐚𝐫𝐤 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐢𝐨𝐮𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐥𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐥.”

I was excited to dive into this book, as part of a Tandem Readalong, and because I’m always excited to check out new Canadian authors.

Ashley Tate’s debut is atmospheric, emotional, and filled with intrigue. I loved the format, concentrating on mostly four characters, Grant, Becca, June, and Wyatt, alongside flashbacks to the fateful night when Phoebe Dean was killed from the point of view from others in town. Tate gives just enough snippets of the past to keep you engaged and have you wondering how all these characters connect to that tragic night. She also captured the effect of rumours with the claustrophobic nature of a small town where everyone thinks they know your business, and where everyone has an opinion (Tate highlights this with the upcoming vote on the fate of the bridge). The characters are well developed, even if they aren’t very likeable and are incredibly unreliable, however they are also truly complex. I found myself hating Grant and Becca’s selfishness and crying for June and Wyatt, as they seemed surrounded by suffocating sadness. The story does move at a slower pace, not really a thriller, and more like a drama on complex grief, and how we all deal with tragedy differently, alongside a mystery. I could’ve used a bit more resolution to the ending - it wrapped up a bit abruptly, however I found I couldn’t wait to get to each day’s pages and to share my thoughts and theories in our chat group.

Twenty-Seven Minutes is a story of reverberating loss, resentment, secrecy, manipulation and deep regret. It is a strong debut with a complex web of tragic characters. Thank you to SourceBooks for the digital ARC, and DoubleDay Canada & Tandem Global for the gifted copy!

Oh... my. Where do I even start with this one? The premise, AMAZING, the execution, a complete flop.
First and foremost, the representation of mental illness, psychosis, and addiction in this novel is really upsetting. All of these characters lived through an extremely traumatic event, and while everyone deals with trauma in their own way, every person in this novel needs professional, intense, and very specific trauma-related therapy.
Also, let's please talk about the characters. When read a book, I like to have at least one likable. This book had no such personalities. And yes, I get it, traumatic event, but Becca's mindset was terrible, June was a mess, and Grant is straight up hallucinating. But my main problem was Becca. Her selfishness and ego-centric behavior (again, traumatic event, I get it, but still), made me angry. Every time the story line shifted to her perspective I found myself feeling annoyed and irritated. I wanted to shake her and remind her that she's not the one who died! Yes, she lived through something hard, but expecting that people pay more attention to her (over and over again, I might add), got repetitive and boring.
Now, for the ending. Pages and pages of this book were spent alluding to the tragedy of that night, the horrific events that everyone had kept secret for 10 years, but after a while, that plot device gets really old. About 80 pages in, the whole started to feel very repetitive and nondescript. Then, we get to the end of the book, and the big "reveal" is about a page and a half, and the ending falls completely flat. No spoilers, but no one gets what they deserve, the whole ending just kind of fades to black with zero follow up or conclusion. Don't get me wrong, I do sometimes like an open-ended conclusion, but this one was TOO open. I want an epilogue, or a conclusion, or something...
I try really hard not to completely dump on books like this because I usually can find some redeeming qualities in a story, but this one really wasn't good. If you're looking for a "to read or not to read" I'd advise you to not waste your time.

**Please note: this review is posted on GoodReads as of 1/29

Phoebe died 10 years ago, and the big question is why it took her brother, Dean Twenty-Seven Minutes to call 911.

This is a very good book that hums with a minefield of secrets that may burst to come out with the upcoming 10-year reunion of Phebe's death.

I recommend this book to those that like a fast paced read, with a vibrant ending this was very entertaining.

Thank you NetGalley for the advanced digital copy in exchange for my honest review.

Really enjoyed this dual timeline, multiple point of view book. Liked trying to figure out what really happened the night Phoebe Dean died. Can't wait to see more from this author.

My thoughts are pretty neutral on this one. I didn't love it and didn't hate it. It was a slow burn suspense with not a super shocking ending. In fact, the ending felt a little bit rushed.

Some characters were unlikeable. We spent a lot of time learning about each one and their anxieties about the accident. This felt a little drawn out but also had me intrigued.

Overall, it was a pretty okay debut novel and I'm excited to see what Tate comes out with next.



Read If You Like:
Multiple POV's
Alternate Timelines
Slow Burn Thrillers
Character Driven
Small Town Drama

This was a quick read for me. The chapter rotated around the 4 main characters and you would also get a little glimpse of what happened that fateful night through some flashbacks within the chapters. There were a lot of twists and turns with some very damaged and flawed characters. As the story goes on and you learn more my opinion changed of some of the characters. It was intriguing and probably a bit of a peek behind how hiding a secret and lying can really take a toll on your life and others around you. Thank you NetGalley for an ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.