A car accident ten years ago takes the life of 17-year-old Phoebe Dean, one of the most popular girls in the small town of West Wilmer. Her older brother, Dean, was driving, and Becca Hoyt, in the back seat was severely injured. Twenty-seven minutes elapsed before Dean called for help. Why?

That's the burning question in this tale of ruined lives that stopped in place when the accident happened. The story, told from multiple POVs, follows the timelines of events leading up to the accident, and ten years later as the tenth memorial is but days away.

The book blurb written by the publishers had me eager to read this debut mystery novel. Unfortunately, for me, the read didn't match up with the hype. I found the characters flat, and
the story repetitive and sad. This is a tragic tale, no doubt, but the reality that the main characters were never able to get past the night of the accident is sadder still. And though I had compassion for each of them, I can't say I liked any of them.

Reading is very subjective, and this book was not a good fit for me.

My sincere thanks to Poisoned Pen Press for permitting me to access an DRC of this novel via NetGalley. Publication is 1/30/24. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own and are freely given.

I enjoyed this book, it is a four person POV. It started out kind of slow, but with the short chapters it picked up. This book is full of town secrets and unreliable narrators. The end has an unexpected twist that stopped me for a second. Overall it was a good book, there just was not anything that really grabbed me about this book to make it stand out.

I loved the many POV and the short chapters. It really picked up towards the middle to the end. The plot twist threw me for a loop!

I really wanted to like this book. The premise was right up my alley, and I went into the book with really high hopes. Unfortunately, this was just not the book for me.

I felt like over 90% of the book was reading about the lives of very unlikeable characters without anything actually happening. Even the flashbacks to the past felt like not much was happening that moved the story along.

I stuck with this book because there were enough good reviews promising a really good twist. I will admit that the twist was really good, but by the time that it finally came, I was so bored with the book I didn’t particularly care.

I am not a huge fan of a slow burn thriller, but I do sometimes love them if the story gets going by the 50% mark. I didn’t feel like the story here every really got going. This just really was not the book for me, but if you love a really slow burn with a huge twist, this could be the book for you.

Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for a copy of this book. I leave this review voluntarily.

Wow! This was an incredible read. Fast-paced, taut, raw, and executed in a masterfully written way. Ashley Tate was able to handle dark material in an immersing, relatable way. I'll be back for the next novel, as Tate is becoming one of my favorite authors.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an early read.

This was….weird. There was a lot of dialogue but somehow a lack of plot? While I love a small town setting, this town felt so sad with all the characters talking about how trapped they were and desperate to get out. The repetition was heavy with many characters feeling extremely similar. There was one twist I didn’t see coming surrounding one of the more likeable characters. I wish I could say more positives but It felt like a creative writing project by.

Twenty-Seven Minutes is a mystery thriller with slowly built-up suspense that kept me turning the pages from the very first scene. Greif was portrayed really well and was really the catalyst that kept pushing the story along. I enjoyed the plot, the overall creepy setting that was established, and the nice twist ending. However, I never really got as invested as I wanted to with the characters and, unfortunately, this was the biggest drawback of this novel for me personally. But overall, I had a good time with this book and what it brought to the table.

I believe the re-readability of this book would be very high since the author left clues throughout the entirety of the story that would be fun to go back and see that the ending was there for us readers to figure out the whole time. I would certainly recommended this if you enjoy slow burn thrillers and don’t mind some gore. Thank you to Poisoned Pen Press and NetGalley for an ARC of this book in which I am voluntarily leaving this honest review.

2.5 stars rounded up.
This book was just unfortunately not for me. It's described as a thriller, but not much happens, which makes it hard for me to consider this a thriller. There's a lot of prose and dialogue and inner monologue (that is all very well-written, to be fair) leading up to the big reveal at the end. However, this reveal wasn't very surprising. We basically knew what had happened the entire time and were only missing a few details.
There were a lot of beautiful parts of this book. Again, it was well-written, and the descriptions of grief, trauma and guilt were very well done. I also appreciated the multiple POVs and the flashbacks to the day of the accident that slowly revealed aspects of the character and the "mystery".
I just don't think the description of this book was accurate. The synopsis alludes to someone threatening to reveal the secrets of the night, which doesn't happen. It's more of the guilt finally eating away at the characters and forcing the truth out, which I think I would have enjoyed more had the synopsis not led me to believe something else. I also think the genre is more literary fiction with a hint of mystery than a thriller like it was categorized.

It's tricky to describe how I felt about this book. There were parts that the writing was strong and I was in it with the characters. Sadly that would change rather quickly. The character development was lacking and conversations felt unrealistic. It felt to me like 2 separate people were writing the book. I think given time and experience, this author would be worth reading again.

Ten years ago Phoebe Dean died in a car crash. A car being driven by her brother Grant. An accident that, according to evidence, occurred 27 minutes before Grant called for help. Why? And what was he doing during those 27 minutes? Could Phoebe have been saved if he had acted earlier?
For ten years these, and more, questions have been asked and no answers ever given. Also present that night was Becca who has been supporting Grant ever since the accident. And, on the same night of that accident, another young man, Wyatt, also disappeared, leaving his sister June in limbo... coincidence or...?
A lot of tragedy happened that night...
Back in the present and we are a few days away from the ten year anniversary and a memorial is arranged. Also, after another nasty accident at the same place, on the bridge, has left people asking for it to be demolished and a vote is set to be taken.
And that's pretty much all I can say as I think you really need to get to know these characters as the author intends. You need to learn what happened at their speeds. In fact, also as they themselves learn it. As more of the truth becomes known, as told in flashback, more of the present day stuff becomes clear. And then there's that sweet spot, that a-ha moment. That point where my jaw dropped and... well, I'll leave that to you to find out.
I tried to guess ahead. I did OK and also spectacularly badly. And I eat sleep repeat this genre book. But yeah, kept me guessing all the way through. And I loved it.
And so, as I finished. I went to check out the author's back catalogue and, blow me down. It's a debut book. WOW. I guess I'll just have to wait to see what the author serves up for next time. My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book

A small town where everyone knows everyone, but a chilling secret is about to turn the quiet town upside down. Sunday is going to be the tenth anniversary when Phoebe Dean was killed in a freak accident on the town's most dangerous bridge. But Phoebe wasn't the only one who lost something that day. Becca was in the accident too, but she remembers nothing and Grant Phoebe's older brother was driving the truck and could've saved Phoebe's life if he had called the ambulance as soon as the accident happened. But he wasted twenty-seven minutes. And the ultimate question we are left with is - what happened?

The story starts with Phoebe's ten-year memorial being announced by her mother, and then we are taken back and forth between the day before the accident, to the present. The story has multiple POVs Grant, Becca, Wyatt - another person who went missing the same night, and June, Wyatt's sister who is fighting her demons and trying to get to the truth.

I enjoyed the story immensely. After seeing the mixed reviews this debut author received I thought the book would turn out to be an ok read. However, multiple guesses on what would have happened did not prepare me for the wild and unexpected end. The story had everything - a fast pace, a good plot, a well-thought-out ending, deep characters, and, some crazy ones too, fighting their pain and sorrow in unexpected ways. The author explored this dimension of grief and loneliness very well and had me hooked on all the dark secrets and mysteries unraveling one after the other.
I highly recommend this book to fans of thriller novels. I see a great new mystery author on the rise.

The town of West Wilmer never really got over the death of Phoebe Dean ten years ago. Bright and popular, she was expected to go far and to put their small town’s name on the map. Instead, the truck she was in crashed on the town bridge one rainy night. She bled out on the asphalt, and nothing in West Wilmer was ever the same again.

Since then, plenty of questions have been directed at the truck’s driver, Phoebe’s older brother Grant. There’d been a twenty-seven minute delay between the vehicle crashing and Grant calling for help. Plenty of people still believe that if he’d called emergency services sooner, Phoebe’s life might have been saved.

As children, Grant had promised Phoebe that they would leave town together, working their way to bigger vistas and better opportunities. But the pressures of high school took their toll on Grant, who was relying on football scouts to pry him out of West Wilmer. Phoebe had gone nearly wild with frustration, trying to keep him on the straight and narrow and away from the girls she feared would keep him tied to their birthplace.

Becca Hoyt was one of those girls. She’s also the only witness to what really happened that night on the bridge, or so she believes. Since then, she’s kept the secrets Grant has asked of her, out of a perhaps misguided belief in his enduring love:

QUOTE
How could Grant sacrifice so much for her ten years ago but treat her so poorly now? That stormy night had many facets, but had she not protected him, just as he had her, by keeping some of those truths to herself? He’d been the one driving, had he not? He’d let his sister die, had he not? Becca had lived for ten years with the unbearable burden of guilt of what Grant had done out of love for her, and yet she was still overlooked and ignored in town.

Becca was tired of being invisible in her own story; she was owed more than what Grant was giving.
END QUOTE

Becca isn’t the only person suffering from the aftereffects of that night. The crash injured Grant’s leg, ending his football career and keeping him in the same household as the mother he and Phoebe had once planned to flee. When that same mother decides that she wants to hold a ten year memorial service for her lost daughter, Grant and Becca’s grief and guilt can no longer be kept separate from each other’s, as the memorial intensifies and focuses the entire town’s emotions.

Into this already combustible mix comes June Delroy, their classmate back in high school. June’s brother Wyatt left their family on the same day as the accident. Several years later, their father followed suit. June’s mother has only recently died of cancer, leaving June bereft and even more broken down than she was while her mother was alive. When Wyatt finally comes home, June is both overwhelmed with happiness and filled with questions. Even though she’s glad he’s back, she can’t help but feel resentful still of the circumstances surrounding his departure:

QUOTE
But where Wyatt had been for the last ten years, after running away the night of a terrible fight with their father, June didn’t know. The help they needed from the sheriff to look for Wyatt, to find wherever he’d slunk off to and then drag him home, as they had done several times before, hadn’t been available because of that car accident. Their town was too small for more than one problem, she supposed, and they’d chosen her. Phoebe Dean. She’d drained all of the resources and air and sympathy, and all that June’s family was left with was an empty chair at their table and a steady stream of questions that would never be answered.
END QUOTE

When Becca, Wyatt and June each decide they need to go to Phoebe’s memorial in search of closure, Grant is unprepared to deal with all of them at once. He’s spent the last decade hiding what really happened that night. Will he be able to hold out even longer in the face of all their demands, or will the horrific truth finally come to the surface and change all their lives forever?

Ashley Tate draws on her memories of visiting her grandmother’s small town to bring West Wilmer to life, in this tale of suffocating secrets and dreams destroyed. I had the most sympathy for Becca, whose belief in the power of love, no matter how deluded, was at least rooted in a desire for kindness and good. It probably helped that she was the only character who thought that Phoebe was as insufferable as I did.

The pacing up to the big reveal is also wonderfully done, really infusing tension into the proceedings. This debut novel has a lot to say about the ways that grief and guilt can haunt the inhabitants of an insular community, and how important it is for the truth to finally be told.

DNF at 9%. The premise of this was intriguing to me and I loved the first chapter. But the writing read very juvenile, and the subsequent early chapters were incredibly repetitive. The dialogue was also unnatural and it felt like each character was just info-dumping. Unfortunately the stellar opening chapter did not outweigh the things I disliked, and I could not keep reading it.

First, let me say thank you netgalley, Ashley Tate, and Poisoned Pen Press for allowing me this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

If you’re looking for fleshed out characters, a contemplative style of writing, and well-paced storytelling this is your book. There are elements of surprise and plot twists that left me with a lot of thoughts!

This is a thriller but definitely a more “show than tell” if makes sense? If you are looking for more of a ‘popcorn, nail-biter’ with mostly plot rather than character growth and introspection this won’t be for you… but if you have ever wanted to read a suspense that lends a lot of space to the actual character’s struggle on top of plot, then this is your next read!

Congrats Ashley Tate it was a pleasure to read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review. I really enjoyed this thriller. It captured my attention right from the start. Phoebe Dean is the beautiful, popular girl whom everyone in town loves. So when she is tragically killed in a motor vehicle accident being driven by her brother, Grant the town and everyone who knew her is absolutely devastated. What happened that night and more importantly why did it take Grant, her brother 27 minutes to call for help? Phoebe would have lived if he would have called for help immediately. This story starts with the 10 yr anniversary of the accident where Grant's mom is planning a memorial to remember Phoebe and leading up to the memorial we will be introduced to the friends involved in Phoebe's untimely death and find out what really happened that fateful night. Enjoy!!!

This was a good read - I really enjoyed this book. I'm so glad that I got the chance to read it early and will definitely be recommending it to multiple people who enjoy these types of novels. I enjoyed the characters and especially enjoyed the writing by this author. I'm excited to see what the author comes out with next as I'll definitely be reading it! Thank you to the publisher for my early copy of this book!

I love a book filled with a bunch of twists and turns, but this one just felt a bit repetitive for me. So much so that I thought I was re-reading a part I had already read. Just wasn't my cup of tea for a thriller, but the quick-pace style did allow me to finish it.

“𝗕𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗿𝘂𝘁𝗵, 𝗶𝘁 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗼𝘂𝘁. 𝗡𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗸𝗲𝗲𝗽 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗿𝘂𝘁𝗵 𝗯𝘂𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗱; 𝗶𝘁 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗮𝗹𝘄𝗮𝘆𝘀 𝘂𝗻𝗳𝘂𝗿𝗹 𝗶𝘁𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗳, 𝗹𝗮𝘆 𝗶𝘁𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗳 𝗯𝗮𝗿𝗲. 𝗜𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝘂𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗽𝗽𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲—𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗶𝗱𝗲, 𝗼𝗿 𝗮 𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗺, 𝗼𝗿 𝗮 𝗴𝗵𝗼𝘀𝘁. 𝗜𝘁 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗵𝘂𝗻𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗱𝗼𝘄𝗻.”

“𝗦𝗲𝗲, 𝗝𝘂𝗻𝗲𝘆, 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁’𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗲𝘀. 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝘆’𝗿𝗲 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴—𝗼𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝘂𝗻𝗿𝗮𝘃𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴, 𝘆𝗼𝘂’𝗿𝗲 𝗳𝘂𝗰𝗸𝗲𝗱.”

𝓽𝓱𝓸𝓾𝓰𝓱𝓽𝓼: i found immense pleasure in reading this book. however, the multiple POVs initially posed a challenge, but eventually i got a hang of it and it was absolutely captivating. this is the author’s debut and i’m truly impressed and blownnnn. 🤯 i love how the mystery was unraveled in the end and it took me by surprise. omggggg. i love. love this book! ❤️

I found the premise of this book really interesting since I recently have started reading thrillers, but this book was not for me. I didn’t connect with any of the characters and I didn’t like any of the characters either. This book deals a lot with loss and trauma, so I kinda expected that we would get a lot closer to the characters, but I felt like the characters were a bit shallow.
The pacing of the book was really slow as well and while that sometimes creates a lot of suspense in a thriller, it didn’t work for this book. Too little happened throughout the book, which made it a bit boring and rough to get through.
However I really loved the ending. The plot twist were amazing, we finally got a bit closer to the characters and the pacing were really great. I just wished I had that feeling throughout the whole book and not only the last couple of chapters.
If a slowed paced thriller with a crazy plot twist is something for you, then you would probably like it. However it wasn’t a thriller for me.

***This review, expressing my honest opinion, is voluntary, and I extend my gratitude to Poisoned Pen Press, and NetGalley for providing the e-ARC***

A decade has elapsed since the tragic car crash that claimed the life of Phoebe, while her brother Grant was at the wheel. Puzzling investigators, Grant waited 27 minutes before dialing 911. Becca, a fellow passenger and witness to the incident, sustained injuries and vowed to safeguard Grant's mysterious secret.

As the town of West Wilmer prepares for the ten-year memorial, a new car crash in the same location rekindles memories and stirs gossip. The community's eyes follow accusatory glances and hushed whispers, especially from June, who vividly recalls the night her brother disappeared. She harbors resentment towards Grant's family, convinced that the search for her brother was overshadowed by Phoebe's tragedy.

The narrative unravels dark secrets and exposes a horrifying truth, exploring themes of regret, loss, and the immutable nature of the past. As the small town grapples with its haunted history, the story takes unexpected twists. Ashley Tate's debut delves into psychological suspense and tragic drama, probing the enigmatic 27 minutes between the fateful crash and Grant's delayed call for help.

Approaching the ten-year anniversary, the town anticipates the revelation of Phoebe's death's true circumstances. Grant's family is shattered by grief, and Grant himself is tormented by traumatic memories. Becca, a silent ally, has supported Grant in maintaining his secrets, while June, whose brother vanished around the same time, harbors her own suspicions.

This intricate tale weaves through small-town communities, exploring the enduring impact of memories and relationships. Tate skillfully develops a diverse cast of characters, navigating twists and turns until the surprising conclusion. Unfolding over three intense days, the story immerses readers in the intricacies of character depth, the dynamics of small communities, and the complexities of grief, guilt, and regret.