Twenty-Seven Minutes by Ashley Tate

 Title: Twenty-Seven Minutes by Ashley Tate

Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press

Release Date: January 30, 2024

Twenty-Seven minutes is the well-written debut novel by Ashley Tate. Grippng your attention from the first page, you'll be treated to a story told over multiple POVs and multiple time periods. The chapters are short but efficient. There are bread crumbs of clues scattered throughout, sometimes containing confirmation of what you think is the truth and sometimes conflicting with it. This makes for a slow build but also keeps you turning the page.

The novel tells the tale of the death of young Phoebe Dean and the ripple effects it has through the small town in which she lived. It's a town full of secrets, but the biggest one is why did it take twenty-seven minutes for help to be called after the accident? Phoebe may still have lived had she gotten help sooner.

Told from the POV of several unreliable narrators, you soon learn that everyone has secrets and everyone is carrying around guilt or heartache over something. Guilt and it's side effects are a constant theme in this book.

There are no likable characters in this book which was something I did not care for. I also wish the conclusion had been fleshed out a bit more, but it was still a good ending. Overall the book was a very solid debut novel and I'm looking forward to see what the other comes up with next. 

Thank you to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for the ARC in exchange for my review.