Book Review: Twenty-Seven Minutes by Ashley Tate

 I've heard someone say that everybody imagines that they are the protagonists of the drama that's being enacted around them. I think the latest suspense novel, Twenty-Seven Minutes, expands on this theme. We find ourselves among some characters who are deeply affected in many ways by a tragedy that altered their lives irreversibly ten years ago. Each of them views the event and consequently responds to the aftershocks of it from a self-centric perspective, while the truth is far away from any of them. They manipulate reality to suit them until they ultimately realise that closure can only be attained by facing it head-on.

Teenager Phoebe Dean was killed in a road accident while on a truck driven by her brother Grant on a bridge when they were returning late at night after a party to drop Becca, another teenager who is in love with Grant, home. On the same day, Wyatt, another teenager, goes missing, leaving June, his sister, alone to deal with their difficult parents. Ten years have passed, and Phoebe's mother plans a memorial, much to the irritation of others who are still struggling to leave the incidents behind them. But the arrival of Wyatt opens the unhealed wounds, threatening the exposure of what actually transpired a decade ago.

Twenty-Seven Minutes is the debut novel of Ashley Tate, who is an editor living in Canada. The novel is a slow-burning suspense thriller that explores the themes of personal loss, grief, obsession, and betrayal and tries to showcase how the mind tries to readjust past events to suit the psychological wants of each individual. The novel unfolds in a non-linear style, with the present and past interspersed in its narrative. It follows the perspectives of four major characters, each narrated by a third-person, omnipresent narrator.

I loved the narrative style of the novel. It uses its non-linear, multi-perspective structure to effectively disclose a tragic tale of sorrow and deceit. The reader realises different aspects of the tragedy and its effects on the characters very slowly, layer by layer, told alternatively by each of them, by narrating their present travails and their attempts to adapt. The use of the third person is especially effective, as it gives us a sense of being a spectator of the events while not being attached to any single character. To me, it gave the feel of watching the CCTV footage of an elaborate road accident involving multiple vehicles, each trying to salvage itself but ultimately ending up contributing to the bigger catastrophe.

The novel reveals itself through its four main characters. All of them start off as rather generic ones, grieving a common tragedy. But on our explorations through their daily lives and their interactions, we uncover new facets about them, revealing their varied motivations for their behaviours. The writer takes her time to establish these entities and manages to spring out new and surprising revelations about them consistently as the narrative progresses. This is another strong point of the novel. The climax had many elements that a careful reader must be able to decipher much before the reveal, but still manages to pull the rug from under their feet with a clever sleight of the hand trick.

Twenty-Seven Minutes by Ashley Tate is a suspenseful drama that unfolds at an unhurried pace and is told in a non-linear structure from the perspective of multiple characters. It is a satisfying narrative that delves into the possibilities of a truth that lies buried under perspectives skewed due to intense self-centric behaviours.

I received a review copy of this book from the publisher, Poisoned Pen Press, through Netgalley in exchange for my honest feedback.