Title: 29 Seconds
Author: T.M. Logan
Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Suspense
First published: January 25th 2018
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Finished reading: August 14th 2019
Pages: 368
“It was strictly a one-time deal, a once-in-a-lifetime offer. A deal that might change her life. A deal that would most certainly change someone else’s.
It was a deal with the Devil.”
*** A copy of this book was kindly provided to me by Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press in exchange for an honest review. Thank you! ***
!! Happy publication day !!
29 Seconds is one of those titles that slipped between in cracks in 2018, so I was over the moon when I was able to get an ARC of the US publication this year. Because let’s face it, the only way it’s a garantuee I will pick up a title sooner than later is if it comes with a deadline attached. Whoops? I’m very happy I finally had the chance to read this story though, because I can understand the love for 29 Seconds now. It’s such a well crafted and original plot!
Oh yes, if you are looking for a little something different than your typical psychological thriller plots, you will hit the jackpot with this one. What I thought would be a simple sexual harassment story involving the typical boss and female colleague roles, soon turned out to be something a whole lot more twisted and complicated. The sexual harassment and the bullying is there, front and center and with its own spotlight to help you remember why you hate a certain character so much. Trigger warnings are in place for those who are sensitive to the theme, because things will go quite far and it doesn’t make for comfortable reading. Sadly, this kind of bullying and treating female colleagues is not extinct even today and this story shows how difficult it is to find proper proof and fight for your rights as a woman and a professional. It was without doubt very interesting how the author developed the theme as a whole.
Like I said before, there was a certain character I absolutely and completely loathed and I myself wouldn’t have doubted a second if I would have been in the same situation and the same offer would have been made to me. Does this make me a bad person? Maybe. But some situations just have no other way out, and certain actions and persons simply have to be stopped before even more lives are ruined. I think the power of 29 Seconds is in this choice, and how this story makes you think about what you would do if the same happened to you… As the story states: ultimately, we all have someone on our list. As for the main character Sarah… Did I like her? Not exactly. Did she make me want to slap her and yell at her to get a grip? Oh yes. Was I frustrated with how she had be putting up with that kind of behavior for two years already? You bet. But it was interesting to see Sarah develop over time and reacting to her decisions and the things happening to her.
The writing made it really easy to fly through 29 Seconds and I liked how the story was divided into three parts. There are different elements involved as well as multiple plot twists and a very original angle in the form of the once-in-a-lifetime offer. I would have liked to see certain aspects of the final reveals more developed, as they seemed to be a bit rushed and not every twist seemed to be explained all that thoroughly. But overall I liked how this story surprised me and even though I was infuriated by the sexual harassment scenes, I loved the plot development as a whole. Original, fast-paced, considerably disturbing and with a healthy dose of suspense, 29 Seconds will most likely entertain any psychological thriller fan who likes their stories with a twist.
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