29 Seconds is a thriller by T. M. Logan, who has sold over a million thrillers that keep the pages flying fast. With chapters being just two or three pages long, I finished this hardcover in 2 hours, but not because I couldn't put it down.
Sarah is a University English professor whose husband has taken off with a young woman, leaving her to manage their two children. Work is a nightmare where the women have to play the game and avoid the continual sexual harassment of a noxious male - the handsome golden boy who brings in the school funding, who has a new book out, and a BBC deal in the works. It's an open secret that he will steal your work, and women who complain are summarily fired.
He has now turned his attentions on Sarah.
Driving one night, Sarah inadvertently saves a young girl involved in a hit and run, and her billionaire father repays her with a one time offer - he can remove any problem she has, make anyone disappear. She debates for 72 hours but gives him the name and go ahead - and the man disappears. Can she live with what she has done?
Although two detectives investigate, they aren't a focus, and don't really do much. Sarah teaches the work of Christopher Marlowe, and that angle might have been explored, but isn't. Most of the pages are spent on her feelings of guilt, wondering if she will get caught, and far too much time is spent picking the kids up from school, or phoning others to do it. They could have been involved in the action, a missed oppertunity. A lot of time is wasted on trivial events - even the billionaire mastermind and his tough German henchmen seem underused. I quickly lost my suspension of disbelief.
In a thriller, the characters have to be developed enough that they sustain the action, or the theme is strong enough, or the whole thing just hangs on twists and pacing. For me this lacked in every area.
Not unreadable - if you bought it at the airport it would last you the plane trip, but so unremarkable.
2018 / Hardcover / 360 pages
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