From T.M. Logan, the bestselling author of Lies, comes 29 Seconds, a sensational new thriller that explores what happens when a split second thought of revenge takes on a life of its own. “Give me one name. One person. And I will make them disappear.” Sarah is a young professor struggling to prove herself in a workplace controlled by the charming and manipulative Alan Hawthorne. A renowned … and manipulative Alan Hawthorne. A renowned scholar and television host, Hawthorne rakes in million-dollar grants for the university where Sarah works–so his inappropriate treatment of female colleagues behind closed doors has gone unchallenged for years. And Sarah is his newest target.
When Hawthorne’s advances become threatening, Sarah is left with nowhere to turn. Until the night she witnesses an attempted kidnapping of a young child on her drive home, and impulsively jumps in to intervene. The child’s father turns out to be a successful businessman with dangerous connections–and her act of bravery has put this powerful man in her debt. He gives Sarah a burner phone and an unbelievable offer. A once-in-a-lifetime deal that can make all her problems disappear.
No consequences. No traces. All it takes is a 29-second phone call.
Because everyone has a name to give. Don’t they?
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This is the second book I have read by this author. This one was just as good if not better than the first. I look forward to reading more books by this author.
“29 Seconds” opens with a dilemma; Sarah has to provide a name, and if she does, there is no going back. It is a deal with the Devil that immediately drives readers to desperately turn pages. Sarah works at a university with an abusive lecherous pervert, and women are just the collateral damage. He is a repeat offender who refuses to promote her unless she sleeps with him. Sarah is not the only one who has had problems with her boss; others have as well. Readers listen in on conversations between Sarah and the people she meets.
“’Your wonderful colleague here, Alan Hawthorne, had the university get rid of me when I complained about him. After he spent a year harassing me, stalking me, and finally sexually assaulting me on five separate occasions. And now,’ she opened up the folded paper and flourished it, ‘having tried and failed to ***k me, he’s ***ked my career instead.’”
Something unexpected happens that changes everyone and everything; Sarah saves a small girl from being hit by a car. Nothing will ever be the same again. Sarah has a chance to provide a way out for everyone, an irreversible, a tragic, and a final way out. Will she do it?
Logan creates a desperate situation for Sarah with an unbelievable premise that keeps readers turning the pages, unable to believe what is happening and yet compelled to continue. Sarah has one disposable phone, with one number, and makes one call, 29 seconds long at 5.27 p.m. that takes her down a path of revenge and retaliation. Nothing goes exactly as planned for Sara, and readers follow Sarah as she tumbles into a dark abyss, wondering if she will survive. She did a bad thing, and it is payback time. The pace is frantic and the action non-stop, as everything for Sarah begins to unravel. There is no time to stop, because hesitation brings more and more complications.
“29 Seconds” is a wild ride from the first page, distressing, and intense; the pace never lets up. I received a review copy from T. M. Logan and St. Martin’s Press. I recommend that readers plan their time carefully because once the first page is read, it is impossible to turn the pages fast enough.
29 Seconds by T.M.Logan
Wooowee! This was a page turner, Sarah is getting sexual harassed at work by her boss when she witnesses an attempted kidnapping and meets a mysterious man who offers her a chance to make one person “disappear”, does she dare?! Find out! You will love the turns this story takes.
Thank you Netgalley and St Martin’s Press for this book and letting me leave my opinion.
29 Seconds is not a book that you can put down. I found that out the hard way. When I started reading 29 Seconds, I had every intention of reading a couple of chapters and then putting the book down. Yeah, it didn’t quite work out that way. I stayed up until 2 am reading this book. 29 Seconds is that good!!
Sarah is a professor who is being sexually harassed by her superior at the university she works at. Seeing what happens to those who stand up to him, Sarah endures his touches and inappropriate comments. After an unusually stressful day at work, Sarah witnesses and thwarts an attempted kidnapping of a young girl. Her father, a brutal and powerful man, offers her a burner cell phone and the promise to take care of anything for her. All she needs to do is to make the phone call and give a name. But can Sarah do it? Can she provide the name of the one person who is making her life a living hell? Can she live with herself?
The author did a fantastic job of setting up the main storyline. But I did have a hard time believing it. If the #MeToo movement hadn’t of happened, then I could see the situations that were presented in the book happen. But still, Sarah’s stress and distress over what was happening at work were palpable. I got upset for her.
Sarah wasn’t my favorite main character, but I also didn’t dislike her. There were times where she came across as whiny. But there were also times where she showed surprising strength. I liked how she took her life back after it seemed like she hit rock bottom.
I detested Alan. He was one of the vilest characters that I have read to date. He deserved everything that he got in this book. I felt like I needed a shower after every scene he was in.
The thriller angel of the book was well written. I was kept on the edge of my bed (I was in bed reading), wondering what was going to happen next.
The end of the book was excellent. There was a twist in the plot that I saw coming. But it still surprised me when it happened. I loved what happened to Alan. Talk about justice!!!
I do want to add that Sarah’s dad was the real MVP of the book. His advice was what convinced Sarah to do what she did.
T. M. Logan writes some very cool thrillers… They tend to be family-based, and involve impossible decisions and choices. The situations that these otherwise average people find themselves thrown into are just plausible enough to suck you right into the drama and make you wonder what you would do if you found yourself in a similar circumstance. The result is a heady mixture of entertainment, engagement, and surprisingly deep thinking about morality and choices and what we are willing to do to protect those around us, and it makes for a great read! (If you’re curious, I reviewed Lies on GoodReads.)
Unfortunately, the predicament Sarah finds herself in is all-too common. The ways she goes about trying to, and ultimately managing how to, deal with it are where the magic happens. Logan has a very engaging and easy writing style, and his characters are very well developed and a great mixture of human foibles and strength. It makes them very relatable, which helps with the immersive feel of the read. The plot lines here were, as with his previous title Lies, more involved than they seemed at first blush, and the revelations and misdirections were scattered in with just the right amount of detail and spot-on timing to keep me thoroughly engaged from start to finish.
My review copy was provided by NetGalley.
This is a very tense and fast paced psychological thriller that had me on the edge of my seat for one wild and crazy ride. I found the storyline to be original (at least from books I’ve read in the past) which was a nice change of pace. I enjoyed it very much! I had to keep reading once I started because it sucked me right in and I just had to know what was going to happen.
I was lucky to get an ARC of this book from Netgalley.
Twist and turns and lots of the unexpected. That’s one thing I have noticed about this author’s work she doesn’t do what’s expected. He sexually harassed and assaulted multiple women and nothing was done, the unfortunate plight of many women. For a woman who is ready to jump into harms way to protect someone else it takes her a bit before she jumps to her own. About the time I was really getting sick of her and her choices she does the unexpected. There are plenty of twist especially towards the end. The ending?!?! Well it’s not a bad ending it just feels anticlimactic after the thrilling story is revealed. At the end she shows that she is more than what was expected and that 29 seconds is all it takes to take your control back. I love this author’s style. She knows how to do an exciting read and pulls the twist and turns out making your mind spin.
I love T.M. Logan’s books! 29 seconds is a gripping ,disturbing, very engrossing read. I couldn’t put it down!
All of the characters were well-developed and life like. Has a wonderful plot. Be prepared to sit on the edge of your seat!
4 stars.
Thank you Netgalley, the author and publisher for an ARC of this book.All opinions are my own.
29 Seconds
by T. M. Logan
St. Martin’s Press
Mystery & Thrillers
Pub Date :September 10,2019
356 pages
4
Wow! What a roller coaster of a ride this book took me on. I was hooked from the first page. There is alot of twist and turns, and it kept me interested from the first page til the last.
It started out slow but good and then it really took off. This is my second book by this author and I have loved them both.
29 seconds is a gripping ,disturbing,and engrossing read. All of the characters were well-developed .This author really knows how to bring his characters to life & draw his readers completely into the story with his
masterful writing, intriguing situations and captivating characters. This is one action-filled story that will keep you glued to the pages. It is just one of thoes books that you can’t put down even when you need to. You just keep turning page after page to see what is going to happen next.
If you had the chance to make someone that is or has made your life miserable disappear, and no one would be able to trace it back to you, would you do it ?
Many thanks to the Publisher , the Author , and NetGalley for a ARC copy of this interesting book in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way. All opinions I have expressed are my own or those of my family. As always if you like the book you read please take the time to leave a review for the author in places like goodreads & Amazon. It does not have to be long. Just a few sentences saying you liked the book will do. Authors really appreciate every review they get ! You can also read this review and all my other reviews on my fb page at Joyce Stewart Book Reviews , my fb Group Stewart Book Reviews Book Club , Good Reads at Joyce Stewart Reviews and instagram at Stewarts_bookreviews.
This was a great book but I found the protagonist harder to sympathize with than many readers. Not a spoiler because it’s on the back cover but she does an accidental favor for a very bad guy who is determined to pay her back. He offers to make someone in her life disappear, she takes him up on it and her life goes to hell.
You know what? That’s what happens when you let a guy with ties to the Russian mafia do you a favor and maybe, just maybe, that’s what you deserve if you take a hit out on someone, even someone as intolerable as her target. (And he was a douchebag jackwagon, BIG TIME, I take nothing away from that, at all.)
She went the nuclear route and seemed surprised it didn’t go well.
It’s a taut, well-crafted story and I love this author’s style so it’s still 4 stars because I couldn’t put it down and read it in one afternoon.
This is the first book I’ve read from this author and it didn’t disappoint.
Even from the blurb I was very interested and intrigued to find out more and it grabs you from the first chapter.
Sarah is a young professional woman who one day saves the life of a young girl without even thinking about it, even when nobody else intervened she did. Little does she know who the girls father is or what he does.
The girls father makes Sarah an offer it seems she can’t refuse, he has the ability to make someone disappear. However there are rules and it is strictly a one time deal.
Sarah is having a hell of a lot of troubles with her sleazy, creepy arse boss who constantly makes sexual advances towards her, sexually harassing her. However Sarah needs this job to pay her bills and keep a roof over her children’s head.
Sarah doesn’t know what to do, which man should she give into?
Her boss?
Or
The man with no name?
This book is awesome, it’s a fantastic thriller. I loved everything about this book, the story, the characters it has everything. I couldn’t put this book down it’s full of twists right until the end ones that you’ll never see coming.
Thank you
This psychological thriller was a super fast read, and a satisfying conclusion.
Sarah is a professor and works for a sexual predator department head. It seems that no one can touch him and catch him propositioning a woman. He makes life unbearable for Sarah.
One day, Sarah rescues a young girl, and in doing so has earned herself respect from the girl’s father. He offers her the chance to request a favor so he can repay the debt. Sarah mulls over her options. Can she give the stranger her boss’s name? Will she be able to make a deal to sell her soul to the devil?
Sarah is seemingly without options, and is at her wits end. She desperately needs a way out of this nightmare.
A well paced thriller that kept me guessing. I was surprised by the ending – one I didn’t see coming, although I knew something was in the works – just didn’t know what to expect.
Well done!
#29Seconds #TMLogan
This book blew me away! There was so much going on in Sarah’s life. Alan, one of the professors in her department, was pure evil. It was unbelievable what he put Sarah, and all those other women in the past, through. It’s no wonder she wanted to make him suffer and rid the world of him.
As an intricate web is woven around her, Sarah’s life spins out of control. This book had me on the edge of my seat worrying about her and wondering what was going to happen next. I found myself reading as fast as I could as I raced to the surprising conclusion. I loved it!!
The premise behind 29 Seconds is the presentation of a moral conundrum to someone stuck between a rock and a hard place. You have the chance to get out of it – but only by doing something deeply unethical. Something which is way over-the-top over-reacting. The catch? No catch. You’ll never be found out. No consequences. Only conscience.
Would you?
Pushed to the limits by a sexually harassing professor with total power over her career and her future, historian Dr. Sarah Haywood is at the end of her rope when a good deed done without expectation of reward puts a powerful man in her debt. His offer? A name. All she has to do is say a name and that person will disappear, forever.
In this age of #MeToo, this is a sobering look at what women have been facing, are still facing, the world over, day in and day out. Protected by an old boys’ network, men in positions of power put women like Sarah – by no means a doormat – through awful situations like this and leave them pushed into corners from which the only ways out are unpalatable at best.
I’d probably have made that 29-second phone call a lot earlier than Sarah did, is all I’m saying.
Things don’t pan out the way Sarah expects from there on, however, and the situation actually devolves further. I won’t spoil it, but I genuinely wondered how and even if it could possibly resolve well for her, but Sarah is nothing if not smart and set up revenge on her own terms which was utterly and totally brilliant.
The writing throughout the book is flawless, Sarah is a fantastic and relatable protagonist, and though the harassment she endures is painful to read (and must be trigger warned for) the end of the book is just deeply and viscerally satisfying in the level of poetic justice which is finally achieved.
Five stars for a timely, superbly written story I know I’ll be thinking about for a long time to come.
Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book for review via NetGalley.
Holy you-know-what, was this book awesome! I loved the author’s first book, Lies, and was very excited to read this one and I was NOT disappointed. Right from the start, the reader feels sympathy for Sarah’s situation, and the overall theme is especially timely in the “MeToo” era. But the story really shines when it comes to the suspense aspect: what will Sarah do, and do we really know all of her options? Like his first book, this one has a twist you won’t see coming. I cannot recommend this book enough! For a full review, please visit my blog at Fireflies and Free Kicks Fiction Reviews. Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, and the author for a complimentary, pre-release, digital ARC of this book.
29 Seconds by T. M. Logan is the story of Dr. Sarah Haywood. Sarah is dealing with everything from a husband that has left to find himself leaving her with the kids. In addition she is being hit on a work where he is getting more physical and threaten to not promote her unless she gives in to him. Then she happens to intervene in when a man and his daughter are about to be struck and possible killed. But this encounter leads the man to take her and offer her a chance to take out someone who she needs to get rid of.
This was mystery/drama filled read. Over all a good story.
5 One Phone Call Changes Everything Stars!!!
This is my first book by this author and I was immediately sucked into the story. Sarah is a woman that’s worked hard to get where she is in her career and everything she holds precious is being threatened and jeopardized because of one man that things he rules not only her life but the lives of everyone around him.
I felt like I knew Sarah thanks to the way Mr. Logan has written this story. We’re brought into her world even for some of the most mundane everyday occurrences like taking her kids to soccer or making them lunch. She’s a woman that refuses to bow down to the pressure that’s being put upon her and then everything changes, and she has an opportunity to change the trajectory of where her life is headed.
This book is filled with such an attention to detail that I really felt like I was there with Sarah and everything she was experience especially in those moments where she questions what she’s going to do to ensure that what’s happened in the past doesn’t continue to be perpetuated in the future.
I absolutely loved how there were “rules” that weren’t to be broken. And these rules crossed over into other areas of her life that really drove some of her decisions and actions. I literally jumped during a certain scene, the intensity was that gripping. And just when I thought I knew how this book was going to end, yeah, nope it didn’t go the way I thought it would…it was BETTER!!!!!
Mr. Logan has written a book that is timely in today’s world and has done it by writing a story that is quick moving, intense and enthralling. This is absolutely not the last book I’ll be reading by this amazing author!
Sarah saves a little girls life. As a reward, she is given a one time deal to eliminate someone (I kid you not!). She insists there is no one. But, the situation with her boss just keeps getting worse and worse. So in a rash decision she calls in the favor. Takes all of 29 seconds. And…oh wow!
Sarah is a hard-working mom with a job that just never gets better. Her boss is harassing her in more ways than one. Finally, the last straw is all it takes for her to make that one phone call. I have to be careful what I say from here…I do not want to give anything away.
This is over the top good! I flew through this book. It is non stop! Just when you think…you don’t…it twists again. This story just keeps getting better and better as you go along. It is so intense and intriguing you do not want to put this book down. (I hate that cliché, but in this case…it is true!). DO NOT MISS THIS ONE!
I received this novel from the publisher for a honest review.
The actions of the characters made this a frustrating read. It was full of twists and turns that kept me reading. It was an intriguing story.
In T.M. Logan’s 29 Seconds, a college professor finds herself being sexually harassed and having her career threatened by her boss. Others have tried over the years to report him only to see their own careers ruined. What can Professor Sarah Hayward do to protect herself and her career from the “bullet-proof” head of Department, Alan Hawthorne?
29 Seconds is a harrowing tale of being stuck between a rock and a hard place and making the right choices – if you can. It is a well written, suspenseful take on an all too common workplace situation. The conclusion is unexpected. The characters are so well developed that they evoke different emotions from the reader.
I highly recommend this book. Thank you to #Netgalley and StMartinsPress for approving my request. The opinions expressed in this review is solely my own.