20 Minutes in the Park (20 Minutes #3) by Daniel Hurst
Genre: Psychological thriller, Quick Read, Novella
Read: 13th February 2025
Published: 29th April 2020
★★★★★ 4.5 stars (rounded up)
DESCRIPTION:
Set one month after the first two books, several characters will return alongside many new ones, as they enjoy a glorious summer's day out in Hyde Park.
On a sunny Sunday afternoon in Hyde Park, there's more than just the sounds of nature in the air.
There's the threat from the mysterious murderer roaming the footpaths. There's the music from the festival where a recently released criminal is about to unleash havoc. And there's the chance at revenge for a heroic couple who never thought they would get it...
20 Minutes. 20 People. 20 reasons this is more than just a walk in the park.
MY THOUGHTS:
Taking place one month after the events in "20 Minutes Later", this book takes us to 20 minutes in one stunning summer's day in Hyde Park where we rejoin many from the previous two books and meet some new faces too. However, there are quite a lot of grammatical errors that I feel should have been editted out but I won't rate down for that as some have, because this is such a fun series that is wildly entertaining from start to finish that leaves you hanging for more of each of the characters' stories.
Once again, Jelena heads up things with the continuation of her story now enjoying her freedom one month after escaping the Serbian sex traffickers that had her imprisoned for four long months. Today she is attending a music festival in Hyde Park but still she cannot relax unless Bogdan is nearby. And he is, having thrown in his dead-end job as an office cleaner and is now working as a security guard for the event. But then she sees a face from her past and all her terrors come racing back to the surface. She looks frantically around for Bogdan before indicating, through their own form of communication, who she had just seen. She knows that as long as she has Bogdan she is safe.
Also at the festival are a handful of people we have already met and some we haven't. Lindsey is there with her friends having arranged to meet her boyfriend Diego (who she met on the morning commute on the tube) who turns up with his trademark beanie on a scorching summer's day. He says it's to hide a bad haircut but is that really the truth? It's not clear whether he has ever shed the beanie in her presence in the month they have been together. We meet newcomer Jagdeep, a young Indian woman, who is enjoying the ecstasy tablet she and her friend Priya have taken from a dealer at the festival and dreaming of the bigger and better festival they will be attending in Croatia next month. But then she begins to feel strange and unable to breathe. She tries calling to Priya but she loses her in the crowd as she falls to the ground unnoticed by the heaving crowd around her. We also meet Shoots the dealer who sold the ecstasy to the girls and many others, continuing to ply his trade until he is spotted by Tom, an off-duty police officer, and legs it.
But front and centre at the festival we meet Will again, with Chantelle alongside him, as his popularity has rocketed with his debut single written about his blindness as he performs for the crowd of 10,000 people. We also meet his mum Ruth who is in the crowd to watch her son shine on the stage and wishing he could see the faces he is performing to. Will's fame has gone global since a Hollywood actress and then studio producer noticed him and all his dreams about performing have come true.
A few newbies to the story in that we meet elderly nut pompous Chester walking his dog Rafferty, ending in an unfortunate way while Sharah was walking her ex-boyfriend's doberman, Rusty. Izzy, the homeless woman on the park bench, tried to get his attention to alert him to the danger but he just wrote her off as a homeless woman and ignored her...to his peril. Louise is in the park with her new-found addiction in marathon running, trying to escape the memory of what Joe did to her five months ago. And then there is April, Joe's new girlfriend, who is also in the park with her best friend as they paid for a prisoner boot camp which they soon begin questioning what on earth were they thinking. There is also Dominic, their instructor and former prisoner, dishing out the punishment. Valentin is also in the park that day with a spring in his step, mentally forging out his new career path as a serial killer. Harry is also back in the wake of the news that the man who jumped in front of the train that day was the father he had been on his way to meet and now he never will. Carol is enjoying a new lease of life on the Serpentine with husband Steve and rounding things off is Bogdan and his quest for revenge for what was done to Jelena. With the information at his fingertips, Bogdan is now on a mission to find the elusive Laslo.
I thoroughly enjoyed this installment in everyone's stories even if it wasn't quite as edge-of-your-seat exciting as the first two (prequel excluded) but I did have one big issue with this one which is my main reason for knocking off half a star. Harry is 12 years old and therefore when he finds a clear baggie of pills he would see them for what they are - a clear baggie of pills - but instead he has been portrayed as thinking they were sweets or mints and monologuing his impatience to try them when he gets the chance. Come on. At 12 years old living in London? He's not that sheltered. He was canny enough to find out where his father worked and all about him and then took himself off to meet him...and yet a baggie of pills he thinks are sweeties? What is he? Six? Seven years old? No. That type of thinking is reserved for someone younger and still VERY innocent in the ways of the world. While he may be somewhat innocent, he is not THAT innocent to not know what they are. I'm sorry but that was totally 100% not believable.
While only 150 pages in length, there is alot going on in this book and even more people I haven't mentioned. Some stories are captivating and leave you wanting more while others are just mediocre or maybe they are just getting started. I have to admit, I'm not excited about April's; I'm just waiting for her find out the truth about Joe. The same with Lindsey and Diego. Harry's story has tapered off a little but I think it's Jelena's and Bogdan's that really keep it moving as well as Will's and dare I say it? Valentin's.
While they are shorter than full length books, they still take me a good part of the day or night to get through (real life has a way of getting in the way). I can't wait to see what's in store for everyone coming and who we will meet next.
Next...20 Minutes on Holiday
MEET THE AUTHOR:
He has been employed in several glamorous roles in his lifetime, including bartending, shelf stacking and procurement administration, all while based in some of the most exotic places on the planet, like Bolton, Preston and South London.
Daniel writes psychological thrillers and loves to tell tales about unusual things happening to normal people. He has written all his life, making the progression from handing scribbled stories to his parents as a boy to writing full length novels in his thirties. He lives in the North West of England and when he isn’t writing, he is usually watching a game of football in a pub where his wife can’t find him.
Since following his lifelong passion for writing in 2020, he has amassed a loyal and devoted set of readers, and regularly has several books in the top 100 of the Psychological Thriller Charts on Amazon. His title The Passenger became the #1 selling psychological thriller in the UK in October 2021. The Doctor's Wife is his first publication with Bookouture.
A prolific writer, Daniel likes to keep readers on their toes by self publishing even more books in between those released through his publisher.
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