20 Minutes Until it's Over (20 Minutes #20) by Daniel Hurst
Genre: Psychological thriller, Novella, Quick read
Read: 23rd March 2025
Published: 21st April 2022
★★★★★ 5 stars
DESCRIPTION:
The final book in the bestselling 20 Minute Series!
The threat to Earth has never been more real, and as the fate of humanity hangs in the balance, there is nowhere on the planet that is safe.
London, like every other major city, has fallen into a state of disorder, and its inhabitants are having to spend almost as much time worrying about the dangers on the ground as they are about the dangers in the sky.
As the clock ticks down until the moment of reckoning, it’s every man or woman for themselves, and several characters decide to take shelter in the only place they can.
They head underground...
They go back to where it all began…
MY THOUGHTS:
The culmination of events that we have followed over the course of 20 books has come this - the final book. Set three months after "20 Minutes in the Air", this one reads like a Doomsday-prepper's paradise as everyone prepares for the asteroid that was predicted to wipe out the earth and all humanity to come to fruition. I admit, it was very Doomsday-ish for the most part - too much for my tastes - but then in true Daniel Hurst fashion, he pulls the rug out at the eleventh hour and throws us a final twist that we never expected or even saw coming! And for me, it was that that saved this book from a 4 star (or even less) rating.
So. 20 minutes until it's over. Till what's over? The book? The series? Mankind? It actually seemed rather poignant that today I was only reading about how God wiped out mankind in the great flood saving only Noah, his family and two of each kind of animal. God said he would never wipe us out in such a way again. So how would the world end then? With an asteroid hurtling through the great expanse of His universe toward earth? Who knows? But I just found it ironic to read of two ways that mankind was to be wiped out in the same day.
So the people of London have sheltered as they did during air raids throughout the war, in the underground, hoping that it will be enough to save them. But I doubt it. Not with the force that such a space rock will create upon making contact. But one thing is for sure, as you read this final installment, you are wondering how it will all end? Will anyone survive? Or will the asteroid change course at the last minute, narrowly missing earth as it passes? Whatever the outcome, it's here that we bid farewell to those we have come to love (and some we've come to loathe).
It took me six weeks to binge read the books (in between book tours and real life along the way) and I certainly had some favourite books and some not so favourite. I was certainly invested in the lives of the characters that we came to know in each of them while others made a passing appearance. Things started to go a little awry after the prison riot and I found the series begin to peter out, especially with the introduction of an asteroid on New Years Eve (otherwise I loved that installment!). The next two were nail-biting as things in the air became a little hairy and by the end I was wondering what was going to happen in this final book.
My favourite character? Hands down has to be lovable rogue mischievious Harry. I have a soft spot for him as my dad was also West Ham born and bred. Closely followed by firm favourites Jelena and Bogdan.
I didn't love this book but I certainly LOVED that ending! It was so perfect. And for that reason alone I am giving it 5 stars!
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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