The climax is unexpected and appreciated yet I wished it were a little more plausible. I didn't like the romance angle of the book and almost till the end I was wishing there wasn't one, though I understood why it was necessary at the climax. I felt it reduced the pace of the thriller by a bit and for a novella of about 120 pages that bit could be a concern. To write an intimate scene or not is almost a do or don't situation for an author, and kinda I wish she hadn't. Not only it was very filmy but also seemed to the reader that the author didn't want one but added one for the heck of having it. Having read the book till then, the reader would by then have understood not to expect any. But to start one and abruptly leave it half way is tortuous, especially when the book didn't call for one. That is a tease - not in a good evil way.
I wouldn't want to get into why the climax would work or not (for me, it didn't), but I would point out why i feel classic whodunits of Agatha Christie or Sherlock Holmes still are so rad. As a reader I want to be personally related to the solution - like I should have seen it coming or at least make me go read the book again to see if I had missed any clue. Once that single knot is undone everything should be apparent to the reader himself - the most intelligent character in any book because he sees what the other characters don't, he knows more - he knows what other characters think as well. So when I didn't or couldn't relate to it even when it has been unraveled, now that is a loose end that I don't like. I liked all the suspects and theories that the duo cooked up - except the actual one. I have tried very hard to circle around the answer to the mystery that GB had so beautifully maintained till the very end. So I have to stop talking about it right here.
'A Minute to Death' is a no nonsense whodunit with a narrative that sags almost at no place and twists and turns that are sorta roller coaster ride for the reader - without wearing out the reader by trying too much. I am looking forward to other books of the author for another thriller.