Book Review - The Appeal by Janice Hallett

Title: The Appeal
Series: -
Author: Janice Hallett
 
Description: The Fairway Players, a local theatre group, is in the midst of rehearsals when tragedy strikes the family of director Martin Hayward and his wife Helen, the play’s star. Their young granddaughter has been diagnosed with a rare form of cancer, and with an experimental treatment costing a tremendous sum, their castmates rally to raise the money to give her a chance at survival. But not everybody is convinced of the experimental treatment’s efficacy—or of the good intentions of those involved. As tension grows within the community, things come to a shocking head at the explosive dress rehearsal. The next day, a dead body is found, and soon, an arrest is made. In the run-up to the trial, two young lawyers sift through the material—emails, messages, letters—with a growing suspicion that the killer may be hiding in plain sight. The evidence is all there, between the lines, waiting to be uncovered.
 
Review: “The Appeal” got my attention, because of its unique concept: a book consisting of e-mail conversation, letters and text messages, where you have to piece the puzzle together of who killed who.
 
We follow a local theater group, The Fairway Players, in the midst of rehearsals when tragedy strikes the family of director Martin Hayward and his wife Helen, the play’s star. Their granddaughter is diagnosed with a rare form of cancer, and with an experimental treatment, the theater group is trying to raise a big sum of money to help the Hayward family. The appeal for this treatment is shady and not everyone is convinced. Two young lawyers have to go through e-mails, letters and text messages between these people, to figure out a murder that happened among them.
 
“The Appeal” is the debut novel of Janice Hallett and is stunningly clever. It’s a modern Agatha Christie type story and an ingenious puzzle thriller. You are trying to piece the puzzle together with the two lawyers. It’s not your regular storytelling, because it’s all mixed media, and I’ve come to love this type of storytelling.
 
There is one murder, but at the start of the book you don’t know who died. Fifteen suspects and it could go in every direction. You know exactly as much as the lawyers who are trying to solve the mystery, but more then the people involved in this murder mystery, because of the e-mail conversations. And it was surprisingly easy to read. Even with that many characters in it. But Hallett added a list of characters at the beginning of the book, as a cast list of the play, so you know who is who.  
 
If you don’t manage to guess who the killer is at the end, there is no shame in that. It’s not at all obvious and I don’t think anyone would have guessed it. It’s quite surprising. I think this book would be fun to read together with someone, so you can share theories and details with each other, just like the two lawyers are in the book.
 
If you like to solve puzzles or play detective, “The Appeal” is just the book for you. It’s such a cleverly written murder mystery. I’m curious to read Hallett’s other work and I want to know how her brain works, because a lot of work went into this plot. I really enjoyed every second of reading this book.
 
Rating: 5/ 5