Publisher: Atria Books
Published: January 25, 2022
Source: ARC Paperback via Publisher
Summary:
This murder mystery follows a community rallying around a sick child—but when escalating lies lead to a dead body, everyone is a suspect.
The Fairway Players, a local theatre group, is in the midst of rehearsals for an Arthur Miller play, when tragedy strikes the family of director Martin Haywood 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 fellow castmates rally to raise the money to give her a chance at survival.
But not everybody is convinced of the experimental treatment’s efficacy—nor of the good intentions of those involved. New actress Sam, a former NGO worker, raises doubts. But are her suspicions justified? Or does she have a history with the doctor involved? As tension grows within the community, things come to a shocking head the night of the 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 a killer may still be on the loose.
A wholly modern take on the epistolary novel, The Appeal is a debut perfect for fans of Richard Osman and Lucy Foley.
My thoughts:
As someone who reads a ton of murder mysteries, I love when an author takes a chance and go down a unique path and that is definitely what Janice Hallett has done here…and quite brilliantly I might add. This novel, done completely in epistolary format kept me engaged and entertained from start to finish and I loved it. It was one of my most anticipated reads for this month and it totally delivers.
The fact that this book was told using an unconventional narrative form had already intrigued me, but when I saw that it would allow for me as the reader to play detective alongside the lawyer and his law students as they sifted through all the texts, emails and letters to find out who truly is behind the murder and why…I was all in! I love a book that not only entertains but makes me think and this one did just that.
I loved the way this story was told. There are a lot of moving parts to this story and I was concerned at first because there are so many characters to keep track of, but it was incredible how their personalities really came through from their emails and texts. The backdrop with the play and the appeal to raise funds for the lifesaving medication for the little girl all combine to really get you engaged with these characters and what is going on.
I will say I did pick up on a few clues and started to suspect something wasn’t quite as it seemed, but that in no way ruined anything for me. Quite the opposite as it made me only more suspicious as to what was really going on. This is a book where you really do need to pay attention and I was quite proud that I was on the right track.
I had so much fun reading this one and ended up binge-reading it in just a few hours. This is the type of book that really will appeal to quite a wide audience, and I will be recommending it to everyone. And I will certainly be keeping an eye out for what comes next from this very talented author!
