The Killer Question by Janice Hallett

I have really enjoyed Hallett's bookI have really enjoyed Hallett's books in the past, especially the updating of the epistolary style. This book was a little bit heavier on texting which made for a bit of a slog.

This is, once again, a story within a story. The conceit is that the nephew of two people killed five years ago is shopping the idea of a short true crime series based around the events. We are reading the information that the nephw is sending to the producer's assistant, all of it over text messaging.

The main story is around his aunt and uncle who run a pub which includes a trivia night. They are part of a group chat of other pubs in the area who also run trivia nights so we get to know a bit about the owners, but even more about the dedicated players who go to the different pub nights. Everything is upended by the discovery of a body as well as a new group that starts sweeping the quizzes. 

While I liked the overall story, I kept having to stop and come back since reading text messages got a bit tedious. Later in the book, we got some longer paragraphs but by then we're getting in to the twists so it's a little bit of whiplash from a number of directions. 

Three stars

This book comes out September 23, 2025

ARC kindly provided by Atria Books and NetGalley

Opinions are my own

The Examiner A Novel by Janice Hallett

Hallett writes mysteries in a way that no one else does. She has tight stories that leave clues the whole way through but you never can quite tell where she’s heading until you get there.
Like most of her stories, this is told in two parts; one told in “present” time while the other is told as the bulk of the story unfolds. In this case, we have six students and a teacher who are embarking on a Multimedia Arts course teaching creative-types who to work in the “real world.” It is a prospective course and being added to the calendar full time means that Angela “Gela” will get to keep her job.
We watch the six students work their way through the nearly ten months of the course as they work through personality clashes and their assignments. But some of the students aren’t there just to take the class and at least one of them won’t be alive at the final presentation.
The last section dragged on a bit (the last day was maybe 1/4 -1/3 of the book) and the end was a bit over the top but always a fun read from Hallett.

Four stars

This came out September 10, 2024

ARC kindly provided by Atria Books and NetGalley

Opinions are my own

The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels by Janice Hallett

I've read all of Hallett's other books and really enjoy her format of a mix of various media. This book includes texting, transcription, and a What'sApp-type app. Supposedly, the reader has opened a safe box with printouts of all of this communication. The story mainly revolves around Amanda Bailey, an author who is focusing on a case that is about eighteen years old, that of a cult whose leader is in jail for killing two people. They also kidnapped a baby who will be turning eighteen this year and a new book could focus around their experiences and the life they now live.

As with Hallett's previous stories, there are layers upon layers and red herrings abound. It got a little too complicated for me in parts but it was overall a lovely read.

Four stars

This book comes out January 23, 2024

ARC kindly provided by Atria Books and Edelweiss

Opinions are my own

The Christmas Appeal by Janice Hallett

I listened to the first book in this series and wondered whether it was easier to follow all of the communications in print. With this book, I discovered, no, no it is not. Still entertaining, this novella follows the same format of emails being written back and forth among the various members of the Fairway Players with conversations on WhatsApp between people who are later putting together a solution to some mystery that we will find out about later in the story.

We have moved a couple of years after the first book and the players are now under new leadership as well as having new people in the group some of whom live in the Granger which seems to have been converted into apartments. Of course, not all of the drama is on stage with passions simmering behind the scenes as well and people writing one thing to a member but about-facing with another member. At the end of all of this will be blackmail, drugs, and a body.

Three and a half stars

This novella comes out October 24, 2023

Follows The Appeal

ARC kindly provided by Atria Books and NetGalley

Opinions are my own

The Appeal by Janice Hallett

This book was hard to follow because there are so many characters. I wondered if that was because I was listening as an audiobook but I read the follow up novella and it is a little hard either way. The idea is that two lawyers are reading emails after a specific crime and they are trying to figure out what actually happened. Even the reader doesn't actually know who got murdered until we are well into the book as the Fairway Players exchange information about their upcoming play which is meant to raise money for a toddler with cancer. But there are a lot of doubts being sown about whether everyone is who they say they are, whether everyone's telling the truth, and whether everyone mentioned in the story will be alive at the end.

Three and a half stars 

This book came out January 4, 2021

Followed by The Christmas Appeal

Borrowed as audiobook from Library

Opinions are my own

The Twyford Code by Janice Hallett

Hallett obviously created this book as a labor of love. The codes are intricate, the story is refreshing, and the way the story is told is one I haven't read before. I would classify it as an epistolary novel since it is ostensibly told through documents. 

Unfolding in transcriptions of files taken from a found iPhone, we learn the story of Steven Smith, recently released from prison. We don't learn why he was in prison until the end of the book but it is that experience which took him away from most of his son's life, the son he is transcribing all of these events for. 

The main story revolves around a book Steven "Little Smithy" found on a bus. When he brought it into school and showed his teacher, she used the book to connect his remedial English class to the written word. She also seemed to take note of the book and tells them about a code in the book. On a field trip to visit the author's house, their teacher vanishes. Decades later, Steven is trying to figure out what actually happened but it seems to have dropped him right into danger. 

Four stars

This book comes out January 24, 2023

ARC kindly provided by Atria Books and NetGalley

Opinions are my own