I received this ARC from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I was over the moon when I checked my emails and discovered I’d been approved to read this, I stayed up long into the night when I read the previous two books and I just knew this one would be the same.

Straight away this book had the familiar vibe of The Appeal and The Twford Code which I’ve grown to love and expect from a Janice Hallett book.

The premise is you’ve got a key to a safety deposit box full of research material for a true crime book, you can either read it and return it to the box and lock it away or read it and hand it over to the police?. Which would you choose?.

You get to make your own decision when you’ve read the book as the book is full of transcripts from interviews, emails, texts, etc that Amanda Bailey compiled whilst researching The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels.

Things started to not add up from what we thought we knew about the Alperton Angels cult, the more I read the more I thought somethings not right here. I should have took notes really but I was too busy reading to find out if my suspicions are true or not.

My final thoughts are that this book is a masterpiece! I couldn’t believe what I was reading it had so many layers to it and so many red herrings. Lets not talk about the Twists! Because it had so many I couldn’t keep up.

My decision would be to read the documents then lock the safety deposit box back up and never let it see the light of day again.

⭐️Slight spoilers below⭐️

I loved Ellie Coopers little quips that she wrote when she was transcribing everything.

I loved the nod to Michelle McNamara in the Authors Acknowledgments as I’m a huge fan of I’ll Be Gone in the Dark and all her tireless work to unmask the Golden State Killer/EAR

Everyone knows the case of the Alperton Angels - a cult who brainwashed two teenagers into thinking a baby was the antichrist. How it all ended in a mass suicide with the teenagers and the baby miraculously surviving. Amanda Brown is a true crime writer with a flagging career. Now the baby is 18, they can be interviewed…if Amanda can find them. In her way is a rival journalist trying to write the same book, contradicting accounts of what happened, secret identities and someone who will stop at nothing to make sure the truth stays buried. You are given a stack of documents full of Amanda’s research and a choice to make - will you go to the police or make sure this information is hidden forever?

Okay, so this is what you need to do. On the 19th January 2023, gather the following - a notebook and pen, a warm blanket, a cafetière of strong coffee, a plethora of snacks and a copy of “The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels”. Get comfy. You will need all of the above for one reason - once you start reading, you will want to read the whole book in one sitting, ignoring the outside world and all of your responsibilities until the very last page. It’s THAT good a reading experience. Compulsive reading from the first page to the last, you will find yourself becoming as obsessed with finding the truth as Amanda is.

I found myself thinking, just one more email, just one more transcript and I will stop reading. The plot is so layered and so clever that my head was spinning and my theories were wild and wonderful. I guessed maybe 10% of what was actually happening. The twists and revelations had my jaw on the floor but were also totally plausible and made total sense when I looked back.

This is one of the rare books that I loved so much I want to thrust a copy into everyone’s hands and demand they read it so we can discuss it and what we would do with the documents.

I would give this book 444 stars if I could - if you have read it, you will know why!

Thanks so much to Janice Hallett, Viper books and NetGalley for the advanced copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

Amanda Bailey is researching a book on the Alperton Angels, a cult who were going to kill a baby they thought to be the antichrist. When they failed, they killed themselves instead. She has to work with an old enemy, Oliver, on the book. As their research evolves, they find themselves drawn into all sorts of conspiracy theories. Oliver in particular begins to think the Alperton Angels were actual angels and that he himself might be one.

The book is not a novel as such but a collection of transcribed notes, emails. text messages, extracts from novels, plays and articles about the event. I found it enjoyable at times but for the most part confusing..

I really enjoyed the little asides from Ellie (the transcriber) and found these very funny. This wasn't enough to make up for the rest of the book which was difficult to follow. I can see why so many people loved it; it's quirky and unusual. It just wasn't for me. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC

I genuinely don't know how she does it. Writing any novel must be incredibly difficult and require an extraordinary talent and level of research however Hallett in The Appeal, The Twyford Code and now The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels takes it to a whole new level.

She is genuinely one of the best writers around right now and each book just gets better and better. Using whatsapp messages, emails and letters to tell a story (rather than a traditional narrative) is a deft skill which she excels at. Even the personality of Ellie, the transcriber, shines through despite only transcribing voice notes throughout the book.

Hallett, for me, can do no wrong.

Thanks to Serpent's Tail / Viper / Profile Books, Viper for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. If you haven't read Janice Hallett yet, I am truly envious of you.

Thanks to Netgalley and Serpent's Tail / Viper / Profile Books for an advance copy of this great book.

This book is written in the author's trademark style of emails, notes, text messages, whatsapp messages etc, and I quickly fell into the rhythm of the story.

The author's first two novels, 'The Appeal' and 'The Twyford Code' are simply brilliant, and this is no exception.

For me, it's the literary equivalent of a magician performing close up magic. You watch closely, you know it's a trick, you should know how it's done, the magician is showing you how it's done while they're doing it, but they're so good, you just can't see it. And so the magician convinces you it's really magic.

And that's what happened to me, (again). Such is the skill of the writer that you start to believe that Angels, the end of days, the antichrist, is all real. But it can't be, can it?

All the clues as to what's going on are all laid out in front of you, you just have really think about it. But I didn't want to think about it too much, as I enjoy being fooled.

The explanations, when they come, are thorough, but not too thorough, leaving questions for this reader, which could be answered by a re-read, but again, I don't want the magic trick explained to me, I just want to enjoy the sense of wonder.

An easy 5 stars from me. How Janice Hallett keeps coming up with such great novels I've no idea, but long may this literary Sorceress continue to astound.

My thanks to NetGalley and Viper Publishers for a copy of “The Mysterious Case Of The Alperton Angels “ for an honest review.

Janice Hallett is such an innovative writer, that makes her stand out from the crowd!
I loved the previous 2 books by her and ,have recommended them to many others, ,as I will with this new book.
A clever story told by texts , emails, and transcribed conversations that keeps you guessing right up to the end.
I loved the relationship , and asides , between two of the main characters of Amanda and Ellie .
A book that I thoroughly enjoyed and can’t recommend highly enough. Only problem is now I’ve got to try and patiently wait for her next release.

I loved this! I was so confused, but so gripped! I have to admit that I love conspiracy theories and will happily watch the weirdest documentaries about Big Foot and missing people mysteries so I knew I’d enjoy this. I had no idea what the truth about the Alperton Angels was going to be and hadn’t anticipated the ending at all. I also enjoyed the excerpts from the novels and screenplay as that added yet another layer of general confusion. If you like unreliable narrators you’ll enjoy this because I had no idea who was telling the truth. It’s really clever how well you get to know the characters through the emails, texts and transcripts. If you like the Six Stories series by Matt Wesolowski it’s very much the same vibe.

Janice Hallett has single-handedly turned crime fiction writing on its head. The format she uses to present her story is innovative and compelling. With 'The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels', Hallett has taken our obsession with all things true crime and made her readers feel part of the investigation. The result is a book which is immersive and completely impossible to put down. Seriously, set aside a chunk of time because you're going to want to read it in one go if possible. There's much to love about this book and I particularly enjoyed the wry humorous asides from the interview transcriber. With 'The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels', Janice Hallett has knocked it out of the park and into orbit. I think she has another award-winner on her hands. Brilliant stuff. Highly recommend!

Everybook that I have read by this author has been exceptional and this is no deviance away from that. I am definitely starting to think of them as one of my favourite authors.
I love the style of writing in her books and how a story plays out through evidence such as emails, documents, texts and so forth.
Her writing is so engaging and the story was utterly gripping. I loved it and read it in one sitting,

Janice Hallett has quickly become one of my favourite authors. The Appeal was excellent; The Twyford Code even better. The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels promised much, and delivered in style.

True crime writer Amanda Bailey is looking for a new project, and the seventeen year old case of the Alperton Angels looks promising. A charismatic man known as "Gabriel", capable of convincing others that he and they are angels, two vulnerable teenagers in his thrall, a murdered waiter, more dead bodies found in an abandoned warehouse, and a baby in peril. But the more Amanda finds out, the more inconsistencies and just plain inexplicabilities (is that a word?) come to light. Is there really something supernatural about this story? At least one character certainly comes to think so.

Like Janice's other books, the story is told through documentary evidence - emails, text messages, extracts from other media, etc. And like her other books it's incredibly clever and intriguing, as Amanda - and the reader - tries to piece together what really happened. It does get quite complicated by the end - it's one of those books which needs careful attention from the reader, but is worth it.

I think The Twyford Code might still be my favourite, but I enjoyed this very much indeed and can't wait for Janice Hallett's next book.

This is the best book Janice Hallett has done so far. I was a fan of the formats of the previous books but I loved how this one had a mix of ‘sources’ from emails to scripts. They all worked really well together and made you want to keep going.

The Alperton Angels were wonderfully creepy and the drop of the supernatural didn’t feel at all far fetched. I couldn’t guess where it was going and I loved where it ended up. I would honestly read anything by this author and cannot wait for the next book, it’s just a shame that it’ll be more than a year to wait now!

lperton Angels

Janice Hallett has produced another clever and twisty thriller.

In a similar style to her previous books, it is written through copies of WhatsApp messages, texts, emails, transcripts of conversations etc. Many of the documents we read are written by the people who had first hand involvement in the Alperton Angels case which Amanda Bailey is going to be writing a book about. She has previously and successfully written books about true crimes such as the murder of Jill Dando.

She is determined to uncover the truth at last, and is immediately immersed in the story of Gabriel, a cult leader who, 18 years ago, convinced his handful of followers he was an archangel, sent to rid the world of the Antichrist, who was just a baby at the time. Amanda wants to write the story from the point of view of the baby, who is now about to turn 18. She is struggling to find what happened to the baby on the night the angels died in what appeared to be a murder/suicide and the people she needs to speak to are beginning to die in ‘accidents’.

She finds another author is also looking for the baby and is starting to write a book about the Angels, and they are forced by their bosses to work together and help each other out. Oliver, through his own research, begins to believe there may be some truth in Angels and perhaps Gabriel was telling the truth.

This is the definition of a page turner which I devoured in 2 days. Definitely one to preorder!

I am not sure how I felt about this book. I didn't enjoy it as much as The Appeal, but I definitely preferred it to The Twyford Code.

I read the whole book quite quickly, and I did want to keep going with it, but it definitely dragged at times. Particularly the 30-50% section. It sort of deteriorated into theories and chatter but no real progression.

I didn't mind Amanda but I didn't feel like we got to know her well enough. And I started liking Ellie but as it progressed I felt like she had her own agenda and I started to dislike her. Even Oliver wasn't a character to support. So I didn't really have a strong opinion on the ending.

The plot was okay, the revelations and characters were well crafted and created layers in the story telling, though I felt that the big reveals came too late in the book.

Again, it felt that some of the dilly dallying in the second quarter could have been cut down and some of the bigger events or reveals be moved earlier to retain interest.

I would say that I liked it, but I wouldn't lax lyrical like I did with The Appeal.

This is the first book I have read by this author and must admit that the style of writing did have me confused at first.
Everything is written as WhatsApp messages,emails etc and as quite a few characters in it I did find myself getting lost but after a while of reading and getting characters clear in my mind it did become a really good book with a very good twist in it as well.
If you read this be prepared for a bit of sorting out to start with but stick with it as it’s really good.

Beware: this is a book you start and read in one sitting, may you will have to stop because of some mundane taks like eating or sleeping. It's a complex book that kept surprising me till the last sentence and it's full of unexpected turns.
It's about darkness, the fascination with true crime, cults. There's some more themes but I don't want t0 spoil anything. There's also a lot of humour.
The style of writing is classic Janice Hallet: a mix of different media, from whatsup to email.
I read three book by Ms Hallett and this one was my favorite: a very cleve, multilayered, and complex story that can be read as a very entertaining mystery or something more complex.
I loved it and it's highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Janice Hallett is back with a third fiendishly clever and complex whodunnit which once again feels totally fresh and original. We are getting used to her inimitable brand of crime fiction in which we become the sleuths who are presented with an array of found documents and correspondence and have to make sense of it all.

'The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels' appears to be a dossier of evidence which true crime writer Amanda Bailey is assembling for her next book which will re-assess a historic case from the early 2000s involving a religious cult, murder and mass suicide. Two teenagers were also involved, as well as their new-born baby who is about to turn 18 so Amanda's publisher is keen for her to track them down to find out what really happened. Unfortunately, Amanda's one-time nemesis Oliver Menzies is also working on a book about the Alperton Angels for a rival publisher so they find themselves chasing many of the same leads.

Hallett expects us to keep our wits about us as we pore through the various WhatsApp messages, e-mails, recorded conversations and extracts from novels and screenplays inspired by the case Amanda and Oliver are investigating. Very quickly it becomes apparent that this is not just about events from 2003 but also from the early 1990s, and events from the past start to intrude on the present. Amidst the darkness of the events to be described, there is plenty of humour to be found in Amanda and Oliver's pursuit of the truth at all costs. The story is full of twists and turns, some of which I saw coming but plenty which I didn't, and the dénouement is unexpected but satisfying.

This is another multi-layered novel - both a gripping and playful mystery but also an exploration of our fascination with true crime and the implications of this. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an ARC to review!

I love the unusual format of this and I have to say it’s amazingly engrossing. Amanda is a true life crime author researching an eighteen year old case involving a cult, a suicide pact, angels, two teens and a baby. To make this even more interesting she finds herself having to work with a former colleague she has long been harbouring a grudge against. I loved how this case unfolded, the disparities in recollections, the pure weirdness of it and the mystery of what happened to the teens and the baby. The conclusion is fantastic, well thought out and answers so many things yet still leaves you wondering. Overall though my favourite element was Amanda’s assistant Ellie who was just so funny when transcribing interviews [with her own little thoughts] 9/10

Another fabulous read from Janice Hallett. I’ve been hooked on her writing since reading The Appeal a few years ago.
Her latest offering focuses on Amanda, and her acquaintance, Oliver, when they are both commissioned to research a novel about The Alperton Angels. Eighteen years previously the members of a cult were brutally murdered, and a young girl was left alive with a newborn baby. Both writers are searching for the whereabouts of the baby.
Presented as a series of emails, WhatsApp messages and transcribed interviews, the reader is immediately drawn into this complex mystery. It’s a page-turner!
4 stars as for me it just wasn’t quite as good The Appeal and The Twyford Code, but a wonderful read nonetheless.

I'm relatively new to the world of Janice Hallett but I love it! Although a similar format in writing style to "The Twford Code", "The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels" is less complicated in that you don't need to look for acrostics (thank goodness!).

Right from the start the story had me hooked. It's amazing how well characters come across just through communication in WhatsApp messages and emails, unbelievably well. It's a fascinating thing seeing how a true crime book is researched, written and rewritten depending on what evidence comes to light. Like her other books, this one is full of twists and turns. Still undecided what I'd do!

The Mysterious case of the Alperton Angels.

Wow.. just wow.. I am still in a state of shock about the ending of this book.. it is a book full of twists and turns and distractions and I loved it!!

The book is written in typical Janice Hallett style with emails, voice recording transcriptions and texts between Amanda and Ellie (the transcriber) so some people are going to love it and some are going to hate it (I love it, personally it makes the book moreish as you can just read one more text or email)

The Alperton Angels were bodies found in a disused flat in London that were posed like angels after death, they were part of a cult that was brought to the attention of the police when one of the members of the cult called the police and said she had a baby…

Amanda and Oliver are acquaintances who knew each other from a writing course when they were younger, who are both commissioned to write a book on the Alperton Angels (the how, whys and what’s) but the more they find out the more questions need answering and there investigations take two very different paths….

This is a great book and I loved it.. it is more bleak than the first two written by the author, probably as its subject matter is cults, religion, missing baby’s and murder but the short passages moving the book forward are perfect and gripping and leave you wanting more answers until you have them…


I want more Janice Hallett books!

#Netgalley #England #Mystery