Published in the UK in 2021; published by Atria Books on January 25, 2022

A character in The Appeal knows a secret. That character is murdered to keep the secret from coming out. What is the secret? Which character will die? Who is the murderer? Those questions propel this delightfully unconventional epistolary novel.

A barrister gives a collection of documents — primarily texts, WhatsApp messages, and emails, although police interview transcripts, memos, and a few other documents are later added to the pile — to two law students. He asks them to read the documents without context and to answer some questions: Who committed the murder? Who knew it was going to happen? What three things did the victim tell people before the murder? Who knew about the murder before the body was discovered? Who has been wrongly imprisoned for the crime? Who of the named people are not who they say they are?

The action surrounds an amateur theater group called The Fairway Players. Martin Hayward, a respected local businessman, chooses and directs the plays. His talented wife Helen plays the female lead. His daughter Paige usually plays a role. His son James is his assistant director. James’ wife Olivia is pregnant with twins so James’ time is limited. When the document dump begins, they are casting for All My Sons.

This production differs from others because Martin must devote his time to raising funds for his granddaughter Poppy, who is undergoing treatment for a brain tumor. Dr. Tish Bhatoa is sourcing experimental drugs from the US, but Martin will need a large sum of money (the total changes from time to time) to acquire them. He eventually does a fundraising appeal with other members of The Fairway Players. The appeal is managed by Sarah-Jane MacDonald, who has fundraising experience.

Samantha Greenwood and her husband Kel are newcomers to the group. They just returned to England from Africa, where they were relief workers. Samantha has some history in Africa with Dr. Bhatoa, who warns Martin that she is not to be trusted. Samantha meets Isabel (Issy) Beck at the hospital where they are both employed as nurses. Issy latches onto Samantha and recruits her (and Kel) to The Fairway Players. Issy desperately wants attention and is slavishly devoted to anyone who gives it to her, but most members of the group have a low opinion of her. Issy lives in a fantasy world and soon imagines that Samantha is her new best friend.

The fundraising takes unexpected turns as a potential donor disappears after asking questions about the miracle drugs that Dr. Bhatoa refuses to answer. An investment manager who promises to multiply the donations apparently disappears with the money. Sarah-Jane and others tell fibs (“Poppy is going blind!”) to encourage others to help with the appeal. Suspicions are formed, accusations are made, and eventually someone dies. The reader soon begins to question every fact related to the fundraiser and later to the murder.

Janice Hallett brings out the personalities of characters through their texts — Dr. Bhatoa is brusque, Issy is clingy, Martin is evasive, Samantha is principled. Each question that the barrister poses might have various plausible answers. The law students change their view of the evidence as they review the documents and acquire more information. The reader will do the same.

The novel is a true mystery, a whodunit mixed with uncertainty about what actually happened that led to the death. The novel’s construction, inviting the reader to tease the truth out of primary source documents, engages the reader’s attention and challenges the reader’s detective skills. Simply because of its structure, The Appeal is among the most innovative and entertaining crime novels I’ve read in recent years.

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The Appeal had an interesting premise that hooked me. However, from the very start, I was overwhelmed by the number of characters. I found it difficult to focus on who's who with so many different inputs being added to the conversation. I applaud Hallett for trying a unique tactic for this book -- all of the book is composed of emails, notes, and other paper-trail-esque items. There is no traditional writing or dialogue at all. This was engaging for the beginning, but did get old as the story went on. I just wanted to scream - someone tell me what's going on. To be fair, I don't usually love these riskier types of storytelling. Daisy Jones and the Six, a beloved book by many, was not enjoyable for me because the audio book format was too difficult to follow. So it may just be a case of "this book wasn't meant for me." However, I also did figure out the killer relatively early on despite the confusing format, so overall this book was just an okay, 2.5 star read for me. I wouldn't recommend it unless I knew people were interested in unique book formats. I'd also recommend reading a physical copy to help take notes and flip back as the formatting on Kindle was a bit wonky understandabl.y

Going into The Appeal by Janice Hallett I wasn't really sure what to expect. While I have read a couple of epistolary style novels in the past, they weren't done quite like this one was. The majority of the story is told through emails with the occasional sticky note added to the margins and things like transcriptions and text messages mixed in. I was also worried that it wasn't going to properly translate via audio which I also had. It turns out that this book was fairly easy to understand that way, although I highly recommend having a physical copy as well. There are a couple of times that the characters are listed out along with their affiliations and ages, and it was so incredibly helpful since there are SO many of them. The 'viewpoints' if you can call them that, are immense and this ended up being a pretty complex plot as well, so I ended up having to consult the book a few times.

While I did look at the book, I still really enjoyed the audio as well and was really impressed with the way it was done. The sticky notes seen in the margins on the pages were really fun on the audiobook, and I thought every single one of the narrators did a wonderful job. There are a lot more characters than narrators, but Daniel Philpott, Aysha Kala, Rachel Adedeji & Sid Sagar were all great, and I had never heard any of them before I listened to this book. I did think The Appeal was maybe a touch too long and could have benefited from being a little shorter, but it was a really fun experience and a very unique one at that. I'm not sure I would compare this to a Richard Osman or Lucy Foley book, but it was a great debut and I look forward to reading more from Hallett.

Thank you to the publishers for my advanced listening and digital copies of this book. All opinions and thoughts are my own.

I received a free copy from NetGalley. Way too many characters to keep track of. The story is told through written record after the fact; emails, social media posts, etc. so keeping track of all the characters when you didn't always have great descriptions of them, could be a challenge. There where a few things that just seemed odd and I'm not sure it ended with me completely knowing what had happened. Not an easy beach read.

This was a unique murder whodunit where you didn't know who was murdered in the first part of the book. The book also has a unique style where you're reading all the emails and texts sent over the months leading up to the murder. It gave it an extra whodunit feel that made you feel like a sleuth trying to find the clues and put the story together.

I had a feeling a lot of the characters were up to no good and Izzy was the most annoying obsessive character which kind of makes her the best most flushed out character in the book. I figured out a few of the twists but there were plenty I didn't see coming as well. I just love how unique this book is and I would recommend it to anyone you loves a good murder whodunit.

This was a lot of fun, and like nothing I have read before.
I really enjoyed the formatting of this book, having the mixed media elements to help the reader try and solve the mystery alongside the narrative.

This felt like a cozy mystery to me, I haven't read a lot in that sub-genre of mystery but if you enjoy small town cozy mysteries you most likely would enjoy this book.

Even though I really liked all the mixed media elements I did miss the traditional narrative only that I found it hard to tell the characters emotions and personalities through texts and emails. This made it a little difficult to differentiate each character as their voices all tonally were the same. I was able to consume some of the story through audio and I highly recommend as it helped to add personality to the characters.

Overall, a fun mystery told in an interesting format. Will definitely read from this author again!

This is a unique epistolary mystery told by a series of emails, playbills, notes, etc. I would recommend it to patrons who like mysteries, especially ones that are a little off-beat. A major angle of the story is about a child with cancer. A trigger warning could be helpful for readers.

As the reader of this book, you are given access to emails, letters, social media posts, flyers, and promotional items, and you're tasked with solving a murder. There is a cast of 15 characters and practically no one is what they seem. I LOVED this format and found it a refreshing change of pace in a murder mystery. It felt like you were spying on people and searching for clues. I envisioned myself as Sherlock Holmes, looking for the subtexts and contradictions as I searched through the correspondence. There are gaps in the information, on purpose, and you need to judge the character of the suspects and determine who is what they seem and who is hiding some deep dark secrets. Highly recommend! I hope there are many more novels like this to come!

Easily one of my favorite books of 2022 so far. Will be recommending it to library patrons as a creative and entertaining book.

I received a complimentary copy of The Appeal from NetGalley.  Opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.

This was a very interesting novel. I loved the format (mostly emails and a few texts)—which was a new, refreshing and probably very challenging way to tell a story. Great book!

Thank you NetGalley and Atria Books for this e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

One of my main reasons for requesting this book was seeing it ALL over instagram and the gorgeous cover! I had high expectations for this book and this book definitely delivered!

I really enjoyed this unique debut novel by Janice Hallett. It's definitely different from any book I've ever read. The Appeal was an intriguing mystery written in emails/text messages. It was fun to read a book written in that format. The plot was very intricate and I had no clue who the murderer was (with 15 different suspects it was kind of hard). This was a fast-paced read for me, and once I started I was unable to put it down.

Highly recommend this one to all crime lovers!

4.5 stars/5 stars for me!

I will post my review to my instagram handle: @thrillersandcoffee

Poppy is the beloved granddaughter of Helen and Martin Hayward, when they find out that she has cancer, they immediately take up an appeal to raise money for her treatment with their play group when one of its members is killed and each member seems to have a motive for murder.

I really enjoyed The Appeal in my opinion it is a seasoned mystery lover's dream. I narrowed it down to two suspects one was the killer but I still picked the wrong one. If you are a long time mystery lover, you like episilatory style books and are looking for a book where you examine not only the evidence but study a community then I think you will enjoy this one.

Colder seasons always put me in a thriller mood – anyone else? The latest novel on my thriller binge is The Appeal, which is actually a very different read than usual. It's why I picked it. Written by Janice Hallet, the novel is a series of documents and collected curios than a linear novel, and I couldn't resist.

The Appeal consists of a series of documents, including e-mails, texts, and message board posts, revolving around the Fairway Players' Staging of All My Sons. That in itself is not the exciting part or the purpose of this collection.

The truth is hidden inside these documents – revealing critical information about the death of one of the characters involved. The trick is finding that information before it is too late.

It's been a hot minute since I read an epistolary mystery, so I'm thrilled that The Appeal came across my desk. On that note, I'll be the first to admit that this is not a book for everyone. If you don't like experimental formats, or reading a collection of faux documents, then this might not be your cup of tea. However, if you enjoy picking up your sleuthing cap to try and solve a mystery on your own...well, that makes you the perfect candidate for The Appeal.

The Appeal is about two young lawyers sifting through a jumble of documents in hopes of discovering the truth surrounding a suspicious death. That would be the death of one of the Fairway Players' crewmates, to be precise.

It gets a little convoluted and twisty at times, but the puzzle pieces are available for readers to discover. So if you're looking for a mystery to solve, consider checking out The Appeal.

Now this book took some time to adjust to with the different characters, emails, reports and texts but after a while I kind of got use to it and it became a really good read. As the book when on the more I got into it especially with all the evidence. I really enjoyed it.

What a fun read! A couple things to note- this book has a MASSIVE cast of characters, which can absolutely get very confusing at points. There is a page that lists all the characters and their relations to one another, and I would definitely flag it to use as reference if you need it. The beginning was also a bit slow and it took me longer than expected to read this one, but it gets very interesting!

I’ve never read a book like this before- the entire format of the book is multimedia (emails, texts, notes, etc). You really feel like you are meant to solve the whodunnit yourself! I did figure out part of the mystery early on, but there are still plenty of twists. I also thought the author did a fantastic job distinguishing individual personalities for so many different characters. 5/5 stars!

Hmmm. I was enjoying the audiobook but the last 25% or so felt confusing and redundant. It was okay.

This epistolary novel was very fun to read and reminded me a lot of Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty (one of my favorite books). As the story moves along and the reader is reviewing a series of emails and text messages between a group of people, it is apparent that something tragic is going to happen to one of them. The story started out very strong but lost a bit of steam in the last third of the book. Overall, I really enjoyed the journey and the mystery but felt that it dragged on a little bit too long.

I received this book from NetGalley to read and review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

What worked: Couldn’t put it down. I kept wanting to get back to the story. I think the epistolary format made me want to keep reading. There were twists and turns that kept me engaged.
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What didn’t work: Too many characters made it tough to follow. The format became a bit ridiculous, with characters writing emails to someone sitting in the next room 🙄
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3/5 ⭐️ for a unique murder mystery. Overall I really enjoyed the story and the mystery itself. I think I just wanted a bit more character development.

I started out really liking this book. I loved the email style of it, and it brought me back to my middle school days when I loved reading books like this. However, I thought this book dragged on WAY too long and I was very bored in the middle half. Great premise but the execution was not my favorite.

I went into this book completely blind. I didn't read a synopsis or anything and I am glad I did. With all these different forms of communication you are following a theatre group as they are getting prepared for their upcoming play. In the midst of all that one of the members granddaughter gets sick with cancer and from there everyone is trying to raise money and study their lines. We are also trying to solve a whodunnit case with these two students.

I was completely enthralled in this book. Reading every email. trying to put together who everyone was. It was super fun and a great distraction for a bit. I was right about some plot twists and completely wrong about others, but I enjoyed myself.