Unfortunately, I struggled to get into this book, mostly because the cult storyline—ironically the main hook—was my least favorite part. The document-style format (emails, transcripts, etc.) made it hard to connect with the characters or stay engaged, and the central mystery was confusing up until the last 50 pages or so when everything came together. I appreciated the unique structure, but the story just didn’t land for me until right at the very end. Truthfully, I would have DNF'd this book had it not been for the fact that I knew of two book reviewers that I trust that rated it 5 star. The ending was a surprise, which raised the rating for me. Overall, not sure if this unique format is for me but glad I stuck it out.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for an ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.

I love mysteries with mixed media and everything Janice Hallett writes. She writes such elaborate mysteries and I'm never sure where the story is going to end up. I will always recommend her books.

If you want to read a mystery that will make you question everything, will keep you guessing, and does it in an immersive and entertaining way, this is the book for you!

I’m obsessed with Janice Hallett. How she writes these books that feel so immersive, are intricately woven together, and are difficult to solve is a mystery to me. I love how she adopts the epistolary style to pull us fully into the story. If you’ve read The Appeal by her before, I would say that this one is a bit sadder and serious, and if you haven’t, what are you doing?!

I was hooked into this story from the beginning. It’s not a fast paced story, but it is one that grabs you and keeps you curious. It’s hard to tell for most of the story if it’s supernatural or not, and I won’t tell you the answer either, but I loved that the book kept me guessing on that front.

Alperton Angels is about a cult, a baby, and the media telling their story. There’s a lot about twisting the truth in this story, both from the cult as well as the media afterwards. The story highlights how easy it is to reframe or rewrite a story, if you’re the one telling it. Many of the characters in the story are flawed, and ethically compromised.

This is a story that will make you second guess everything you’re reading. Getting to the resolution feels very satisfying. Janice Hallett does such a fantastic job of making you feel like you’re solving the mystery along with the main characters of her books and this is absolutely no exception.

ℹ️This is a complex story and there are a lot of names in it. If, like me, you’re not good at keeping track of characters, I recommend that you either take notes while reading, or read on a Kindle. Let me tell you, I RELIED on that Kindle search function.

Thank you to Atria Books and NetGalley for the eARC!

"𝘍𝘪𝘳𝘴𝘵 𝘳𝘶𝘭𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘫𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘮: 𝘥𝘰𝘯’𝘵 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘺. 𝘐𝘵 𝘯𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘸𝘦𝘭𝘭."

I've loved all of the books I've read by Janice Hallett so far. They're all so unique, intricate, thought-provoking, and twisty. This one in particular has a lot going on plot-wise, but I've read it twice now and after this reread I can say I fully understand what exactly went down in both the past and present stories. I wouldn't say you *need* to read it twice to get it but just know going in that this is a book you need to give your full attention to.
•
The Alperton Angels case is an infamous and (mostly) solved criminal investigation involving a cult with a baby they believed to be the antichrist, murder, and suicide. Two journalists each are given the job of writing a book about said case because "the baby" is getting ready to turn 18 so there's renewed public interest. Their investigations eventually collide and they're forced to work together to try and figure out what *actually* happened that fateful night...and where the baby is now.
•
𝙍𝙚𝙖𝙙 𝙞𝙛 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙬𝙖𝙣𝙩 𝙖 𝙗𝙤𝙤𝙠 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝:
• themes of obsession, cults, spirituality, and the power of persuasion on vulnerable people
• mixed media format (emails, transcribed interviews, news reports, etc.)
• "true crime" vibes
• London setting

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for providing me a digital reviewer copy in exchange for my honest thoughts.

**4.5 Stars**

I love books written in an epistolary way so Janice Hallet's novels really work for me. I listened to the audiobook and it's a great way to consume this book. The plot is engaging and Hallett nicely balances humor and intrigue. I can't wait to read her next book.

This novel was a book that had me totally stumped. It took me a while to read this book. I picked it up and then just couldn't get into it. I picked it back up and pushed through. I am glad that I did. It was really a mystery that keeps you trying to find out which one will get the right answer. I will definitely read more of Hallet's books.

Review for “The Mysterious
Case of the
Alperton Angels by Janice Hallett”

1. Plot Uniqueness : 4/5
2. Pacing and Coherence : 3.5/5
3. Emotional and intellectual Engagement : 4/5
4. Twists and turns : 3/5
5. Protagonists Character Development : 3/5
6. support character development : 3/5
7. Setting and atmosphere : 3/5
8. Chapter Organization : 4/5
9. Conclusion and tied loose ends : 3.5/5
10. Overall rating of book : 3.5/5

I had tried two of the authors previous books that were OK and I was hoping this would be a cut above based on popularity. Unfortunately, this just didn’t hit.

The book is told from the perspective of an author / investigative journalist Amanda, who begins to write a book looking for a child who was mysteriously kidnapped by two teenagers who were part of a cult on an evening when the remainder of the colt was killed. There was probably so much more to the plot, but it was so confusing for me to keep everything straight that I had a hard time following. The fact that this was told through emails, texts, transcripts, newspaper, clippings, movie scripts, and more is what I love about Hallets novels, and is really the only thing that kept me reading.

I found it really difficult to understand which characters thought they were angels, our angels, good, bad, and all the in between. Plus, some characters changed names of various points in the story and it was really challenging to keep everything straight. More than that, once I got a little bit confused, it was hard to realign on the plot, and I found myself not really caring about what happened.

Halletts books are always so satisfying when they come together in the end, and this one was too, but not enough to make up for the very big and messy middle.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Interesting premise, took me a really long time to finish. Nothing seemed to come together for me, the story and character chemistry were lacking.

True crime feel combined with a mixed media reveal of the story? YES! The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels is the story of Amanda's research quest to find the Alperton baby, who is turning 18 this year after being saved from the clutches of a cult that believed it to be the antichrist. Amanda wants to be the first to write a book on the Alperton baby and she is in a rush to find answers before anyone else gets wind of the story. Enter Oliver, a prior coworker of Amanda's, who is also writing the same book. They end up working together and their story is told exclusively through mixed media format - email and text exchanges, diary entries, podcast and interview transcripts, 'torn out' pages from books and screen plays, and more. I absolutely loved the presentation of the story in this format and found it fascinating and engaging. What started out feeling completely far-fetched with unrelated details ended up weaving together seamlessly, getting freakier and more mysterious the further into it I read. As I neared the end I couldn't read the book fast enough, and there was definitely no way I could have imagined the twists and secrets that would be revealed. I think you have to be quite a genius to pull this format off successfully, and Janice Hallett has definitely done so. If you are a true crime fan I do think you would really appreciate The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels.

Thank you NetGalley and Atria Books for the DRC in exchange for my honest review. I'll be looking into other works by Janice now!

Written in the unique style of correspondence and conversation transcripts, we read through Amanda Bailey's research of the Case of the Alperton Angels. The cult brainwashed a teenage girl into believing her baby was the anti-Christ but the girl comes to her senses and contacts the police. Now the baby is about to turn eighteen and Amanda is on the hunt for the identity of the child and resurrect her own career. Along the way she is faced with a lot of "dead" ends right up to the end.

I honestly don't know what to say about this book or how to rate it. The creativity and planning that must have gone into writing a book like this is incredible. The format is texts, emails, scripts, and transcribed conversations, so it is not a format that will work for everyone. It's also a format that takes a lot of effort to plan out and make flow without being too choppy.

I've read books by this author before so I knew what to expect. It took me a bit to get into and by the middle I was engaged in the plot but getting tired of the format. I just wanted to READ IT already, without it being chopped into different types of media.

What saved this book, for me, was the ending. Once everything started being pulled together, and it started getting twisty, I was like YES!!!

I didn't like the fact that Amanda was killed by Oliver though - that didn't sit well with me.

I really enjoyed The Appeal, so I was excited to dive into this one! Although it felt a bit long, the mixed media style of writing makes it an easy read and it was hard to put down at times because of the pacing. My only complaint, and I felt similarly about The Appeal, is that the large cast of characters is sometimes hard to follow. Other than that, this was a fun read!

This is not a bad story, and I don’t want my rating to suggest that, but I really disliked the format. It made it incredibly difficult for me to feel invested in what was happening. I am not particularly a fan of stories told through emails, texts, interviews, etc., and I hadn’t realized that’s what this would be initially. I was simply attracted to the cult aspect, and the general mystery was incredibly alluring.

Aside from disliking the format, I found the petty dynamic between Oliver and Amanda quite annoying. This only further pulled me out of the story.

But…

The unraveling here was quite intriguing. I’ve no problem acknowledging that Hallett worked out a rather complex situation in a completely unpredictable way.

I stuck with this on my second try solely because I am committed to truly catching up on my NetGalley reads, with the hope of progressing toward a 90% or higher feedback score - a goal I’d like to meet by next summer. Otherwise, I would have kicked this to the curb, simply because my mind doesn’t adjust well to this type of storytelling. Janice Hallett is clearly a smart lady. As long as this isn’t how she always lets her tales unfold, I’d be happy to try another one of her books one day.

I am immensely grateful to Atria Books and NetGalley for my copy. All opinions are my own.

This was a five star read for me. I became very obsessive about it. I wanted to read it every single moment. I had it on my Kindle and I had it in print. And I would say that’s probably the only two ways I would read it. There’s so much in this mixed media format that I would find difficult on audio. So print and Kendall.

I like this one more because it seems to me that she got even better with this format that she has really done better than anyone else. As you know, her books are completely mixed media. There is literally no regular pros. It’s all text messages and transcriptions of conversations Articles and pieces of novels newspapers even screenplay. Whatever comes into play in the case itself. She’s gotten very very good at maintaining the flow of the story within the bounce of this particular construction. And this is not easy to do. She’s playing it a very high-level Here.

I think also I like this one more because the steaks were a lot higher. In the appeal there was a crime and even a murder but nothing near this book. In the Alton Angels case we touch on brutal murder, kidnapping, colt and psychology. All kinds of things that are very high stakes. And it’s handled really well Because our main character, Amanda Bailey, is a smart and responsible journalist. She set out to find the truth and she is absolutely dogging about getting there one piece of the story that I didn’t expect to be as fascinated by as I was is especially in the first third of the book, where we really see her digging into things and making something out of kind of a bunch of nothing. At the start, there’s really not a lot to go on, but she Just grabs at the smallest thread and pretty soon you start seeing things begin to unravel. It’s a long book. Over 420 pages. But it absolutely flew by.

Janice Hallett let you play along and if you’ve listened to our show for any amount of time you know that that’s one of my favorite things. There are a lot of people who are using the great Dame Agatha Christie as their inspiration for novels as they write in the 2020s, I honestly believe that of all of them Agatha Christie is very favorite would be Janice Hallett. I know she’s mine.

I really enjoyed The Appeal, but I can’t make it through this one. I’m not planning on giving up on Janice Hallett, but The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels is plodding along too slowly for me and not revealing enough information to keep me coming back to it.

I love Janice Hallett and the way she can make me feel like a detective solving a mystery! She's truly talented and I recommend her to everyone I know. If you haven't read her yet-- you are missing out! This was my second favorite of hers, after The Appeal.

Amanda is a journalist who begins researching for a new book about a cult-related cold case that took place 18 years prior. Told in multiple forms of media such as interviews and text messages, readers are pulled along for the ride as she begins to uncover strange anomalies that hint at supernatural powers at work.

When people around the case seem to be dropping like flies, Amanda races to find answers before someone else does.

This book was compelling, dark, and exactly the thing I needed to get me out of a reading slump. I would love to read more from this author!

(Thanks to the publisher for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.)

I love these books. They require so much brain power, so don’t read them distracted, but they are so fun. It’s such an interesting set up to have the book be fully emails, memos, etc. It’s fun to try and piece the story together and figure out the mystery. I adore these books and can’t wait for more!

A dark and twisty book with lots of a-ha moments.
The truth they uncovered from the long ago case was absolutely shocking!
Great book overall