Janice Hallett does it again! I LOVE her mixed media mysteries. This one didn't disappoint. I really enjoyed the variety of mixed media items and the story really came together well. I didn't even guess the ending! Lots of believable twists and turns that kept me turning the pages. Highly recommend if you like mixed media format books.

Janice Hallet is a genius. SERIOUSLY.

She has delivered a highly entertaining murder mystery using her unique style of ONLY using text and phone messages, email correspondence, and police interviews to tell the story.

Sue and Mal Eastwood have retired early from their jobs and are now pursuing a lifelong dream of running an isolated rural pub called “The Case is Altered” . Once on a top trivia team themselves, they revived the unassuming Pub by running a weekly Pub Quiz (trivia) game every Monday night, attracting a group of regular patrons who take quizzing very seriously.

Things are going well, with the biggest nuisance being one quizzer from the team “The Plucky Losers” who is NEVER happy, and challenges something every week.

BUT THE QUIZMASTER’s DECISION IS FINAL-even if he is subsequently proven to be wrong.

We get to know a little bit about each team by seeing the QUIZ categories, team members in attendance at each table, and the Final Scores of the night.

AND, THEN A BODY IS FOUND IN A RIVER BEHIND THE PUB.

It puts the PUB on the map, and soon a mysterious NEW team, “The Shadow Nights” arrives and begins to beat the regulars, EVERY WEEK, disrupting the Status Quo.

AND EVERYTHING CHANGES IN THE TWISTY, SURPRISING SECOND HALF.

The book opens FIVE YEARS after the pub CLOSES for the second time. Sue and Mal’s nephew Dominic is pitching a true crime documentary to NETFLIX hoping to tell their story and expose the truth about the events that doomed the Pub-once and for all.

I have read two of the author’s books prior to this one-“The Appeal” and “The Twyford Code” and while they impressed me-this was MY FAVORITE by far. Maybe, it was the HUMOR, maybe it was the PUB SETTING, but this was easier to follow and the characters more relatable making this an enjoyable read for me from page 1!

Don’t let the page count scare you! Because of the style it’s written in, it’s a fast read!
AVAILABLE SEPTEMBER 23, 2025.

Thank You to Maudee Genao at Atria books for the invitation to read this. A gifted ARC was provided through NetGalley and as always, these are my candid thoughts!

A classic Janice Hallett novel; thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for an ARC. This book fits right in the author's published works, but is unique in its own way. I really enjoyed reading through this one, although it is probably not Hallet's best work.

What I enjoyed: the pub theme is just so fun. I loved reading through the weekly categories, the team names, some of the questions. I actually would've liked a little more actual trivia in the novel to feel more on theme! Hallett does a great job modifying her writing to match the characters and how they would communicate. Some teams use Whatsapp, some use email. I especially enjoyed reading all the interactions for the team Ami's Manic Carrots and Fiona's texts (especially when she interacts more verbally later in the book!). Also the correspondence between all the pub owners was fun to read. I enjoy being able to look back and see what I missed and what I could've figured out had I picked up on the clues. It is hard to say too much without giving away spoilers, but the theme was fun and gives visibility to small town scenarios- not everything has to be a huge international conspiracy. I definitely enjoyed all the twists- a few a did see coming, but most of them were very surprising for me!

What could be improved: I felt this novel was a little longer than it needed to be. There is a very large cast, many of which end up having no relevance to the story. It was so hyperfocused on the pub that almost nothing ever happens outside the pub and conversations about quiz night. While there is a side plot that becomes the main mystery, there is no introduction until about 30% of the way into the book. The author's other novels have scenes in various locations, so it felt a little redundant despite the fact that I did really like the theme for this one. The characters are supposed to be mysterious, but most of them had little to no backstory to the point it was very difficult to differentiate between everyone, even near the end of the book.

Thank you again to the publisher, and happy reading to everyone who picks up this book!

Rating: 3.75 out of 5

I really enjoy reading Janice Hallett and I’m thankful to have received another ARC of hers!

As someone who loves Jeopardy and competitive games, the synopsis easily pulled me in with the pub quiz. I won’t share spoilers in this review but will say that I was pleasantly surprised with the twists in this read. I am pretty good as uncovering the surprises before their reveals and there were a few that I got on the nose. I will admit that there were some that I didn’t expect…particularly the big reveal at the end! Sometimes surprises in a mystery can be a big convoluted but I didn’t find that as the case here and certainly enjoyed this read. My only criticism is that the story felt a bit dragged out with the several weeks of quizzes. It made the timeline feel a bit stagnant. Regardless, this was another fun read from Hallett!

I have read and loved every one of Janice Hallett's books, and The Killer Question is no exception. The story centers around the weekly pub quiz held at an English country pub run by proprietors Sue and Mal Eastwood. We know that something dramatic has happened, because the book opens with correspondence from the Eastwoods' nephew, who wants to make a documentary about what's happened at the pub.

The book follows Hallett's usual epistolary style, with lots of text message exchanges between the Eastwoods and fellow pub owners, as well as fellow quiz participants. There's a lot of humor, and it's a fun way to get to know the characters. Lots of twists and turns along the way too!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Simon and Schuster for this arc. I received this book in exchange for my honest review. My thoughts are entirely my own.

Sue and Mal Eastwood are retired cops who open a pub that does weekly quiz nights and their nephew Dominic wants to have a true crime documentary about their story and what led to their pub closing after a faithful quiz night. We have a cast of characters and get some before and after timelines told their emails, texts, and other materials. I was shocked and was following the story and when each twist came things started to make more sense but I love the way the author tells her stories and I can’t wait for the next book.

4 stars!

This was so fun! I myself am a trivia person, and so I was really excited to read an English pub quiz trivia mystery. In true Janice Hallett fashion, I really enjoyed this. I absolutely loved the mixed media element, and the slow reveal of the mystery. I was genuinely surprised by the ending twists, and I enjoyed looking back to figure out the clues Janice Hallett laid down to reveal. So glad that I get to read Janice Hallett's new release every year!

Thank you to Netgalley and Atria Books for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

4 stars!

This was so fun! I myself am a trivia person, and so I was really excited to read an English pub quiz trivia mystery. In true Janice Hallett fashion, I really enjoyed this. I absolutely loved the mixed media element, and the slow reveal of the mystery. I was genuinely surprised by the ending twists, and I enjoyed looking back to figure out the clues Janice Hallett laid down to reveal. So glad that I get to read Janice Hallett's new release every year!

Thank you to Netgalley and Atria Books for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Sue and Mal Eastwood run a pub with a weekly trivia night. Their network of fellow pub owners flag a team of cheaters and, when they show up at The Case is Altered, Sue and Mal recognize their description and kick them out. Shortly thereafter, a new team arrives and upsets the status quo when they easily win, week after week. And then a body turns up in the nearby river.

Five years later, the Eastwoods’ nephew, Dominic, pitches their story to a documentary team. What were Sue and Mal hiding before they came to own The Case is Altered? Did their past catch up to them?

This story is told partly through text messages, emails, trivia results, similar to the author’s previous book, “The Examiner.” This book didn’t hook me quite as quickly as the last one — it took me about a quarter of the book to be drawn in. But I raced through the rest of the book and enjoyed how the story twisted and unfolded. I would recommend this book for anybody who likes a quirky thriller with a silly subject.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

Full Disclosure: I received an Advanced Reader's Copy of The Killer Question by Janice Hallett from Atria Books via NetGalley. The book is set to be published September 25, 2025.

I was so excited to read The Killer Question by Janice Hallett. Not only have I enjoyed all of Hallett's books because I love her style of writing, this one involves pub quizzes! I am such a trivia nerd. I could only have been happier reading this if the quizzes had been included. But don't worry, there is plenty of trivia included even without the full quizzes. Much of the story is told through text exchanges. That gives all the characters another layer of personality. The story has a few different mysteries going on. There is one in the past, the murder in the present, and one involving potential cheating on the quiz circuit. It will keep your brain buzzing. If you like a good game of trivia, give this book a read.

Janice Hallett once again proves that she is the queen of the mixed media/epistolary mystery novel. I have never been let down by one of her novels; they are all so unique, fun, and fast paced. The twists and turns of this mystery were particularly satisfying and will leave you questioning everyone’s motivations (and I truly mean, everyone) until literally the last page. The primary setting of pub quizzes was very unique and fun for anyone who has enjoyed a trivia night themselves.
My biggest criticism comes upon reading the author’s note to find out that Janice Hallett utilized ChatGPT early on in the writing process to generate suspicious sounding town names. While this particular instance is not the end of the world and can be chalked up to someone wanting to learn about a tool/danger looming on the horizon (forewarned is forearmed after all), I hope we do not see her relying on AI in the future.

4.25 stars

This is a really hard book for me to review. I want to be both honest and fair, so here goes.

The plot here is fun--yes, it's about murder but it's humous and cozy. The setting is fun and the characters come to life. I was invested in seeing how things all worked out. Also, the format is, undeniably, unique.

And therein lies the problem for me. This novel is categorized as epistolary--and it is. But in a very modern sense. By that, I mean that where epistolary--to this point in time--tended to spool out a narrative by way of long(ish) letters or diary entries, perhaps a collection of "found" mediums of varying length, Hallett has brought the genre up to date by telling her story through mostly texts (there are some other mediums, to be fair, but all are very short). That means that the reader is confronted with many, many, many short texts/emails that are usually written LIKE causal texts or emails would be. I admit that this is a "me" problem, but the constant starting and stopping drove me bananas. I would just be getting the groove of one text (or email or recording) and . . . BAM! New text. New email.

I had a hard time enjoying the read because of the truncated narrative. Another reviewer compared the reading process to fingernails on a chalkboard, and while I can't explain it, that's EXACTLY how I was feeling reading this. It gave me actual anxiety to have the sudden stops and starts throughout the entire book.

Bottom line: the book's ingenuity and story telling probably deserve a 4-star review. My own personal experience with the text was about a 2-star review. I think loads of people will love this, though, so for the right reader, this would be a fun read.

A fun slow village mystery told through emails and texts. I enjoy Hallett's past books and enjoyed this one as well. I did this the twists as I got closer to the end but it was still a fun read.

I received an ARC from the publisher for an honest review.

The Killer Question is about a couple of retired cops who open a pub in rural England and start a pub quiz (trivia night). They have to contend with cheats, unsavory characters, conspiracies, and murder. It is told via texts, emails, quiz leaflets, police body cam transcripts, and more.

I will say my main criticism about this book is that Janice Hallett acknowledges using ChatGPT to throw around ideas for her books. While I can sympathize that everyone has tried it and she does ultimately decide not to continue using ChatGPT, there are very deep ethical questions about generative AI in writing. What she used it for was trivial (ha!) and I appreciate her honesty, but it was unnecessary and just really a waste. Why do you need AI to come up with creepy weird English town names? I can do 5 right off my head: FogBottom, Rottbury, Hope’s End, Bogswallow, Childslaughter Lane. It was a bad move. Hopefully, she learns from it and doesn’t make excuses.

The second half of this book is actually really good. It is well paced, enjoyable, and twisty and turny. I didn’t guess the end until about 30 pages before the reveal.

During the first half, however, I began to question if I even like Janice Hallett anymore. Her books are in an engaging format and always dramatic, but the punchline of most of her jokes tends to be “hahaha look how dumb these people are. They did a funny stupid thing. Aren’t I clever?” Then I remembered that stupidity actually is very commonplace, recent events notwithstanding, and I think it’s fair. I could just do with it not being the punchline of every single humorous part.

There is smarter discourse beneath the surface. The exploitation of victims of crime and vulnerable populations, there’s even a social worker who exploits a disabled person in here as well and I promise I did not plan this coincidence. There are also themes of unanswered and misleading questions and identity.

While I much prefer her other works like Twyford Code, this was better than The Examiner, her last work. I am looking forward to her middle grade debut this month as well!

(4.5 stars)
* Tropes/themes:
* Multiple POV
* Story within a story / layered narrative
* Epistolary novel (transcripts, texts, emails, etc.)
* Small town setting
* So quirky, clever, and unique- I always love epistolary novels, especially Janice Hallett’s, but for this one to also be a pitch for a true crime documentary AND have a heavy trivia theme… chef’s kiss.
* Even more clever was the surely intentional and brilliant parallel between the pace and layout of this story to that of an actual true crime documentary.
* Some parts were slower and maybe too detailed or too drawn out but I didn’t mind it because of the style of the novel itself.
* It was very addictive and just became even more so as I continued to read on.
* The overall plot twist was completely unexpected.
* Content warnings:
* Murder/death
* Violence
* Gun violence
* Stalking
* Terminal illness

Special thank you to Atria Books, Janice Hallett, and NetGalley for a DRC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Another fun read from Janice Hallett. A Killer Question is not quite as page-turning as Hallett’s last novels, but still entirely enjoyable.

A fun, quirky mystery that fell a bit short on the ending. I’m a fan of Halley’ previous books, and this was a good addition. The storyline was unique and there were many funny moments which I absolutely loved. My only problem is that it got a bit repetitive towards the middle of the book, and so by the ending I was ready for it to end…but I will say the complex twist to the story, worked very well.

I really enjoy Janice Hallett's unique style of "found document" epistolary mysteries, and this is one of my favorites. It's always fun to follow the clues and guess what's coming next. In this book it was almost impossible to guess, since the framing device (emails pitching the story as episodes of a true crime documentary) allows Hallett to keep lots of details back. The characters all quickly develop distinctive voices through their messages to one another, which makes it easy to keep track of the large cast. I also loved how so many of them get so obsessed with pub quizzes, and the intense rivalries and dynamics that come out of that. It's easy to laugh at them, but it's also very endearing. And this book is really, really funny—I laughed a lot.

3.5
The Killer Question by Janice Hallet is a murder mystery set around a bunch of English pubs and their owners. It has a unique format with it mostly being text messages, with some emails/transcripts mixed in. The main chunk of this story revolves around these weekly pub quizzes that all the local pub owners hold and the text messages the group send to each other regularly to discuss their week’s questions, winners and losers, and any potential cheaters. A new group, The Shadow Knights, has swooped in and wins every quiz. Are they cheating? If so, how?
While these pub owners try to figure out if there is cheating going on, a dead body turns up which becomes a mystery in itself.
There are two separate message threads interspersed in the story as well. One is a transcript style document from several years prior of an undercover kidnapping situation, the other of emails by Dominic(nephew to a pair of the pub owners), trying to sell the “story of the pub owners and their mysterious past” to Netflix. Sound confusing? It kind of is.
At first I loved the unique text messaging style and found the characters funny and quirky. I would liken them to a Richard Osman book. However, I got a bit bored with the incessant banter about these quizzes, did not like reading text message after text message. I felt it just wasn’t going anywhere. The addition of all the other action, the dead body, the transcripts and emails, helped to make it more interesting and mysterious, but I still felt it dragged until probably the last 15% of the book when all the truths came out. I think we needed more clues earlier in the story to keep the reader’s interest.
That being said, I LOVED what the end result was. It was clever and tricky in more ways than one. I think I would have much preferred the same story and same characters but written in a more traditional chapter format. So overall, great story but the format was not for me. Thanks to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for my ARC.

A very solid 4.25, a quick read, and a very entertaining story.

Janice Hallet returns with a murder mystery set around a pub trivia quiz in an English village, where things get quite serious in the quiz competition. Mysteries, twists, and petty plans unfold.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again (and I see critics agree), Janice Hallet is establishing herself as a modern-day Agatha Christie. Every book has her signature voyeuristic epistolary touch in a unique fashion, and consistent twisty tales.

Thanks NetGalley and Atria books for a copy of the ARC!