Thank you to Atria Books and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this work.
Janice Hallett continues to write creative and engaging mysteries. Her works never cease to entertain and keep me wanting more. Her newest work I would highly recommend. What starts as a question about relatives and pub quizzes branched out into so much more. I found this to be one of Hallett’s best works and forsee myself rereading this to see what I’ve missed on the first read. I highly recommend for any mystery lover!

Thank you to Atria Books for the eARC in exchange for an honest review!

I love Hallett's books. That's just sort of a given, so take anything I say through that lens. With that in mind, I found the start of this book to be a bit laggy. However, once we hit "the worst guys you'll ever encounter on Nextdoor" energy by the middle of the book, I had bought in hard.

The end of the book was so so solid, the last 25% just WHIPPED by as everything got pulled together. I loved seeing how everything got connected and I loved getting Hallett's classic move of introducing a bit of information that aggressively recontextializes everything, especially when that info came as a one-two punch. All in all, I had so much fun with this and I cannot wait to see what she writes next.

Janice Hallett does it again! No one twists a tale quite like she does and once again, she delivers a mystery packed with intrigue, biting wit, and unexpected turns. As always, the story is told through her signature storytelling style of emails, texts, and recorded communication.

In The Killer Question, we are invited into the quirky world of English pub quizzes. A small-town pub called The Case is Altered, newly reopened by Sue and Mal Eastwood sets the scene. Mal is obsessed with crafting the perfect trivia night, and he’s part of a hilarious tense group chat with other local owners who treat pub quizzes with great respect. The text thread banter alone is perfection and the story could continue and entertain with just these components.

But when a dead body disrupts the rhythm, a mystery kicks the novel into high gear. Who’s telling the truth? Who's hiding something? And can the ultimate pub quiz bring the answers to light?

A classic Janice Hallett story is layered, witty, and filled with characters who are too real but also never quite what they seem. The Killer Question is a slow burn that rewards close reading. I was still guessing until the very end.

Pub quiz fans, armchair sleuths, and lovers of unconventional storytelling, it's a perfect storm of a novel! #atria #thekillerquestion #janicehallet #epistolary

Wow! I’m nearly a Janice Halley completist, so I was expecting twists and turns from The Killer Question, but I was blown away by this one!

No one’s writing mystery like Hallett, all epistolary and found writings piecing together an overarching mystery. If you haven’t tried her yet, and especially if you enjoy a good pub quiz or trivia night —you’re going to love the Killer Question!

Thank you so much to netgalley and the publisher for the arc of this one in exchange for an honest review!

I was so excited when I was approved for this arc! I am a huge Janice Hallet fan and this one was so good.

This book is mixed media and follows a couple that run a pub but things are not as they seem.

I loved this book! I adore mixed media and this author does it so well. It is a fast read because I needed to know what happened. The writing is so intriguing because it’s through texts and things like that.

I loved the twists and turns as well. I didn’t know what was coming and it kept me reading. The characters were really interesting to follow. There are some funny moments throughout too.

I don’t want to get into too much detail because I don’t want to give anything away but I would definitely recommend!

A Janice Hallett multimedia novel with pub quizzes prominently featured? YES PLEASE. The squeal that I involuntarily gave when I got approved for the ARC—let’s just say I’m glad only my daughter was home to hear it. 😂

I loved this. Loved the characters, the plot, the twists, and the way it all goes down like a milkshake. It’s too bad this doesn’t come out until September because it’s a perfect beach bag book. My only nit was that I couldn’t figure out how the narrator got all the documents, but frankly I was so invested in the story that I didn’t care.

The only question remaining: how soon can I go to trivia?

If you love piecing together puzzles and deciphering clues, The Killer Question by Janice Hallett is a must-read. I absolutely loved it—Hallett’s clever storytelling and unique format had me hooked from the start. Her signature style shines through again, with layers of mystery and just enough misdirection to keep you guessing until the end. I’d honestly read anything she writes at this point. Perfect for fans of interactive, intelligent mysteries.

Another stunning mystery from Janice Hallett, The Killer Question is as quirky of a setting as her previous novels. Told through communications (text messages, emails primarily), the mystery uses the small stakes of a pub quiz night (or for us Americans, a trivia night) with quirky characters to drive the momentum.

Another enjoyable mystery by Janice Hallett! I absolutely love the unconventional writing style (story told through text, emails, transcripts, etc.) and can always count on her for a great ending! Highly recommend if you enjoy a slow-paced mystery with some crazy twists!

Thank you to Atria Books for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley.

Welp, Janice Hallett did it again y’all. So many plot twists I didn’t know up from down after I was done reading. I think what does it for me almost every time (except The Twyford Code) is the formatting through which the story is told and the way the mystery actually feels solvable. Though maybe I’m just giving myself too much credit and to be fair I have never tried to figure out the ending before it happens because I’m always too busy enjoying the ride.

One star off because this is my review and I can rate the book however I want: The character with the white dude dreads, brief mention of the boy wizard book (in 2025 Janice?????), and I just didn’t like that so much of the story was about cops. Say it with me kids, all cops are bastards! There was also a bit about a true crime themed bar but maybe that part was supposed to be icky on purpose. I think it was anyway so I’ll allow it.

If you liked The Appeal, I would recommend The Killer Question to you, a lot of really similar humor and incredible character work happening in this one. Also Janice, the offer to hit me with your car still stands queen!

Thanks so much to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 stars. I love Janice Halley’s books because of the way she writes them. I think it’s so fun to read through emails and texts and try to figure out the mystery. Despite having a few good twists, this book was just a little too “cozy” for me.

I love a Janice Hallett book. All of this author's books have been written in a mixed media format and this one is no different. Follow texts and emails to uncover the mystery going on at "The Case is Altered." It's not my favorite by this author, but I definitely didn't see the surprise twist coming (and it's a pretty good and shocking one). This book was written well and was easy to read. I had a great time with it.

Thanks to Netgalley for the copy of this ARC. This will be out in September of 2025. Make sure to add it to your TBR!

Pallette strikes again witj another highly creative mystery. What coukd be better? Cozy pub quizzes in various atmospheric pubs in England? Written in a very clever format, I flew through this highly engaging mystery. Loved it.

I love a good epistolary story and these are some of the best. The mixed media lends to a feeling of being able to pull up the documentary or the text and read them for yourself. I love these kinds of books and I just couldn’t put this one down. 5 stars and please continue making stories like this one.

A new Janice Hallett is cause for celebration and this one is no different. Her books are wildly entertaining, told entirely through mixed media: texts, police reports, emails, even -- in this case -- one-star pub reviews!

A pub, now boarded up, was once home to a weekly quiz. Sue & Mal were new to the scene and it was a good way to get to know the community. That is, until a body was found, a suspiciously good new quiz team arrived, and secrets came to light.

Now a potential subject for a Netflix documentary, THE KILLER QUESTION digs through the evidence to find out what really happened that night it all went down. As with Hallett's previous novels, there are twists and turns galore (and usually some key details kept from the reader, which could be a sour point for those who enjoy playing along). Despite the book's length, the format makes it a fast read and I thoroughly enjoyed every second!

4.5 stars

Janice Hallett does not miss. I could read her books all day every day. I love how it is told in the style of texts, letters, transcripts, etc. This may be my favorite of her books.

I like how she leans more heavily on text messages in this book than the longer form emails in many of her others. This did make it more challenging to pick up on the who’s who of characters early on but it didn’t take long as Hallett is so good at creating unique voices.

I found the pub quiz aspect of the more intriguing than the police investigation side which leaned a little too heavily on transcripts. .

4.4 stars.

Sue and Mal Eastwood run a rural pub called The Case Is Altered where they have a weekly quiz game. After a quiz night a body is found in the river near the pub and the next week a mysterious new team shows up to do the quiz, winning every week and seriously annoying some of the regulars.

Cut to, five years later: the pub is abandoned and the Eastwoods’ nephew is trying to interest a true crime producer in the story. What happened?

Oh, this was fun. Told entirely in texts, reports and the like, Hallett scores again (she’s so good) with her newest book. I always see every suspense book being sold with “loads of twists.” They have not SEEN loads of twists. Hallett does well with a huge cast of characters and I really enjoyed the whole thing. Strong 4.4 stars.

I skipped Janice Hallett's last book, "The Examiner," because I thought her storytelling method, which uses WhatsApp messages, emails, interview transcripts, etc., had gotten a little stale. However, when I saw that "The Killer Question" took place in the world of pub quizzes, I was back in. I used to be an avid bar-trivia player, and was proud of my team's string of victories. Trivia geeks take their hobby very seriously, and the participants at The Case is Altered are no different.
The Case is Altered is a slightly down-at-the-heels pub, inconveniently located on an out-of-the-way street called Bell End (which also happens to be a rather vulgar bit of British slang for an annoying person). Publicans Sue and Mal Eastwood are doing their best to turn the place around, which includes hosting a weekly trivia night, something Mal takes very seriously—while other pubs in town use pre-written quiz questions, Mal takes pride in crafting his own. Everything's going well until a new team shows up, smoking the regulars and taking home the prize (a small cash pot).
Readers know from the book's framing device—Sue and Mal's nephew is trying to interest a production company in creating a true-crime documentary about his aunt and uncle—that something about the new team's arrival marks the beginning of the end for The Case is Altered, which shut down abruptly not long afterward. Gradually, the reader finds out what happened through the trove of messages.
Since the nephew is trying to intrigue the producer, things aren't always laid out in a chronological fashion; significant facts are withheld from her (and us, the readers), only to be revealed in jaw-dropping fashion later on. There were some definite clues that I only recognized when I looked back after finishing the novel.
Since pub quizzes rather sensibly don't allow players to have phones, Hallett has to find roundabout methods to narrate some of the most significant action, mostly through after-the-fact WhatsApp chats among the various trivia teams. The ire at Mal's increasingly baroque questions (at one point, trying to foil the know-it-all new team, he asks participants to name every element on the periodic table) is definitely amusing.
When I reviewed Hallett's first novel, "The Appeal," I complained about the fact that all monetary amounts in the U.K.-set book had been changed into dollars for the American edition. I was relieved to find that my advance copy of "The Killer Question" used pounds AND had plenty of Britishisms. Please, publishers, leave these intact for your U.S. readers—it adds to the sense of place, and we can always use Google if we need to know what the dollar equivalent of £12 is.

This new book from Janice Hallett is so good! I was so thankful to Netgalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read this story early. I am a big fan of her work, and this new book didn't disappoint! I love that this book is centered around pub quizzes, trivia teams, and the wild and crazy secrets of "ordinary people". Per usual, there are some big twists and turns in this story that I did NOT see coming! I love all of the competitive trivia players and teams, and highly recommend this book!

Any Janice Hallett story is an instant must-start-reading-right-now, and even this story, which I would say wasn't as good as The Examiner or The Appeal, still is shades better than most thriller/mystery books out there. The twists are really packed in at the end, and it's a treat!