📖 Publication Day Book Review ~ The Appeal by Janice Hallett

 

Happy Publication Day 

📖

Viper
14 January 2021

My thanks to the publishers for my copy of this book

IN A TOWN FULL OF SECRETS

SOMEONE WAS MURDERED.

SOMEONE WENT TO PRISON.

AND EVERYONE'S A SUSPECT.

CAN YOU UNCOVER THE TRUTH?

Dear Reader,

Enclosed are documents relating to the events surrounding the Fairway Players' staging of All My Sons, and the tragic death of one of its members. Another member is currently in prison for the crime. We have reason to suspect that they are innocent, and that there were far darker secrets that have yet to be revealed.

We believe that the killer has given themselves away. It's there in writing, hidden in the emails, texts, and letters. In the events surrounding the charity appeal for little Poppy Reswick, and the question of whether that money was truly being used to fund her life-saving cancer treatment. Will you accept the challenge? Can you uncover the truth? Do you dare?

My Thoughts..

I was fortunate to win a copy of The Appeal in a competition run by the publishers and I was really excited by the prospect of reading the book as I had heard whispers amongst my review contacts on social media that this book was one to watch and I haven't been disappointed.

Written in an entirely different style, that of epistolary emails, news clippings and text messages, the story moves between the various cast members of the Fairway Players, a local amateur dramatic group which is run by the enigmatic Hayward family. Stricken with the devastating news that the young daughter of one of their cast members is seriously ill, the Fairway Players decide to launch a huge fund raising campaign so that the little girl can get the medication needed to keep her illness at bay. And that is all I can tell you without spoiling the plot, the rest you'll have to discover for yourself.

I have to admit that it took me a little while to get used to the format and to get the characters firmly placed in my mind but once I had them all in my imagination the story just flowed beautifully and even though the style of writing is unusual it is refreshingly different and gives an insight into the unstable nature of all those players who are such an integral part of this cleverly designed plot. There are cleverly placed clues within the body of the story and many times I found myself backtracking to get something clear in my head but to be honest I didn't work out the real culprit of the story until the grand reveal.

The Appeal was the first book I read in this new year of reading and even now days after finishing reading I am still wondering about the story. The challenge of this book is in the blurb 'in a town full of secrets, someone was murdered, someone went to prison and everyone is a suspect - can you discover the truth?'  All the details are there if you look for them and it's a great deal of fun to try and work everything out for yourself.

About the Author

Janice Hallett studied English at UCL, and spent several years as a magazine editor, winning two awards for journalism. After gaining an MA in Screenwriting at Royal Holloway, she co-wrote the feature film Retreat. The Appeal is inspired by her lifelong interest in amateur dramatics. Her second novel, The Twyford Code, will be published by Viper in 2022. When not indulging her passion for global adventure travel, she is based in West London.(source:publisher)

Twitter @JaniceHallett #TheAppeal

@viperbooks