The Appeal: The smash-hit bestseller

Product Information

With this being said, the mystery itself wasn't super-engaging for me. Even when I found out who was murdered, I wasn't particularly bothered by it, or really compelled to discover who did it. A local theatre group, The Fairway Players, are getting ready for Arthur Miller’s play, All My Sons, when tragedy strikes the family of Martin Hayward, the director, and his wife, Helen, the play’s star. Their granddaughter has been diagnosed with a form of cancer. An experimental treatment costing a large amount of money may be the only thing to save her life. Their friends and colleagues support them by babysitting, dog-sitting, and fundraising. However, accusations, fights, and a dead body bring a mystery to life. There were a ton of shady players, involved in all sorts of super shady activities; things such as fraud, blatantly lying to friends and stealing. I'm frankly surprised only one of them ended up dead. The plotting was irksome! I have seen elements of this plot before on a tv show that I cannot remember and in another book. If someone knows which show(s) or books, please let me know in the comments? This is driving me crazy.

It was so hard to put the book down because we have all these short snippets of information, it was so easy to say "just one more" and keep going an hour after I needed to be in bed. Towards the end of the book it can seem like an information dump but it's information I wanted to know. And then there is the last chapter where we see that life goes on in the most creepy of ways. It is good to pay close attention in this one although after a while the characters do come together, and the plot becomes easier to follow. It was interesting to read something in a different format, although I think it did get a bit long. Atria Books and Janice Hallett provided a digital ARC of this novel via NetGalley. This is my honest review. Opinions are mine alone and are not biased in any way. Publication date is currently set for January 25, 2022. This review was originally posted at Mystery and Suspense Magazine.Many thanks to Edelweiss, Maudee Genao at Atria, and Janice Hallett for a DRC in exchange for an honest review! Now available in the US as of 1.25!!** Pay attention to everything! If you don't you could miss important clues but also you could miss some funny tidbits. I felt like I was a fly on the wall, getting to peek into the lives of these people but I also knew that much of what was being written was meant to deceive. It's just that it isn't clear just who is in on the deception or not. And then there is Issy who is one big mess of weirdness, contradictions, lies, and creepy clinginess.

Who was murdered, why, and by whom? What is happening regarding Poppy's medical treatment, and will the child survive? Are there problems and even fraud connected to the fundraising, and is the experimental drug even effective?

Suspicions mount, accusations are made and the tension leads to a DEAD body, and an ARREST on the night of the play’s dress rehearsal . Yes, there is more drama off the stage than on it!, I loved this story and the telling of it. The narrations were outstanding, making all of those pieces of communication come alive like dialogue instead of flat messages. I figured out a lot of the mystery but there were still hosts of unexpected twists and turns delivered before it was all revealed, even a little bit of something at the end to keep me wondering. This was a marvelous listening experience, reinforcing my appreciation of the epistolary writing style that’s really tough to master. It’s at its finest here.

The Appeal follows the lives of a group of actors within a small town, trying to juggle a play and a fundraising appeal for a young girl. Lawyers are brought in to try and unravel the secrets that are hidden, as it is possible that someone innocent has been convicted of murder. fulfilling my 2022 goal to read one book each month that was not published in my country that i wanted badly enough to have a copy shipped to me from abroad and then...never read.The overall premise is that two young lawyers are tasked with sifting through these piles of communication. Someone has been murdered and the powers that be need to be certain that the one who is in jail is the person who should be there. Giving every character an arc is the most important thing – especially when writing a story with multiple characters. Set in a small town in England, the leading and most influential figures are Martin and Helen Haywood. The couple owns the Grange Golf and Country Club and are instrumental in forming the Fairway Players, an amateur drama society. Helen is considered the most talented actor in the group, and every play chosen must have a leading role for her. A couple of new arrivals, Samantha and husband Kel, are drawn into the dramatic society. They are former medical workers for MSF in war-torn Central Africa. Both are soon employed as nurses in nearby hospitals. Overall, although the book felt a little too long, by the end, I found it to be CLEVER, COMPLEX and UNIQUE and kudos to author Janice Hallett for that! I will definitely be reading her next book, “The Twyford Code” when it becomes available to U.S. readers. This mystery is a superb top drawer attention holder as good as the best of Agatha Christie; but that wasn't enough for Janice Hallett, Janice takes a long dark look at close-knit hierarchal communities, local fundraising, digital communications and joy-beyond-joy the creation, management and possible repercussions of digitally-based conspiracy. It could also be argued that it's a much needed tale on the plight and strength of whistleblowers! Confused. Just read the book already!

I was very satisfied with the ending and felt like everything was explained. It just took a little too long to get there. Still, if you are looking for a uniquely presented mystery, then this one should have strong appeal. Overall, this is a very clever, immersive and gripping Crime mystery. It’s well written, I like the touches of humour, the astute observations on a community and the intriguing way the cast of characters reveal themselves. It’s been so refreshing to read something presented in a different format to the norm. Highly recommended. Thomas Hardy, especially Far from the Madding Crowd. It’s so rural – like going on holiday to the West Country. All you know in the beginning is that someone was murdered, someone was sent to prison, and it's up to you, the reader, to figure out the who, what, when, where, and how. 🕵️‍♀️ This book had a very large cast of characters that required notes as I attempted to uncover the truth and answer the senior partner’s questions. It’s the second book that I have read with an epistolary format in 2021 and it worked for me. Some of the correspondence is just gossip and others provide key information if one reads them carefully while others seem enigmatic or irrelevant. But are they? To my surprise, given the format of the narrative, suspense was built as details were revealed.I applaud the author for trying something different, but I didn’t feel this approach was successful. I really did have high hopes for this one, but sadly it fell flat for me. I particularly loved trekking round Madagascar. I went there for the wild life – there are lemurs you can’t see anywhere else on earth and crazy-looking giraffe weevils – but it was the people that most enthralled me. I found it such an education. We, the reader join them in their endeavor, as the story is told ENTIRELY through these various means of correspondence, as they attempt to determine who is guilty and who is innocent. A prominent family finds out that their granddaughter, Poppy, has a rare form of cancer. The family learns of an experimental treatment that they hope will cure Poppy. Since the treatment does not qualify for health coverage, the family calls in the help of their amateur theatre company, and together, they begin to raise funds for Poppy’s treatment.