The Appeal by Janice Hallett
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
ONE MURDER. FIFTEEN SUSPECTS.
CAN YOU UNCOVER THE TRUTH?
There is a mystery to solve in the sleepy town of Lower Lockwood. It starts with the arrival of two secretive newcomers, and ends with a tragic death. Roderick Tanner QC has assigned law students Charlotte and Femi to the case. Someone has already been sent to prison for murder, but he suspects that they are innocent. And that far darker secrets have yet to be revealed...
Throughout the amateur dramatics society's disastrous staging of All My Sons and the shady charity appeal for a little girl's medical treatment, the murderer hid in plain sight. The evidence is all there, waiting to be found. But will Charlotte and Femi solve the case? Will you?
Of course I love a "who dunnit" so this was a good choice of Christmas present for me. The story centres around an amateur dramatics group which provides many of the characters as they prepare to stage "All my sons" by Arthur Miller. It also focuses on an appeal to raise funds for the granddaughter of one of the main players who has been diagnosed with brain cancer. The funds are needed to source ground breaking treatment from the US.
As the first night of the play nears it is clear that all is not well and then a murder takes place.
That all sounds straightforward but the book is presented in a very unusual way. We are introduced to Femi and Charlotte, 2 law students, who are given various papers by a Barrister to work through to try and work out who was responsible for the murder. The book then catalogues the evidence they are given, (and this is ongoing) their responses and further questions raised by the Barrister.
As if that isn't complicated enough the majority of the text of the book consists of the transcripts of digital communications - e-mails, texts and WhatsApp messages.
It's a complicated story to follow. Just when you think you have a handle on it further transcripts are released to Femi and Charlotte with more questions that send them off in a different direction.
It's cleverly done and definitely a brain teaser but the format won't be to everyone's liking. There is humour in the book though and there's certainly no horror element to it.
I enjoyed it. It was a good debut novel by the author who is due to release their second book this year. I'm not sure if I'd want to read through a similar format again though.
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I love a good mystery and this sounds like a good one. Thanks for the review.
ReplyDeleteThanks Deb. It was good but it is written in a strange way.
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