The book is an epistolary novel, a story told through in-universe documents. The framing device is that two lawyers, Femi and Charlotte, have been assigned to go through a series of documents detailing the trials and tribulations of the Fairway Players, an amateur theater group. The Players, and the town they perform in, are led by the Haywards, modern-day aristocracy. They intend to put on a performance of Arthur Miller’s All My Sons, when disaster strikes: Granddaughter Poppy is diagnosed with Medulloblastoma, a rare type of brain cancer, and she’ll need very expensive treatment. The community springs into action, arranging fundraisers, charity events, whatever else Poppy needs. But the course of things do not run smoothly. There are hidden tensions and frustrations among the cast. The charity is targeted by fraudsters. And a new person in town seems convinced that the Haywards are being taken for a ride by Poppy’s doctor. Or maybe she just has a grudge over something that happened in Africa. All of this is told through emails, text messages, and promotional material.
At first glance, you’d think that emails would make things easy. After all, none of the suspects wrote these emails or sent these messages anticipating that anyone else would read them, so they’re more open than they would be in a formal investigation. But that’s not the case. They bring their misunderstandings, context that the readers aren’t aware of. It’s also much easier to lie in text than it is in person, to tell someone that they were your first choice for a part in the play even though you asked two others first. Hallett does a good job at letting the characters’ personalities shine through their messages. Even though the reader never really “sees” them, we still get a firm impression of who they are based on what and how they write and occasionally based on how they write to one person verses another. The standout character is nurse Isabel "Issy" Blake. Hallett perfectly captures a nightmare of a human being, an emotional parasite who drains everyone she latches onto, who decides for herself if you’re an enemy or a friend…and yet who is so put on or flat-out ignored by everyone else that you can’t help but feel a bit sorry for her. I was rooting for her, honestly.
These documents are building up to something. Readers know there’s a murder coming, but it happens pretty late in the book. To Hallett’s credit, the drama and mysteries of the first part of the book are engaging and give the reader something to think about before the crime. Not to mention wondering how all of this will lead to the murder. As a consequence of it coming so late, the crime itself is pretty basic. There’s a good idea behind it, but the real joy comes from the first two-thirds of the book and the reveal of the motive behind the crime.
I’ve been on a “dossier” game kick recently: Games like Hunt a Killer, Unsolved Case Files, etc. These are games where you have a box full of items, from profiles to maps to witness testimonies to newspapers to brochures, and have to use them to solve a murder. This reads like it could easily have been made into one of those. This isn’t an insult, but a testament to how carefully Hallett constructed this book. There’s nothing wasted, everything either informs character or contributes to the plot, or both (with the occasional comic relief). It’s fun; this format is so fun. I enjoyed reading this and seeing how everything came together. And it’s a fair mystery. Femi and Charlotte’s boss even gives them a series of questions to ask once they’ve read most of the documents. Who’s the killer, who’s the prime suspect, who knew the victim was dead, etc. Hallett is even kind enough to clear up some of the mysteries before the big reveal. The cluing is maybe a little thin, but once the main one was pointed out, I kicked myself for not seeing it.
I only have a handful of complaints. One is that the cast list is quite large. You get a manageable one near the beginning but the second one you get in the build-up to the climax is like forty characters. Sure, a good chunk of them are obviously minor, but I had trouble keeping everyone straight until pretty late. Also, we don’t get access to a certain character’s emails, even though we know they’re responding to others. I was expecting a reason for this and…there isn’t one. We just never see them. I know the answer is, “Because it would give everything away,” but the fact that Charlotte and Femi aren’t even shown them off page is strange.
So, in the end, I liked The Appeal and regret not giving it a fair trial sooner. I’m partly over by bias against modern mysteries, but clearly, I need to get rid of it entirely. You can expect to see more of Janice Hallett on this blog. Recommended
Other Reviews: Ah, Sweet Mystery, The Invisible Event, Crossexaminingcrime, My Reader's Block, In Search of the Classic Mystery Novel, Stephen M. Pierce.
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