I wasn't sure what I was expecting from The Appeal but it certainly wasn't that the book is made up entirely of texts, emails and police records. It was very interesting and I wasn't sure that I'd be able to keep up but I really enjoyed this unique perspective. 2 young lawyers are given the tasks of reviewing the entirety of all case files pertaining to a murder that may or may not have been committed by the person currently convicted of the crime. It's amazing how well you get to know the characters with this style of writing. Lots of twist and turns and I was totally engaged from the beginning. It was great!

There are so many characters within the pages and watching them feed off one another from email to email is often comic, annoying, oh no here we go, look at for him/her, suspicious, and confusing. Where do you go when you are told at the outset that the narrative is incomplete but you are expected to fill it in and find the murderer?! First you have to discover and identify; who is in charge, who is a player, and who is playing whom. Not easy when there are so many involved and an equal amount on the periphery.

There is a local dramatic society and everyone wants to be a part or have a part in its productions. There are leaders, movers, shakers, a tenacious “wannabe”, a few newbies, a few questionables, a little girl who is very ill, among various and sundry others. The emails are flying back and forth - some incriminating, many suspicious and others maybe just mundane. They are going to be hand sorted, read and qualified by two young attorneys and we are going to get to be inside their heads and comments for what seems like an ongoing criminal investigation. And they are just as confused and consumed by all the maybes and what ifs as we are. Different, clever a bit overlong and while I enjoyed it I also felt a little let down so perhaps conflicted best describes it.

Thank you NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for a copy

I thought I would truly love this take on the epistolary novel, but I’m sad to say I didn’t. It was a bit difficult for me to get into, and I felt that so much of it was repetitive. I’m sad to say that I lost interest by the time the plot began to advance.

With that said, there were so many entertaining and interesting elements that I definitely think it’s worth the read.

While at times it was a bit much to keep track of who said what and when... I really enjoyed this book. I went in blind.

This book had great character development. Some people you end up liking but really you shouldn't. And others you detest but maybe you shouldn't. This one keeps you guessing til the end.

I can't wait for the next from this author!

The Appeal is the story of a fundraiser gone bad, told in a thoroughly unique way. Two legal aids are tasked with following the case as it played out in chronological order, through a series of emails, letters and text messages. There is a large cast of characters, some with similar last names, and no chapter breaks, which made the reading a little slow for me. However, as I am familiar with both the world of fundraising and little theater, the author struck a chord with me. I loved the "whisper-down-the-lane" effect of people only hearing a snippet of information and repeating it as gospel (gossip). At first, I felt sorry for one of the main protagonists, Issy. She was described repeatedly as mousy, and she craved friendship that was often not reciprocated. But as we get further into the story, we find that everyone lies, though they would call it embellishing the truth. Issy included. The men in the book are focused on protecting the women. The women are competing to be the best. And the unsuspecting community who contributes to the fundraiser are wholly unaware of what's going on in the background. I feel the book could have benefited by ending the correspondence sooner and/or providing chapter breaks or headings, but the story really picks up about 60% in when the legal aids are tasked with answering a series of questions to come to the proper conclusion about why a person murdered and by whom.

While the description calls this "a wholly modern take on the epistolary novel", I think it would help readers to understand the format going in, but I'm giving this 3.5 stars rounded up to 4 for uniqueness. Kudos to this debut author for keeping all the characters and plotlines straight.

Thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for an advance reader's copy

When your boss dumps a ton of emails, texts, and police records on your desk and asks you to go through it and see if there is something that points to the wrong person being in prison, it’s a daunting task. They also must communicate with said boss in emails.

So, yes this book is written entirely out of emails. This is going to be one of those books that you either love or didn’t finish. It is a debut novel, but I found myself not caring about any of the characters at all because we didn’t “know” them. I was just not invested in the outcome at all.

You may like it if you give it a read.

NetGalley/January 25, 2022, Atria

A book presented through emails, news articles, text messages and the tiniest of narrative, this was my first read of 2022 and I had no idea it was not your basic novel before i opened the book.

For me the format of emails and text messages can work, but I typically feel as though I am missing parts of the puzzle, especially if you aren't getting all of the emails from the characters. So while the plot was interesting and the characters were a hoot, I couldn't get connected to the story in general because I felt as though I was always missing a side of the story while only getting emails from a few of the characters' points of view.

The thing I liked and made me glad I read it was how the story concluded. I loved how the author used these two exterior characters to investigate and come to a conclusion and how the author presented it all. It worked for me.

I would read another book by this author, but maybe not in this format.

This was a very different take on a novel, as it is literally read like case files. I found it to be intriguing but also, it was a little hard to get into the story, especially with so many characters. I was getting confused with names pretty early on, huge cast of characters! Overall, fun concept, I’d like to read more in the style in the future.

3.75 stars / This review will be posted on goodreads.com today.


Femi & Charlotte have been chosen by their professor to research a case involving a murder and fraud scheme. Their professor has provided them only with correspondence between all the involved parties in the case. As such, they will have to deduce and answer a series of questions related to the case. A who, what, why about the murder.

It all centers around little two year old Poppy who was diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer. Her grandparents run a small community theatre company and have chosen to include those in the company in their appeals to crowdfund for Poppy’s treatment. This family is very wealthy, at least it is thought that they are, and the community circles around them to help Poppy.

As time goes on, correspondence shows that some are becoming a bit skeptical of Poppy’s cancer and treatment, and the amount of money needed to get her the drugs necessary. It is the skeptics that are trying to find the truth of the situation, which only becomes more and more muddled as time goes on.

Can Femi and Charlotte get to the truth of the matter? Who is responsible, who is guilty, who is innocent?

This novel is written in epistolary format, which sometimes can be difficult to read. Janice Hallet does a wonderful job with it, as this is the perfect way to present this case. The central character, the one who is responsible for the bulk of the correspondence, is a rather annoying and cloying woman, which may be why I didn’t rate the book a bit higher. The concept and writing are really good, which is why I kept going, in spite of the one character. It’s a nifty little mystery that keeps your attention.

The formatting of this book really takes it up another level. The entire story is told through emails, texts, and letters that have been collected as evidence, interspersed with text messages between the legal aids who are reading through the documents at the same time as us. It keeps you constantly on the lookout for suspicious behavior, and perpetually unsure of what the truth is from anyone, as you only see their own versions of events.

When the Fairway Players hear of the news, they band together immediately. The granddaughter of one of their very own has fallen ill with a rare and serious brain cancer. The family is wealthy - but not wealthy enough to front the devastating cost of shipping in experimental chemo drugs from America that may be the only way to save her young life. Everyone in the theater group jumps to action to help raise funds as quickly as possible.

But when two different scam artists target them in a short amount of time, and certain members of the group know more about each other than they let on, tensions begin to rise rapidly. Who’s not who they say they are? Who’s exactly who they claim to be? And who is willing to kill to keep everyone else quiet?

The Appeal by Janice Hallett is a modern take on the epistolary novel. It’s a murder mystery told through emails, text messages, and reports.

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.

As they begin to fundraise, some begin to question the treatment, the fundraising itself, and even the oncologist.

While everyone participates in this fundraiser, the theatre company begins rehearsals for its next play. As the play nears, tensions rise, lies unravel, and someone winds up dead.

Initially, when I started reading this, I liked the novelty of it, of nosing through people’s emails and trying to figure out who was lying. But as I kept going, the emails felt like a slog. And I kept asking the following questions: did this need to be an email, who sends such long-winded emails when they just saw this person or will very soon, why not make a phone call, do spouses really email each other regularly when they live in the same house, and why are some key players’ emails excluded from the story.

Speaking of players: there are so many. I had a hard time keeping track of who was who. There are so many that the author included multiple lists of characters throughout. After a while, I gave up on trying to remember who is related to who and just dived in.

The murder doesn’t happen until halfway through the book. Also, the reader doesn’t know the victim until that point as well. After the murder is when things started gaining momentum, and I raced through the last 100 pages or so.

While I think this novel could shed a few pages, my interest never waned, and I needed to find out what was going on. Some revelations were a bit obvious, but others were surprising.

Overall, I did enjoy this murder mystery and will read more from this author.

I recommend this to readers prepared to scour tons of innocuously written documents to discover a murderer.

Thank you to Atria Books for an arc provided via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

https://booksandwheels.com/

Talk about a puzzle to figure out! The Appeal by is an immersive thriller and a modern and original interpretation of the epistolary novel. Two trainee solicitors are tasked with sorting through thousands of emails, texts, newspaper clippings, etc., to get to the bottom of a murder and figure out if the person convicted for it is innocent. And the reader gets to try to figure it out alongside them by analyzing the exact information. It is complicated and messy, full of deceptions and twists. The story follows a community theatre group raising money for a sick child, and the situation escalates to murder. There are 15 suspects! Initially, I had trouble keeping everyone straight as you only have their emails and texts to go on, not physical descriptions, the observations of a narrator, etc. But once you get into the book's rhythm, everyone is a distinct character with their own voice, and the author's talent in making this work is impressive. Perhaps this early information overload is intentional to keep the reader off-balance and guessing, as you can't always tell what is idle gossip or a clue. I don't want to spoil anything by going into too many plot points because part of the fun of this book is trying to decipher events as they occur. But, I became utterly addicted to trying to solve this complex and suspenseful mystery. I missed multiple clues along the way and fell for a few red herrings, so I did not figure everything out, which was fine by me. I enjoyed how the author laid it out in the end, and I was stunned to learn this was her debut novel. Brilliant, well-written, inventive, and clever! Thank you to Netgalley and Atria Books for allowing me to read this ARC.

The Appeal has a unique style. We are told the story totally in texts, emails, newspaper articles and police reports. This style made it hard to initially get into what was happening. But eventually you know who the main players are in the saga and begin to develop your own theories. Some of my theories were close to right but these people definitely had me guessing! I almost felt like a police detective.

An ingenious puzzle mystery written entirely in electronic correspondence (mostly emails and text messages). As one might imagine, this requires some straining of credulity, particularly regarding persons who exist only via said correspondence. It also seems absurd that a pair of legal counsel would never meet in person to discuss the evidence but would laboriously go over it via WhatsApp. However, I found it compulsively readable and couldn't sleep until I'd gotten to the end. The plot was certainly primary, but the characters were acceptably interesting and it was fun to see how the author revealed their personalities through their missives. I enjoyed the "Little Theatre" setting too. In some ways, drama is the opposite of the epistolary form -- as it relies on people interacting in real space and time rather than through remotely viewed messages. But on the other hand, through letter-writing one can conceal one's real identity, as does an actor playing a part. So there was a neat tension of literary form along with the criminal intrigue.

This turned out better than I expected. Twists and turns I didn't forsee.

It's written completely different than anything I've ever read and when I started I considered not reading it at all. I felt obligated, due to the fact I was given a copy from Netgalley, but I'm glad I kept up! It honestly made it a quicker read. It's written in a series of emails and phone messages between the characters.

There are a lot of characters to sift through, but the legal team creates a handy chart of who's who. It seems like a lot of random dribble between them sometimes, but if you really pay attention, you'll realize that it is all a part of the puzzle.

It's more suspenseful, not what I would consider a thriller. It reminds me of an Agatha Christie novel, murder mystery, which I enjoy. I'd recommend this as long as the person is up for the unconventional way it is written!

The Appeal by Janice Hallett was a complex and intriguing murder mystery. I really enjoyed the uniqueness of the format, being told through email after email. It made me feel like a was a detective, sleuthing through emails trying to figure out who did it. I thoroughly enjoyed this one and would recommend it for anyone who wants to feel like they are solving the mystery right alongside the author.

Huge thank you to Atria for the gifted copy.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me an ARC in exchange for a review. I read the ARC for the first half and then my physical UK copy for the second half but other than some minor word changes, they seem basically identical.

I enjoyed this! I really enjoy books written in non-traditional formats so I was super excited to read this book. There isn't too much diversity in the type of mixed media that makes up this book. It's almost entirely written in emails with a few text messages and reports thrown in. I thought this was an interesting way to tell a mystery. It is a clever way to keep information from the reader in a way that seems natural to the story. I can understand that some readers who prefer more traditional mysteries might find this frustrating by I found it just made me more intrigued about the mystery.

As far as the mystery went, I found it pretty satisfying. I am absolutely terrible at predicting the plots of mysteries and I definitely didn't manage to solve this one but I did guess a few key elements I think this mystery is a little difficult to solve and think there is a bit too much intentional obfuscation to keep the reader confused but overall I enjoyed how this was plotted and how the clues unfolded.

Essentially, the frame of this mystery is that two law students have been given these emails by their boss and they are trying to solve the mystery. There are text messages between them slipped in. These text messages are pretty transparently about making sure the reader is caught up as well as pointing out important details. I didn't mind this but it is perhaps a little heavy-handed.

I know that this author has another book coming out soon that has a similar non-traditional format. I'm definitely curious about that book and I will check it out when it comes out. If you like mixed media books and mysteries, I would definitely recommend this.

If you always wondered what it was like to comb through correspondence to figure out :what really happened" this is a book for you. If you enjoy reading thrillers/mystery novels, this is for you.

But it will be an adjustment because this book is not a typical format. You are part of a team given some cryptic instructions to comb through messages, emails, and social media posts to discern from it any information you can.

You will be confused and maybe disinterested in what you think are mundane messages. But you will dive in and watch with some fascination how corruption and social ladders are intricately connected. As your brain makes more connections and picks up on clues, you get more information to draw your own conclusions.

The 'cast of characters' is large, but you will see it a few times so don't let that deter you. Look closely, even something as simple text might be a bigger clue as to what happened.

If you have been a fan of unsolved cases or fancied being an expert after diving into true crime, this interesting take on a murder mystery might be just the thing you need to test your skills.

I really enjoyed this epistolary novel- it had a great, whodunit, Agatha Christie-esque vibe. And it kept me guessing until the very last moment, with authentic and believable twists and turns.

On the downside, it was incredibly hard to follow along with the giant cast of characters and I found that last quarter of the book to be a major information dump that quite honestly gave me an intense headache. HA!

Nonetheless, this was a creative and interesting premise and I'm so glad I read this book. I want to check out more books by Janice Hallett!

Thank you to the publisher for a free copy of this novel. All opinions, as always, are my own.

This was SO entertaining and I’m now convinced that I could piece together a crime with nothing but circumstantial evidence. Even though I didn’t not guess who the killer was 😂 This was like reading through the case file of emails, texts, social media, of the group of people involved in a murder. You have to figure out, since the person jailed for the crime is innocent, who actually did it. There’s jealousy, straight up hatred, affairs, sinuous accusations, obsessions, all against the backdrop of a play and later on some major reveals. You get a tiny bit of dialogue amongst the characters that have the same assignment as the readers to help. I wonder how many will get this right but I’m willing to bet most will enjoy the ride anyway!
For fans of murder mystery, whodunnits, true crime, internet sleuths, amateur detective work.