What a great debut! I won’t rehash what this book is about, but I will say that I read it in just over a day and it kept me in the edge of my seat! I look forward to where this author goes from here!

Fantastic book. I loved every bit of it and can not wait to see more by author. Very well written and great story.

For those of you who love epistolary fiction, this is a clever whodunnit set in a small British village featuring some kind of malfeasance surrounding a crowdfunding appeal for a toddler with a brain tumor. Where could be the malfeasance in that? Just wait. Eventually there's a murder and an arrest.

The premise is that two junior lawyers are asked by their boss to look over a murder conviction that he's having doubts about. He gives them access to a trove of emails and texts, which make up the narrative of the book. Reading the book feels a bit like being part of the legal team!

If you do enjoy epistolary fiction, I'd definitely try this! (If you don't, you can skip to the end of the book where the two legal assistants put forward their theories of the case and the solution to the mystery.)

Review link will be live on 1/3/22

It's SO hard to believe that this is Janice's first novel! It has everything you're looking for in a mystery- red herrings, suspects a plenty, and too many motives! Early on the reader guesses what is the actual mystery, but the who and why is what you're looking to determine. Like the lawyers, looking to find the loop hole for their client's appeal, the reader is looking to lay the case out logically and figure out what doesn't fit. This page turner will be talked about for months when it comes out!

The appeal is definitely a unique book, as the whole entire story is told through emails and text messages. At first I thought it would not be able to keep my attention, but as I read on I found it very interesting and as long as you pay close attention you will be able to solve the mystery yourself! My only small complaint was some of the parts were a little long-winded but all in all a very clever book and I absolutely loved the format! Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for this Arc in exchange for a honest review.

This!

This is how epistolary books are done. The speed was breakneck, the plot clever and the style utterly unique.

I loved that if we as readers pay close attention we have the information to solve the crime.

SO CLEVER!

Thank you to the publisher for gifting me a copy. It was my pleasure to write an honest review.

"The Appeal" is unlike any book I' ve ever read. It's more like a Mystery Dinner Theatre than a novel. Janice Hallett tells the entire story through e-mails and What's App messages. That'w right, there is no "traditional text"!

The plot is explained via e-mails, you learn of the crime by e-mail and much of the detective work is done the same way. It's a fresh concept that does require patience and plodding, but the story is a good one and the suspects are many.

I think you'll quickly pick up and adapt to the new style. I gave the book a solid four stars.

4.5 stars
What a different format! I liked how it starts off with text messages back and forth between a boss and 2 others, giving them a case study that needs tweaking. There are letters, emails, texts, story all used to try to figure it out.

We know there is a play about to be staged, We have a list of characters in the book and a few situations that apply to them all coexisting at the same time. Some characters are more developed for us to like or dislike. Issy was the one who annoyed me the most. Some, like Sam, we never heard from except for emails or texts sent to her, but never from her, so we got a one sided look at her, mainly from Issy. We never meet Poppy, yet the play is being staged to raise money for her treatment.

It sounds like a small town with the usual politics of who has more therefore is more important than those with less. The story was one that plays with your head as to who might or might not be the "good guys" here and that I really enjoyed.

Again, the format really made the story. Looking forward to more from this author. Thank you NetGalley for an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest opinion.

I quite liked this book and found the approach original and the topic very finger-on-the-pulse. The email/ messaging style text was very effective in introducing the characters and setting the scene, without ever actually describing anything. There may have been some long winded-ness with some of the email content which left me feeling a little jaded towards the end but overall an entertaining read with an authentic edge.

The first book cover is for the U.S. version where the book has not yet been published. The second cover is for the British edition. That one was published on July 1st of this year. Wherever and whenever you purchase your novels, I recommend this title.

Ms. Hallett tells her entire tale through documents. These include emails, texts, reports, character lists and more. Some may not like this format but I found it intriguing as I observed the characters revealing themselves. With the help of a list of the members of the amateur dramatic society to refer back to, I was able to keep track of everyone.

There is a lot going on here and, at times, readers will wonder how it could all possibly resolve. No spoilers so just a bit on plot. An amateur dramatics society is putting together a production of All My Sons which places all of the main characters in proximity. The head of the society, Martin, has a granddaughter Poppy. Readers are informed that Poppy has cancer and that a good deal of funding is required via crowd sourcing to fund her treatment. Is this legitimate?

Poppy’s doctor may not be the upstanding practitioner that she claims to be. She has connections to two other characters, Sam and Kel. Africa is something that they have in common. But…all does not appear well among them.

There are numerous other subplots and much is made of the characters interrelationships. Who is not whom they appear to be? Does everyone lie? To what does the book’s title refer?

When there is a murder, an already complex plot becomes more so. Will the two young law students assigned to go through all of the documents be able to solve the case? Read this one to find out.

I had wanted to read this book ever since I saw it on a British book site. The pages turn very quickly and I frequently found myself wanting to read just one more entry.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC of this title. All opinions are my own.

Pub date: January 25, 2022
In one sentence: In preparation for a murder trial, two young lawyers sift through a mountain of material—emails, messages, letters—with a growing suspicion that a killer may be hiding in plain sight.

It's been a long time since I read an epistolary novel, and I loved seeing a modern take on it. Written entirely in texts, emails and WhatsApp messages (referred to as What's Up by a senior lawyer), The Appeal tells the story of Martin, a wealthy man fighting to get a miracle treatment for his granddaughter Poppy. But not everyone is convinced that there's really a cure behind the $300,000+ he's asking for. And not everyone is who they claim to be.

Getting multiple characters' perspectives and inner thoughts really worked well with the plot - I had fun tracing the relationships among the characters and trying to figure out their varied motivations. I also liked having the lawyers' views as they went through the evidence - it felt like I was on the case with them. Of course, I did not figure out #whodunnit until the very end.

My only complaint about this one is that it felt a little long towards the end as the final pieces came together. But I think readers looking for a twist on the domestic thriller will enjoy this one! I can see why it was a bestseller in the UK!

Thank you to Atria Books for my NetGalley ARC of The Appeal in exchange for an honest review!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher! This book just wasn't for me. I really wanted to love it with all the great reviews but I couldn't even finish it

What a WILD ride! I absolutely loved the format of this book - short emails and text messages make the story move at a breakneck pace. I do think it was just a smidge too long, and started to feel repetitive at the end, but overall I really enjoyed it and think a lot of thriller/mystery readers will love it!

Thank you to NetGalley, Atria Books, and Janice Hallett for the advanced copy of The Appeal in exchange for my honest review.

A small local theater group, The Fairway Players, is in the middle of rehearsing they're newest production when director Martin Hayward and his wife Helen receive devastating news. Their young granddaughter, Poppy, has been diagnosed with a rare cancer, her only hope of survival riding on a costly experimental treatment from the United States. The Players rally around the Haywards and begin trying to raise money on Poppy's behalf.

Not all of the Players are buying into this experimental treatment, however, and tensions begin to build within the group. Everything comes to a head at the dress rehearsal the night before the play is set to open. When a body is found on opening day, an arrest is quickly made. Two young lawyers begin to read through the emails, messages, and letters brought forth at trial. Is an innocent person locked up?

This is a very uniquely written book and I very much enjoyed the layout. The first 50% or so of the book is strictly email correspondence between the members of the Fairway Players, along with text messages between the two young lawyers. You, the reader, are essentially attempting to solve the mystery right alongside them. It adds a little element of true crime to a fiction novel, which was very fun for me.

The Appeal lost me a couple different times. For starters, there are SO. MANY. characters to keep track of in this book. By the end I genuinely didn't know who 30% of the listed characters even were. If these characters had contributed to the plot I would've been okay with it, but a handful of them are mentioned maybe once or twice, and it added what, for me, was unnecessary confusion. I also wasn't thrilled with the ending. While I did not predict "whodunnit," and that's always a win in my book, it was almost too much. I don't want to say anymore at the risk of revealing spoilers, suffice to say it was a little convoluted in my eyes.

The Appeal will be on US bookshelves January 25, 2022!

The format of this is definitely unique and I think that's what kept me engaged. I do think parts dragged a little or were hard to follow but overall it was interesting and fresh.

Thanks to Atria for the free book.
I freaking loved every second of this book. I binged it in less than 24 hours because I had to know who was murdered and who the murderer was. I'm a big fan of epistolary novels, and I loved how the author made this book modern. Told through texts and emails, this is a whodunit within a group of people who seem to just be raising money for a child's cancer fund. However, there is so much more to this story, and you're thrown into in it on the first page. I really loved the second half of the book because it reminded me of the movie Clue, which is a favorite of mine. It came together so well, and I think that the ending was perfect.

I launched into @janice.hallett ‘s The Appeal with absolutely no context or prior knowledge and oh my god, I was not expecting an intricate tapestry of an epistolary novel with emails and messages from approximately 47 different characters, each with a unique voice? How??

I think this will really, um, appeal (sorry, so sorry) to fans of classic Agatha Christie-style mysteries who really get into analyzing clues. There’s almost an immersive game-like quality to it because it feels like you’ve been handed some kind of dossier. (But also, I’m the kind of person who was obsessed with House of Leaves, so there’s your barometer.)

Beyond the clever structure of it, there are a handful of particularly vivid characters whose correspondence is just pitch perfect. It’s amazing how that can be achieved without a narrator providing a paragraph of description. I have no idea what color hair and eyes these character have but I can perfectly picture how they carry themselves…solely through their emails? Mind blown.

The style of this book was not for me. It was told primarily through emails between a lot of different characters, which make it slow reading. the Idea was interesting as were the various twists, told another way I would have liked it a lot more

Given my fondness for epistolary novels and British fiction, it's no surprise that this book checked all my boxes.

In Lower Lockwood, the Haywards are well-known and well-liked. As owners of The Grange, a country club, and leaders of local drama group The Fairway Players, they are very involved in their community. When the Haywards' young granddaughter Poppy is found to have cancer, the community rallies around the Haywards. Poppy's best hope lies in a medication only available in America, so Martin Hayward launches a campaign (or appeal) to raise the money needed to purchase the medication and have it shipped to England. Helping the family along is Tish (Poppy's doctor) and a whole slew of Fairway Players who conduct various fund-raising events in an effort to save Poppy.

Meanwhile, Isabella (a member of the Fairway Players but on the outskirts of the group) introduces her new co-worker and friend Sam Greenwood and her husband, Kel, to The Fairway Players and encourages them to get involved in the upcoming production of All My Sons.

The entire story is told via emails, text messages, and reports which gradually reveal the connections, motives, and thoughts of almost every character. I love this style of writing, probably because it gives me a little clandestine thrill like I'm reading someone's diary. This is a true whodunnit that leaves the reader trying to solve the mystery along with Femi and Charlotte, who are researching the case in hopes of overturning a guilty verdict on someone who might have been innocent. There are mysteries, red herrings, secrets, motives, and suspects galore!

There may be some who don't care for the epistolary style but I encourage you to keep going because this book will tie your brain up in knots, in all the best ways.

Thank you Netgalley and Atria books for this arc. I must not be a fan of epistolary novels and this was really hard to follow. I like getting lost in the story and the short emails and messages made it just too choppy for me and hard to get to know the characters. If you like this type of writing, I think you would love this book, sadly, it wasn't for me.