3.5

Fun return to the characters from The Appeal. This was a novella, so overall there was just less time for plot development and twists than a full novel. Because of that, I didn't like this quite as much as the original, but it was still a fun quick, read. Don't expect everything to be quite as well done as it was in the original, but this is still a fun, cozy holiday mystery.

The Christmas Appeal is a follow up to Janice Hallett's 2021 book, The Appeal. Many of a characters of the Fairway Players Theatre Group are back and ready to put on their next production. This time it is a Christmas pantomime of Jack and the Beanstalk. All is a bit chaotic but moving forward towards opening night, that is until a huge surprise threatens to cancel the show and all the fundraising efforts for the town's church.

Filled with Hallett's humourous and accurate writing, the story is told in emails and text messages between friends and enemies. I find it to be the most perfect way to spice up the plot and I raced through the book just to find out what would come next.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for the opportunity to read this novel.

I did not realize before I picked this up that the entire story would be told through emails, texts, and news stories but it was a pleasant surprise. I loved the way everything unfolded. It was engaging and the ending is so satifsfying. A perfect fun christmas mystery.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria books for the EArc of The Christmas Appeal!

Such a fun and engaging story that has great twists!

I loved The Appeal so much, I had to read this one - and I knew I would love it! It follows that same unique formatting from The Appeal and somehow I found myself more immersed and engaged with this story!

This is a perfect mystery to read during this holiday season - it's bringing all the vibes!

Definitely recommend this one and cannot wait for more from this author!

THE APPEAL was one of my favorites - I love being able to play detective and found the characters to be a real hoot. This was a novella, with the same characters from THE APPEAL. It has a similar structure (emails & texts between characters) and a mystery at the center. I loved the drama and pettiness between the Fairway Players and it was great returning to a familiar setting.

For those of you like me who loved The Appeal by Janice Hallett or just love a cozy Christmas mystery, The Christmas Appeal is here and you’re going to love it. The Appeal had us trying to piece together who the murderer was during the run-up to a play production through email and text messages. As fate would have it, this theatre troop finds themselves in the middle of another murder investigation. We join lawyers Femi and Charlotte once again reading through the email and text evidence as the Fairway Players prepare to perform Jack and the Beanstalk before Christmas to raise money for a new church roof. Who is the murdered Santa? I can promise you it’s not who you think.

I loved revisiting old characters and although you could read this novella without reading the first book, it feels like visiting old friends if you have. I absolutely loved the text exchanges between Sarah-Jane and her husband, and also the group email replies from Celia who always has to add her 2 cents and don’t forget to use the legally required OBE when you reference her husband. This book was fun, never predictable (except those Celia emails) and an overall great follow-up to the Appeal. Hallett continues to be an autobuy author for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Janice Hallett’s latest witty, effervescent murder mystery brings us back to the world of the Fairway Players in all their dysfunctional glory, two years after the events chronicled in her excellent novel The Appeal. Femi Hassan and Charlotte Holroyd have once again been drawn into a case by their retired mentor Roderick Tanner, who’s sent them a massive amount of correspondence to sort through in order to determine who died and whodunnit, and what they as barristers establishing themselves in the legal field ought to do about it.

The correspondence begins innocuously enough, with Celia Halliday boasting about her family in her annual Christmas email. It quickly becomes clear, however, that the snobbish woman is less than pleased with the direction in which the annual Christmas pantomime is going. While the Fairway Players’ one night only production of Jack And The Beanstalk is meant to be a fundraiser, Celia’s subsequent emails find plenty to complain about, from set design changes to the rest of the group’s efforts at recruiting more bodies to fill up the stage:

QUOTE
It’s lucky for us that, in [my husband] Joel Halliday, OBE, we have the best, most creative set designer and builder the group has ever known!

Accruing new members is all very well–if those members are young, fit, and talented, with a positive attitude, and are prepared to throw themselves into the cut and thrust of community theater. Attracting hordes of society’s “passengers” will do us no good at all. Please ensure that anyone you encourage to join is the sort of person who reflects our established values and work ethic.
END QUOTE

Fortunately, most of the rest of the players have her number, including the harried co-chair of the group, Sarah-Jane MacDonald. Sarah-Jane has the unenviable task of dealing not only with the insufferable Hallidays but also the petty jealousies of the rest of the performers and crew, while simultaneously reassuring the skeptical Reverend Harries that their performance in his church will not bring any more structural damage to the building. Through no fault of their own, the roof fell in during their last staging, and this Christmas play will hopefully help pay to repair it completely.

But nothing is as easy as it seems when it comes to the Fairway Players. When a dead body slides out on stage, will even this irrepressible group be able to ensure that the play goes on? And will Femi and Charlotte be able to sort through all the clues to figure out what their mentor is trying to show them?

So much of this book will ring true to anyone who’s participated in amateur (and even some professional) theatricals. Its unique format as an epistolary novel only adds to the immersive quality of the communications, as if we’re really privy to the exasperated and often humorous conversations of the people involved. As Sarah-Jane texts with her husband Kevin over a perceived slight Celia has taken umbrage at:

QUOTE
2:11 p.m. Sarah-Jane wrote:
We had this with Glengarry and Gary Lineker. Do you deliberately “forget” Joel’s OBE every time you send draft program text? Are you really that petty?

2:15 p.m. Kevin wrote:
You bet I do. And yes, I am.

2:21 p.m. Sarah-Jane wrote:
Remember, we must stand for reelection as joint chairs every year, and exhibitions of pique will only fuel the Hallidays’ next campaign. I like to think we are cochairs through our hard work, clear heads, and sense of fairness. To lead, we must put away childish things.

2:26 p.m. Kevin wrote:
Well said. Joel, OBE will be described as Joel, OBE whenever Joel, OBE is mentioned. Signed, Kevin, no-BE.
END QUOTE

The humor is laugh out loud funny throughout this lively, fast-packed book. If you’re a fan of The Appeal, as I am, you might also squeal with delight at Isabel Beck’s cameo, as I did. Ms Hallett expertly skewers snobbishness, pettiness and narrow-mindedness in all its forms in this light-hearted novel, even as she asks the bigger question of who is allowed to get away with crime and why. I’m already looking forward to reading her next book, even if it has nothing to do with the Fairway Players, as her mastery of this modern epistolary format is matched by very few working in the field today.

I loved this extension of "The Appeal," which was how I discovered Janice Hallett and her creative writing style.I loved these characters and their community theatre, and I was delighted to revisit them, this time with a holiday theme!

The Christmas Appeal is a story about a local theater's annual performance, and how rivalries can turn deadly when too many people pull in different directions. This is an epistolary style story that relies on documents, texts, and emails to describe the preparation and ultimate calamity of the troupe's big day.

I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this story. I actually laughed out loud several times while reading, and thought the structure and pacing were spot on for this one. I'd definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a short, punchy holiday story.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for gifting me a digital ARC of the Christmas follow-up to The Appeal by Janice Hallett - 5 stars once again!

Two lawyers are once again tasked by their retired professor to investigate an incident involving a local community theater group, The Fairway Players, as they prepare their Christmas production of Jack & the Beanstalk to raise money for the church roof.

I absolutely adored both of these books and am anxiously hoping there will be more to come! The story once again unfolds strictly through texts, social media posts, letters, and police transcripts - and not all in chronological order. The lawyers and readers are tasked with figuring out what's going on. And there's a lot going on! New cochairs of the theater group are quite controlling and the previous people in charge definitely aren't happy. There's plenty of gossip, shenanigans, and possibly a dead body in the mix! So creative and fun - highly recommended!

This book seemed a little all over the place. The crime isn't even announced until a good part of the way through the book. Having not read the first book, I was also confused as to who these characters were and why they were being asked to look at the crime.

3.5 stars

The Christmas Appeal brings readers back into the world of The Fairway Players as they put on a chaotic Christmas pantomime. Having absolutely loved The Appeal, I truly enjoyed returning to these characters and the juicy small town gossip that characterizes this quaint, murderous English village. While the mystery for me wasn't particularly interesting, the entertainment factor was so high that I honestly didn't even mind. If you are looking for a short novella about small town drama at Christmas, you can't go wrong with this one!

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for an ARC of this book in exchange for a fair and honest exchange!

This was a lovely way to welcome the holiday season! From the fun cover to the modern epistolary format, The Christmas Appeal was a treat all around.

Thanks to the publisher and to NetGalley for the ARC!

I received this book from Atria Books through NetGalley for review purposes.
Author Janice Hallett never intended to return to Lockwood and The Fairway Players but readers of "The Appeal" will be glad she did. Using the unique method of emails, texts and social media posts, she tells a tale of murder set in a theater during Christmas. Unhealthy competition and snarky comments abound. Follow along as Femi and Charlotte endeavor to solve the case.
I found it and enjoyable quick read.
Note: foul language and drug dealing.

This was a fun read that reunited the wacky gang from The Appeal. At first, I thought it would be too hard to keep track of the characters, but the author did a nice job of making it clear who is who. I laughed at some parts and enjoyed this lighthearted mystery though I’m not entirely sure I fully understood the resolution.

This was a fun and quick mystery. As before the Fairway Players were hilarious and Janice Hallett impressively weaves an intriguing story solely through emails, text messages, and other forms of correspondence. It’s definitely less of a hard hitting murder mystery than the Appeal, but those who liked that will enjoy revisiting these goofy, yet endearing characters. My main complaint however it that, while it is set during the holiday season, it is lacking some of the charm that I enjoy in a holiday season story.

I am such a fan of J Hattlett and her smart, funny, and quirky books. The Appeal was a surprise win for me, I love an epistolatory style, and now I am back in that world with the Christmas Appeal. The creativity of executing an engaging story in this style appeals to me, half of my joy is seeing and reading how she will make this style work for a crafty mystery while keeping up with characterization and plot and humor. Win!

Tis the season for a little murderous mischief? An amateur theater group called Fairway Players is gearing up for a pantomime production of Jack and the Beanstalk. When an old prop cracks open to reveal a dead body in a Santa suit, everyone is a suspect in this hilarious whodunit. Lawyers Femi and Charlotte comb through text messages, emails, notes, and other paraphernalia to try to crack the case. See if you can beat them to it before the final curtain call.

I never read the appeal and this is the first book I read by this author so I must make catching up with that very first book a priority. The characters, the set-up, the humor, were absolutely fabulous and right up my alley.

The Christmas Appeal, as you might expect from the title, is set amongst the rehearsals and ill fated performance of this most traditional endeavors, the pantomime, with The Fairway Players putting on a charity performance of Jack and the Beanstalk in order to raise funds for the church hall roof.

Panto is not something that is meant to be taken very seriously, and Janice Hallett taps into this perfectly with a story which is lighthearted and tongue in cheek, with all the madness and farce of the best panto productions, amplified to such a degree that you might be forgiven for thinking someone may have been product testing some of the “sweets” that are purchased for the children attending the show.

This wouldn’t be much of a mystery if it was all just about the jealousy of one family (the Hallidays) towards another (the MacDonalds). This is definitely a story of double-crossing, secrets and pent up frustrations, and nothing is quite what it seems. From the most innocent of misunderstandings, to a very high stakes error in judgment, right through to a drunk pantomime horse and the unexpected early appearance of Santa Claus, much to the delight of the children and the horror of the cast, this story entertained from the start.

Told in the authors original style of a series of emails, statements, and text messages, and with interludes as the legal eagles, Charlotte and Femi try to decipher the case files sent to them by Roderick Tanner, this is a fast paced, fun, highly witty foray into the dangerous world of pantomime, and I loved every minute of it. Definitely recommended.

To get the most out of The Christmas Appeal, one needs to have read the author’s earlier book, The Appeal, but it can be read with less impact as a standalone. I enjoyed the epistolary format of the story. In fact, I think the book would have been fine without the addition of the two law students from the first book--just the story of the theater group without the law students trying to figure out what happened. The mystery element in the book fell a little flat for me, but it was a decent read otherwise.

Thanks go to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.