"This immersive holiday caper from the "modern Agatha Christie" (The Sunday Times, London) follows the hilarious Fairway Players theater group as they put on a Christmas play - and solve a murder that threatens their production.

The Christmas season has arrived in Lower Lockwood, and the Fairway Players are busy rehearsing their festive holiday production of Jack and the Beanstalk to raise money for a new church roof. But despite the season, goodwill is distinctly lacking among the amateur theater enthusiasts with petty rivalries, a possibly asbestos-filled beanstalk, and some perennially absent players behind the scenes.

Of course, there's also the matter of the dead body onstage. Who could possibly have had the victim on their naughty list? Join lawyers Femi and Charlotte as they investigate Christmas letters, examine emails, and pore over police transcripts to identify both the victim and killer before the curtain closes on their holiday production - for good."

Oh, I'm a sucked for a murder at a Christmas panto!

The Fairway Players were putting on a Pantomime of Jack and the Beanstalk for Christmas, but something went terribly wrong when a dead Santa is found in the middle of the stage. On November 1, 11 months after the death, Roderick Tanner reaches out to the lawyers Femi and Charlotte to ask for their opinion on who may have done it. He sends copies of letters, emails, texts and scans of discovery materials.

This entire book is written in the form of some kind of correspondence - usually text or email. It tells a story, but not in the traditional sense. It’s an incredibly clever approach to a mystery because it provides so many potential hidden clues.

There are some very funny moments and pantomimes themselves are meant to be farcical performances.

This was book 1.5 in the series and I hadn’t read book 1 so none of the characters were familiar to me, and because of the format of correspondence, I found it very difficult to keep track of who everyone was and didn’t understand some of the references

Unfortunately, I only made it 30% of the way through the book. The style of texts and emails just didn’t work for me. It felt hard to follow what was happening or to remember who everyone was. That said, for people who really like to put an emphasis on the puzzle over the characters and setting, I think this would be a great book. It has humor and it is very fast-paced. However, I would strongly recommend reading the first in the series before attempting this one.

The Christmas appeal is a fast paced story with the Fairway Player putting on a Christmas Pantomime. There’s drama among the group, people seeming to play each side, and some trying to cause issues for others. The emails and texts share the drama, thoughts and plans of some members. Some moments are eye rolls, some are laugh out loud.

I enjoyed reading The Appeal so was definitely excited to read this novella. Felt it was easier to get into with knowing what to expect with most of the story being told through emails and text messages. The way it all comes together, makes you feel a certain way for a character without really getting to know them is amazing.

I received an ARC of this novella from NetGalley for my review. This one appeals to the former AIG kid in me—it’s essentially a dossier of collected evidence in a crime that you solve as you go along. A panto production (a staple for a small British town at Christmas) is derailed by drugs, murder, and conniving retirees who would love to quash upstart, young (middle aged) usurpers! It’s funny, quick, and festive! If you enjoy logic puzzles, cozy mysteries, and/or epistolary fiction, check this one out when it is released on October 24th!

I read The Appeal recently and loved it so when I saw the follow up to it in Netgalley I just had to request it. I loved the first book and I was hoping that I would like this one just as much. I’m happy to say that this didn’t disappoint.

This is a novella follow up and is much shorter but I think that’s it’s just as good as the first book. The plot of the first is very briefly touched on but this is it’s own story. A lot of the characters are from the previous book and it was nice to see them again (mostly) but it also has several new people. I liked how they were worked into the story. The plot of this was super fun. It keeps you guessing til the end. The book is quite short (I read it in a single day) and is fast paced and highly entertaining. It keeps you guessing til the very end. The book is written in mixed media formatting where most of the story is written in text messages and emails and I really liked what that added. You get multiple views into the same events and I love it when that happens.

I don’t think that you need to read the first book to understand this but I recommend it so you can get background info on the returning characters involved. Overall I highly recommend this for fans of mystery novels.

Ah, the politics of community theater - they can be murderous. In this sequel to The Appeal we see behind the scenes via emails, texts, etc. It appears theater group members seek to undermine each other and the Christmas production of Jack and the Bean Stalk. When the old bean stalk prop pops open things get deadly.
Thanks to NetGalley for providing an eGalley of this title.

It was so fun being back in The Fairway Players universe again! This novella was an entertaining glimpse back into the lives of this dysfunctional group. We get to see how the power dynamic has changed since The Appeal, and not everyone is happy about how things have played out.

While this is technically a mystery, I didn't feel like that plot was all that gripping. I found the drama among all the characters to be the star of this book. I loved the mixed media style and getting to read the emails and texts to see how people really felt about each other depending on who they were talking to.

Thank you to Netgalley and Atria for an early copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

The storytelling style here took a little getting used to, but once I adjusted I found myself speeding through. Having not read the first book in the series I didn't immediately understand the relationships between the characters and had no idea what had happened previously. I found not knowing the plot of the first book didn't make this one any less enjoyable. My favorite parts were those involving Sarah-Jane and her family. Basically everything that happens with them on the night of the performance is comedic gold. One of my favorite exchanges was when Sarah-Jane calls him Keith in a text exchange - I am still not sure if she did that on purpose as a joke or if it really was an autocorrect. This wasn't so much of a murder mystery as the body doesn't appear until the story is almost over, but all of these scenes leading up to that discovery were entertaining so I didn't mind. I definitely would not mind another story involving this cast of characters!

As someone who's read The Appeal, I loved seeing these characters return. I did have to go back to Book 1 to remind myself who everyone is and what happened at the end of that one. But once I did that, I liked this book a lot. The mystery doesn't get revealed until about 75% of the way through the book and it gets solved about 90% of the way, so there's a lot of backstory/build-up. If that's not your thing, this probably isn't the book for you. However, I thought it was fun anticipating and guessing what was going to happen - was someone going to get murdered and who? 5 stars from me and I look forward to Janice Hallett's next book.

The Christmas Appeal by Janice Hallett is centered around a core group of characters. This novella follows the events of Janice’s book, The Appeal, I haven’t yet read it, but I don’t feel as though I was missing any information. Everything that was relevant had been briefly touched on, so it didn’t take anything away from the story, in my opinion. The main timeline of the book revolves around preparation and execution of their amateur theater groups annual Christmas pantomime. One thing I found very interesting about this book is that it’s not formatted how books typically are with just paragraphs, but instead, there are text messages, email chains and articles.I really enjoyed that because it made the book feel more fast paced, and you got all the sides of the story which is very important since there are 2 main couples who are constantly having issues arise. Sarah-Jane is the head of production and is constantly undermined by Celia who used to have an important role as well but got voted out. Many different issues occurred during the performance, and Celia was to blame for quite a few. During the pantomime, a body is found and everyone has questions except for the person you’d least expect. Our two detectives, Femi and Charlotte are searching through everything they’ve learned to try to uncover the mystery and figure out the truth that some of the unlikeliest characters are hiding. It was such a fun themed murder mystery, and now it makes me want to pick up The Appeal!

This modern, small English town mystery is cleverly told through emails, text exchanges and toward the end, police transcripts. The Fairway Players are putting on a one night only performance of Jack and the Beanstalk, a ‘panto’ in British English. There’s backstabbing, jockeying for power, attempts to get better roles, trying to get volunteers to do all the jobs necessary to put on any amateur production. In other words, almost everyone can relate to this story!
The one challenge, for those reading electronically, is the text exchanges between two local lawyers and their ‘mentor’ that interject and set the stage for the story. On my e-device, they were almost impossible to read, and I couldn’t increase their font size. The only other caveat is that there are references to a preceding book. I found the current story sets the stage so reading the first book isn’t necessary. I’m still going to purchase it as I want to read what happened with the founders of the Players!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

This was a fun return to the Fairway Players as new leadership took on a pantomime of Jack and the Beanstalk. It sits as a standalone, but is best enjoyed if you’ve read The Appeal first, as characters from that are revisited 3 years later.

The way the story was presented was once again unique - through the written correspondence of all the major players, allowing the reader a chance to follow along and decipher the clues. I find this format enjoyable and fast paced. This was a fun little holiday novella.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria for the e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

The Fairway players are a long standing amateur theater group. Through a series of mixed media we see tension amongst all the members of the group. Throughout the pantomime a body is discovered in the beanstalk prop.

This was a tough novella to rate. Maybe not reading The Appeal beforehand or maybe the mixed media throughout the whole book made it less fun for me. However, I will always enjoy a short murder mystery especially one that is Christmas themed!

I really enjoyed this one! I definitely want to read The Appeal now as I think it will add to my appreciation of this one. I love a good neighborhood gossip circle with mystery and that’s just what this is. It’s tough to decide with characters to root for but I definitely wasn’t rooting for the Hallidays! I appreciate that there was a slight Christmas theme throughout and the realization of things that matter. This was a great murder mystery and I loved the set up of the book. I like reading as things are happening and I appreciated all the texts emails and newspaper clippings. This was a great read and can’t wait for more from Janice Hallett.

Thank you Netgalley and the author for this ARC!

I loved this story so much more than the original Appeal! I think it was that it seemed like we had more police interviews and such to clarify the story as it went along. I'm sure it also helped that we already knew most of the characters. I hope there will be more from the Fairway Players!

3.5 stars rounded down

This was a tough one to rate. I think it would have been 4 stars if it had a different format. I didn’t mind the texts and emails in the beginning, but I didn’t love the whole book being that way.

Besides that, this book was funny, fast, and entertaining. I didn’t read The Appeal, and didn’t know it existed until reading other reviews, but I was still able to follow it. Perhaps having read The Appeal first would have added something.

I think the cover is absolutely adorable, love it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria books for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

This was a relatively quick, fun read and exactly what I needed in between some of my more bogged down serious reads. It took a little bit to get used to the writing style essentially being electronic communications and the large number of characters. I’m a speed reader so I definitely had to slow down and pay attention to the details to figure out who was saying what along the way as it could be easy to overlook a sender or recipient.

Overall though, the writing described a small knit group, with the tensions that exist in any group quite well. A shakeup in the status quo begins the novel as the characters struggle with what the new established leadership means for their group as they put on their new performance. There are plenty of twists and turns, and while you know it’s a mystery novel, at times you are kept guessing as to what the mystery actually is. Even with the ending, there were several lines of narrative that I still had questions on and I could see the potential for additional novels addressing those other mysteries. I did enjoy the novel, and recommend it for any lover of mystery or whodunnits. I 100% was taking sides with certain characters throughout the book, and while the writing is succinct due to the format the characters and plot are very robust. You get to know the characters and their motivations quickly, and I think this writing style can be a tricky line to balance to get right. The author did that here and it’s an interesting break from other book formats.

Please be advised I received an advance reader copy (ARC) of this novel in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley.

I always love my Christmas stories with a little murder thrown in! This was such a fun, quick read about a mysterious body that shows up during a theater group’s annual pantomime. I didn’t know this was a sequel and I probably wouldn’t have requested it had I known because I was a little lost figuring out all the players. But, I pushed through and it was still fun! I definitely need to read the Appeal now that I know I like the style. It is told in media form (texts, emails, etc.) so if this isn’t your style, I’d skip. But I very much loved it. Thank you, Netgalley and Atria books for my eARC in exchange for a review.

So I read the first book in this series and absolutely loved it. So I thought this would be good too since I love Christmas and yes I loved it. A holiday mystery and a play all go so well together and I was on my toes a lot for it but by the end it wrapped up well for me

Took me a moment to get into the story, but when I did get into it, I really enjoyed it!
I found the writing style fun and interesting but not annoying. I will read again I’m sure around Christmas:)