In 'The Christmas Appeal' by Janice Hallett, lawyers Femi Hassan and Charlotte Holroyd are sent a batch of documents by retired KC Roderick Tanner relating to a crime that took place amongst The Fairway Players during their staging of the pantomime Jack and the Beanstalk. Sarah-Jane McDonald the leader of the players, and Celia Halliday (a woman who believes she should be the leader of the players) are caught up in a power struggle, beautifully displayed through text messages, emails, and police transcripts. Amongst the hilarity of an amateur pantomime and the demands placed on the players by the community (e.g. gender neutral sweet bags), the power struggle leads to the Halliday's taking actions that reveal a hidden crime.

Hallett's epistemological style works brilliantly as always, and nicely highlights the difference between what is said in public and what is said in private. There were many times I laughed out loud and with recognition. The story is probably lighter and more linear than other Hallett stories, but this makes it ideal for a cosy Christmas read. My only sadness is that I've already read it, and can't enjoy it next to the Christmas Tree!

Having recently read The Appeal, I was happy to continue with this Christmas sequel, for The Fairway Players are back and Femi and Charlotte have been given another bundle of messages to peruse.

The characters were still fresh in my mind, and although it was slightly odd to be reading a Christmas story at the tail end of August, this was an enjoyable and fun mystery. Sarah-Jane and Kevin are jostling for position with Celia and Joel (OBE) but, as always with small communities and groups, everybody knows each other’s secrets, weaknesses and faults and plays them well. Celia and Joel (OBE) are miffed that their suggestion of a farce was not taken up by the amateur dramatic group and Celia is equally miffed that Sarah-Jane is keen to recruit new members from a housing estate that she considers beneath her social level. Meanwhile, the next production is the annual pantomime, a Seventies production of Jack and the Beanstalk, utilising a prop from bygone days – a huge beanstalk which has to be moved into the church hall.

There is, obviously, a crime to content with, involving a body, drug deals and a never to be forgotten night on stage, as well as some old, new and returning characters. Good fun for the festive season. I received a copy of this book from the publisher, via NetGalley, for review.

This was a compelling read. I loved the Fairway players. They were such a diverse bunch. The death of a father christmas was a real who dunnit. The usual politics were playing out in the amateur dramatic group. Femi and Charlotte were really thorough in their investigation of who killed santa. Loved it.

Rating: 4.0/5

Books written by Janice Hallett are always likely to divide opinion and I am sure that this one will be no exception. For those who are not familiar with this author's work, she takes extracts from e-mail communication and other similar media to construct the story, rather than the more usual prosaic approach. This is something that will not appeal to everyone's taste and those individuals may simply find the process of trying to read it too grating to be enjoyable. Personally, I am very much an admirer and I love this fresh approach to constructing a novel, which still contains all of the key components that you would expect from a classical mystery that you might associate with the likes of Agatha Christie at its heart.

"The Christmas Appeal" revisits some of the characters that were first introduced in Janice Hallett's debut novel, "The Appeal". However, I will stress that whilst it may be beneficial to be familiar with "The Appeal" prior to reading this one, it is certainly not essential. I would also point out that, in spite of the seasonal title and setting, there is absolutely no reason that the reading of this novella should be restricted to the Christmas period. That said, I would, however, suggest that you need to be British - or at least pretty familiar with the British tradition of pantomime - to really derive the fullest enjoyment from this book.

"The Christmas Appeal" is much more of the cosy mystery variety than Janice Hallett's previous three novels, with the comedic element being far more front and centre than has previously been the case - but the story is no less appealing. As ever, there is a sound mystery structure underpinning the narrative, the characters and behavioural observations are wonderful and the humour works consistently well on a variety of levels.

If you have read and enjoyed Janice Hallett's work before, then I am sure that you will find this to your liking too. If you are a newcomer to the author, then this shorter, novella format may well be the ideal way to get a taster of her style and see if it has the necessary appeal for you.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for supplying an ARC in return for an honest review.

I absolutely adored "The Appeal" by Janice Hallett and was extremely excited to see that another instalment was coming up.

Janice Hallett has returned to her very best form in this book, revisiting many of her beloved previous characters. It was so well-paced with lots of twists and turns along the way in addition to plenty of funny moments and I thoroughly enjoyed the read. I particularly appreciated the way the plot unfolded through a range of documents to find the solution and it was extremely clever. A definite five-star read!

Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy of The Christmas Appeal in exchange for an honest review.

I've never been so excited to receive an ARC of a book - having absolutely adored the unique writing style of The Appeal, I couldn't wait to see what The Christmas Appeal had in store.

It didnt disappoint - we head back to The Fairway Players who are planning their Christmas Production = Jack and the Beanstalk to raise money for a new church roof. With some real comedic moments, pretty much everything that could go wrong, goes wrong. When a body is discovered - pretty much everyone is a suspect, so we head back to Femi and Charlotte, who are given the challenge of examining the emails and police transcripts in an attempt to solve the case.

Whilst it can be a little tricky to read this on a kindle (I prefer to see the layout of emails on a physical book) it was a pleasure to read, held my attention well and made me laugh out loud in parts.

Did I love it as much as the original? Not quite, but is it worth reading.- absolutely! Another great addition to Janice's book collection!

Oh, what fun it is to read about a one-corpse, sweet-filled play!

What a treat! This short instalment from Janice Hallett revisits lawyers Femi, Charlotte and Roderick Tanner KC and The Fairway Players, who fans of the author will remember from her extraordinary bestseller ‘The Appeal’. It’s three to four years since the events of that book and it would appear that the amateur dramatics group are still battling on with their productions. As ever, we find that the sniping, conniving and duplicity continues through WhatsApp and emails and we also meet new characters ready to lend a hand with the 2022 Christmas pantomime, Jack and the Beanstalk.

Fans of Janice Hallett’s previous novels will already be familiar with the highly original format; I still very much enjoy following the plot through the correspondence of The Fairway Players, police interviews, newspaper articles, plus Femi and Charlotte’s observations. The plot is fun, with a gentle sprinkling of social and moral issues to provide food for thought – the book starts with a quote from Charles Dickens’ ‘A Christmas Carol’ after all. If I had to provide any criticism it’s that I didn’t find the sweets plotline added anything particularly, but I can see that it makes for a few comic moments.

That said, nothing but five stars for this Christmas cracker, a delightful ‘amuse-bouche’ while we eagerly await the new full-length book from Janice Hallett in 2024!

My thanks to Rachel Quin and the elves at Viper for the advance copy on which this review is based.

Everyone loves a Christmas Special and this is definitely something special for this Christmas.

I’m not shy about my love for amateur theatre, so it’s great to be embroiled in yet another mystery involving The Fairway Players – although surely signing up new members is going to be a challenge after yet another murder.

The perfect boxing day read. This book is more than just a stocking filler, it’s a wonderful Christmas treat.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Brilliant - I loved returning to the Fairway Players in this fun novella. I found the style of the book just as interesting and innovative as when I read The Appeal. I liked that it was mostly the same characters with a few new faces.

Really enjoyable!

I absolutely loved Janice Hallett's 'The Appeal' so it was a joy to be given access to 'The Christmas Appeal' - a chance to rejoin the Fairway Players as they grapple with a pantomime, plus an unexpected dead body!

As with 'The Appeal', we're given access to emails and messages that fly between members of the amateur acting society, with occasional commentary on the documents by Charlotte and Femi, the lawyers we met in the first novel who are tasked with unravelling the case. It's fair to say that I missed a lot of clues - but the documents are a joy to read as there is a much more humorous (and obviously festive) focus to this book.

This story follows the Fairway Players as they prepare for a Jack and the Beanstalk charity panto evening in aid of repairing the church roof. There is definitely a power struggle at the helm of the group - the way that Celia undermines Sarah-Jane is cleverly-written and often hilarious (bat patty made me snort out loud!) Throw in a few misunderstandings, some very quirky characters, outlandish rumours and this is the perfect recipe for a fun, festive read. Yes, some of it is kind of incredible and played for laughs (a bit like the panto itself!), but I absolutely loved it. Janice Hallett presents the different voices and perspectives brilliantly - and with a real comic touch.

A lot of the characters will be familiar to fans of 'The Appeal', but there is also fresh blood for the Fairway Players from the new housing estates in the area - cue a lot of snobbery from Celia, of course. Events from 'The Appeal' are referred to, but I don't think you would necessarily need to have read it first - 'The Christmas Appeal' does work as a standalone (even if it would provide spoilers if you then wanted to go back and read the first book).

If you're looking for a fun, Christmassy read, then this is the book for you. It lacks the depth of mystery of the first book (as this is quite short in comparison at about 200 pages), but it makes up for it with Janice Hallett's clever skewering of characters' pretensions and hidden motivations.

Well, this was a lot of fun.

Getting into the Christmas spirit, with mystery murder and mayhem.

If you enjoyed The Appeal, I'm sure you will love this.

A short one but great fun once again. Really enjoy this style of writing and the humour and sarcasm are spot on. Keeps me satisfied for now but can't wait for her next one.

The Christmas Appeal (2023) by Janice Hallett

Reading Christmas mysteries in August is not unheard of for me, nor is reading summer-holiday-set books in December. So, I had no qualms about reading this book ahead of the festive season and in fact I was very excited to hear earlier this year that Hallett was writing a follow up to her debut mystery The Appeal (2021), which is my favourite book by her to date. In the same vein as her previous mysteries The Christmas Appeal is structured using documents such as emails, transcripts, and WhatsApp message threads.

Synopsis
‘Christmas in Lower Lockwood, and the Fairway Players are busy rehearsing their festive pantomime, Jack and the Beanstalk, to raise money for the church roof appeal. But despite the season, goodwill is distinctly lacking amongst the amateur dramatics enthusiasts. Sarah-Jane is fending off threats to her new position as Chair, the fibreglass beanstalk might be full of asbestos, and a someone is intent on ruining the panto even before the curtain goes up. Of course there's also the matter of the dead body. Who could possibly have had the victim on their naughty list? Join lawyers Femi and Charlotte as they read the round robins, examine the emails and pore over the police transcripts. Will the show go on?’

Overall Thoughts
Hallett’s dedication is themed around Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol (1843): ‘For the Ghost of Christmas Past’ and this is also followed up with a quotation from the book, ‘These are but shadows of the things that have been.’ This is a nice touch, making a nod to the Christmas milieu of her story, as well as tapping into the fact that Femi and Charlotte through the course of the narrative will be dissecting and exploring documentary evidence, which will bring up a mystery from the past. This is a theme which crops up in the story itself when one character writes: ‘In my experience, if the past is buried away, it has a habit of popping up, without warning and when you least expect it.’

Whilst I don’t think Femi and Charlotte are provided as strong a motivation to perform armchair sleuthing this time round, the opening email to them from a previous, but now retired mentor, still sets the story up as a puzzle/challenge, putting it back into the groove of The Appeal: ‘While you establish yourselves in the field of criminal law, it doesn't hurt to keep the wheels of deduction turning. I have another fascinating case to run past you [...] I've read the enclosed and think I've worked it out. I wonder if you can.’

One of the highlights of this book is the opening email from Celia Halliday, which is a round-robin Christmas family newsletter email. Even when she is excusing the necessity for a round-robin email, she basically manages to insult her recipients: ‘More than that, we have such a vast number of friends that writing to you all individually would take far too long - so we only send personal emails to family and those we are especially close to.’ Her family newsletter made me laugh out loud a lot, as it is full of boasting, whilst trying to act modest yet failing miserably. For example, she shares how her husband got an OBE and she writes that:
‘The award of Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire comes with onerous responsibility. He had to change his credit, debit, library, gym, National Trust and Waitrose loyalty cards to feature the three little letters he is legally required to place after his name.’
The icing on the cake of course are the email responses to and about her newsletter, in particular the one from Carol Dearing, which reveals how Celia’s boasts are distorted versions of the truth or downright fibs. These opening emails, particularly Celia’s, were good at revealing character through the way someone writes and talks about things. Moreover, we get to see the characters from different points of view, which allows us to get a fuller picture of them, such as Celia, who over these opening communications emerges as a toxic version of Hyacinth Bucket. However, Hallett does not have a black and white cast of nice or nasty characters, as even those you initially side with, are shown later to have feet of clay. The start of the novel could maybe have done with a community family tree of sorts. It took me some time to place the various characters mentioned, as it has been quite a while since I read The Appeal, when these characters first appeared. So, there is probably an advantage to reading both books back-to-back, not least because plot events from the first do creep into this latest story. Finally, the amateur dramatics milieu of the narrative is established effectively at the start of the book through these messages, with past events alluded to which show the comic problems such groups can encounter. I also really enjoyed how components of the performance are woven into the mystery plot, including stage props.

One of the things I really loved about The Appeal was the way that the plot was built up layer by layer through the correspondence and documents that Femi and Charlotte read. The beginning of The Christmas Appeal is also strong at doing this as the emails establish the underlying tensions and rivalries within the amateur dramatics group and provides threads for future plot development, such as the Dexters, a couple who have not been seen since the auditions. What might have happened to them? Furthermore, the epistolary style of the novel works really well in showing what happens on the night of the pantomime performance. I loved how the problems and troubles kept piling up. Some of these you can anticipate, whereas others you are left to find out as you read at 90mph to find out what happens next. There is an element of Shakespearean Tragedy in this sequence in the way people’s plans go astray due to the machinations of others, as well as due to random and unpredictable events.

Nevertheless, what I think hampers The Christmas Appeal from reaching the same heights as its predecessor is its length. In comparison it is significantly shorter, and this does impact the plotting of the book. Firstly, this means that possibly quite interesting narrative threads become dead ends or get forgotten about, such as one relating to a particularly two-faced character. I hoped they would have had a greater impact on the overall plot, but they do not. Yet, I would say the biggest effect on plotting occurs in the second half of the book when Femi and Charlotte are given a newspaper headline which tells them that there is a dead body at the pantomime performance. But who is the victim? This information is not provided and at this stage Femi and Charlotte discuss they think they already know. I liked this aspect as it allows the reader to check their own ideas. What worked less well for me was when they are asked to identify the victim. The way Femi and Charlotte are set such challenges felt artificial and less like they were trying to solve a real case. Moreover, I would argue it is impossible or at least incredibly unlikely that they or the reader could ever solve that puzzle. When the answer was revealed, I did feel disappointed as it very much had to be something you were told, rather than something you worked out for yourself. I did check back over the earlier parts of the story to see if I had missed anything, but the best I come up with was one slender clue, but the wording is not strong enough to indicate it was meant to be a clue.

This problem unfortunately increased as I read through the second half of the story as it becomes clear that the narrative has not played fair with its textual armchair sleuths (Femi and Charlotte), nor its readers. The issue of withholding information is definitely present. Furthermore, unlike The Appeal, the role of the documentary evidence changes in the second half of the novel. In the beginning of the book, such evidence offers clues and ideas through showing you characters interacting with one another and you have to work things out for yourself. But in the second half the documents, especially the end ones, have to spell out and tell you things which you could not have otherwise known, thereby almost acting like a confession. All in all, I would say the case is not as complex as The Appeal and offers less for the reader to get their teeth into. I wonder if the format and structure of Hallett’s books do not lend themselves to being short i.e., around 200 pages, as this page length does not seem to allow an even level of plot and character layering.

Hallett has a fifth book coming out next year called The Examiner, which seems to be double the length of The Christmas Appeal, so I have high hopes this future mystery will have the page space for the epistolary narrative style to function at its best.

Rating: 4.25/5
Source: Review Copy (Viper)

P. S. For those who have read the book I have a plot related query written below in ROT13 Code, so don’t decode it on Google unless you want to encounter spoilers.

Fnenu-Wnar naq ure uhfonaq raq hc jvgu n ybg bs qehtf ba gurve unaqf (jura bar bs gurve tebhc reebarbhfyl ohlf gurz vafgrnq bs fjrrgf sbe gur nhqvrapr puvyqera.) Boivbhfyl Fnenu-Wnar naq ure uhfonaq qb abg jnag gb or pnhtug jvgu gurfr vgrzf, juvpu cebivqrf fbzr pbzrql, ohg V nz onssyrq nf gb jul gurl qvq abg whfg syhfu gur qehtf qbja gur ybb. Jul qb gurl jnag gurz tvira gb n qeht qrnyre gb erqvfgevohgr? Gur zbenyvgl bs guvf pubvpr frrzrq n ovg bss.

Definitely one for fans of The Appeal as have the same setting (the theatre group) and some character overlap.

Interpersonal drama alongside a dead body, who knows something? This was nice and short, around half the length of The Appeal, and I read it in an afternoon. It has Hallett’s signature page-turning style and I massively enjoyed reading all the pettiness and drama unfold as the group attempt to put on, and sabotage, a christmas pantomime.

The ARC unfortunately had some formatting issues but this didn’t take away from my enjoyment of the book.

I found the ending slightly disappointing, but apart from that this was super enjoyable. The Appeal remains her best work though.

Thank you NetGalley and Serpent's Tail / Viper / Profile Books, Viper for my approval to read and review this book.

Wow, this book was amazing!! I couldn't put it down!! It was lovely to revisit The Fairway Players and they certainly feel like friends now after reading their second book. The premise is they are putting a Christmas Panto - Jack and the beanstalk. It certainly has very memorable moments where you will laugh out loud at what has been written, especially when the comedic moments within the panto itself. It's a fast paced read with plenty of plot twists and turns with a few red herrings thrown in. I highly recommend you read this book.

I do love the inventiveness of Janice Hallett and that the devices she uses are so original. Nevertheless, it is nice to see her go back to her first format in this follow up to "The Appeal". This short story is not as intricate as the original novel but it is still a fun read and it is good to be back in the theatre watching the same backbiting and shenanigans continue. I don't think this one will shock you and it's pretty easy to work out what's going on, but a fun read nevertheless and one that Hallett fans will definitely enjoy.

The Christmas Appeal reunites us with the Fairway Players and god, was it good to have them back.

The brilliantly insufferable snob Sarah-Jane is now co-chair of the players and they’re putting on Jack and The Beanstalk as this years panto.

Poor Sarah-Jane has to deal with busybody Celia trying to sabotage her play AND a body showing up right in the middle of it all.

Lawyers Femi and Charlotte who are looking over evidence to try and solve the case, and the book is told entirely through text messages, emails and police reports as they try to piece together what happened.

It’s probably strange to say I adore a book about somebody dying but I honestly love Janice Hallett’s writing so much, it’s so fun and inventive and this follow up to The Appeal felt like I was returning to old friends. I loved it.

I’m a huge fan of Janice Hallett, I absolutely loved The Appeal, and this shorter christmas story with all of the familiar characters is so wonderful!! It’s gripping, the character development is fabulous, it’s so funny and comic at times, it is a perfect cosy winter mystery. I cannot wait to get a copy of this book so I can lend it to other people. I think this will get people out of reading slumps. This is just the sort of book that makes me fall in love with reading, I am so grateful that I got to read it before publication!

The Fairway Players just can't catch a break. Having finally put all that ... Mess ... Behind them, the group is getting ready to stage Jack and the Beanstalk as their annual panto. But tensions are running high backstage and on show night, disaster strikes!

This is another brilliantly, cleverly written mystery set in a community that I found myself oddly pleased to be back in. Couldn't put it down, there were some genuine laugh out loud moments and several unexpected twists. A lovely, cozy read!

I received a copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review

The perfect "cosy crime" Christmas read!

I laughed out loud several times whilst reading the Christmas Appeal which just goes to show how much I enjoyed it.

Comic misunderstandings, cloying and not entirely truthful, round robin Christmas letters, a mishap prone play and talk of a murderer arriving in the area, what more could you ask for?

When a dead Santa is discovered, we're left wondering how it happened and who was involved.

With rivelries amongst the actors simmering, it's interesting to see how this unfolds!

Perfectly written and I enjoyed that it was written in a WhatsApp message style format as it allowed for conversations to flow between the characters.