Janice Hallett has definitely solidified herself as a top thriller author for me! I love her style of writing and how she uses mixed media to tell her stories. While they are often a little too far fetched to be believable in real life, I know that going in and still find them super entertaining despite that.

The Examiner lived up to that expectation, and it was a fast-paced, fun read! I love trying to determine what happened as we went, and there were a few twists that I didn't see coming at all. I enjoyed how flawed the characters were and how my initial impressions of them wildly changed as the story went.

It was quite heavy on the art aspect, which was interesting, but it did take me out of the story a bit at times trying to decipher the lingo. I still really enjoyed the book, though, and would definitely recommend it!

Thank you to Netgalley and Atria for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion!

There is no one who writes like Janice Hallet. I don't have a clue how she keeps building ingenious stories using documentary evidence as opposed to traditional narratives, but I've read all her books and will keep doing so as long as she writes them.

This one is about a master art course and the six students in it. I myself have an arts degree so it was a fun setting for me. Hallett's books are a masterclass in with holding information, manipulation and misdirection. As the reader, you know something isn't right and that the story is building to explain what that is, but for the longest time you just have to be on the ride to find out what is going on. (One criticism, these books can be a lot and I wish this one had been maybe 50 pages shorter.)

I don't want to get into spoiler territory, but even as some pieces fall into place more questions arise. Eventually certain details come to light which cast everything you previously read in a different light. And remarkably, on character who I would obnoxious, I ultimately developed affection for.

I think it's hard to top The Appeal which was the first book I read by the author, but this one was very good and I plowed through it because I was so intrigued and wanted to see if the resolution would be satisfying. It was.

Thank you to Netgalley for an ARC!

I’ve been a huge fan of Janice Hallett ever since I picked up The Twyford Code by chance at a Waterstones. Since then, I’ve ordered her books for international delivery all the way to my home in Canada just so I could read them as soon as possible without waiting for the North American release – and I much prefer the UK cover designs to the NA ones. So, when I got the chance to review The Examiner through Netgalley, I was very excited! I’ve been highly anticipating this book for what feels like forever.

That said, this book was both the exact type of mysterious intrigue and excitement that I expect from Hallett (I devoured it in about three days!) while also feeling a bit too much like a re-do of The Appeal (and The Christmas Appeal, actually).

I really enjoyed the setting of the professional MA, as it rang very true to my experience taking an MA in Publishing – except for the murder and intrigue. But the types of assignments and the occasional personality clash on group projects was very relatable. Even the fact that everyone comes from very different backgrounds, with people who are changing careers, balancing full time jobs, and are mature students (that would technically apply to myself, even) was very true to this sort of MA course.

I thought that the mystery was well constructed, and the timing of the reveals was very clever. Hallett’s books almost always hinge on a late-book reveal that changes the way you look at the entire book, one that you almost couldn’t possibly predict, and this one had a few of those. The true nature of all the characters’ motivations to be on the course, character details, and the bait and switch of various characters' identities all kept you along thinking ‘surely, this is the last thing’. Personally, I don’t think it was too much, but I can also see that perspective.

What was a little disappointing for me (I’m still giving this 3.5/4 stars, so not that disappointing) was that it felt very reminiscent of The Appeal in terms of character dynamics and even setting (what is Academia if not a small town?) and two main plot details. I don’t think that took away from my enjoyment, but I’ll likely recommend this book to people instead of The Appeal from now on, as I felt that this book executed some of those ideas and themes a lot more effectively. And maybe that was the intention – God knows I’ve written something and wished I could just ‘do it again, but better’, and that’s what this felt like. I may even amend my star rating one day, when I haven’t just finished the book after reading furiously until 1 a.m., to reflect my feelings on this book more specifically than the way I felt about it in relation to her prior work. And on that day, it will probably be made a 5 star read.

Janice Hallett has been an author I'd long adored, ever since The Appeal. Spinning yet another tale using multimedia (emails, text messages, reports), The Examiner is a wild ride from start to finish. But the reason why it's a three star for me is that the ending and the plot twist wasn't really that satisfying-=it got a bit convoluted.

Told through text message, emails and slack type messages, The Examiner follows 6 Masters students as they work together on several projects to complete their course. When one student goes missing, the others are curious and ultimately begin to worry there is something more sinister going on in the class. The Examiners read through the messages as they try to determine what happened.

I really enjoyed this book! Janice Hallett is always a fun read!

This was an interesting story that I didn’t quite expect. I figured it would be dry reading but it was engaging and had me sucked into the plot. It was multi-layered and very creative. I liked the format once I got used to it. Very creative and great book!

This one was a fun time. I love epistolary novels, and this was no exception. I had a great time uncovering the mysteries with the characters, and finding out their secrets. There was a lot of intentional twists at the end, so much so that it was a bit whiplash-y but altogether I would recommend this one, especially folks who love a school-based plot.

This book was written in Janice Hallett's signature style of messages, emails, and texts. It was full of twists and turns, which made it difficult to put down. It took a while to get to the mystery, and I found the plot a little unrealistic, but I did enjoy it.

I have enjoyed Janice Hallett’s style of storytelling with the Appeal in the past, and really liked how this story unfolds through emails, messages, and letters. I think it’s a great way to write a mystery, as the story clarifies itself in bits and pieces that are limited in scope. However, that is where my enjoyment of this book ended.

I blew through the first part of the story. Hallett always writes an abrasive character in constant need of external validation, and that was Jem here. She quickly became the only interesting character in the story. The direction in which the mystery unfolded felt forced, and the violence was needless. There were aspects of the book that were deliberately misleading for the sake of being so, but did not serve any other purpose to further the story (Gela signing off as “kiss-kiss”…why?)

I am disappointed that this did not turn out to be as interesting as I expected but will still read Hallett’s next, in the hope that it is better than this one!

Not my most favorite Janice Hallett ever, I found this story to be quite technical, despite taking place during an art course, which should have been right in my wheelhouse! But that being said, this story was still a wild ride and I had so much fun. I don’t want to say anything more because I think everyone should read this book and dive into the marvelous and mysterious mind of my girl Janice Hallett.

Thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Eight hours. That's how long it took me to read this book. Once I started, I couldn't stop. Hallett once again threw red herrings left and right, that I got everything wrong. She has become the Queen of Red Herrings.

The main focus of the story was about a year long group project and how the six students had to work together. I really connected with all the characters because at one point or another I have been each type of person in a group project. I got so invested in trying to figure out why someone was acting one way or another that I let some small details slip by. Those little details really added up in the end. The reveal, as usual for me, was jaw dropping.

I have read all of Janice Hallett's other works, and loved them all. She is one of my favorite mystery authors. I was excited for this one to see what she would do with a group of students. She did not disappoint! This book is about a group of six students that are taking a master's program for multimedia art. The examiner is looking over all the works from the year, and thinks that a murder has occurred and that the students have covered it up. What follows is all the documents from the year as you learn what the students did or did not do. This book was a wild ride. Janice Hallett is known for crazy twists and this book definitely had it. I read it in a day! I could not put it down. I look forward to reading more from her in the future.

This was the third time I read a book by this author and, sadly, this one is now my least favourite.
And honestly, I'm still not sure why it hasn't worked so well with me. The writing style and the structure of the narrative are the same as the ones I've read and liked - which is something I absolutely love about this author. The plot was appealing to me and the characters were intriguing enough.
I just felt like something was missing, maybe?
Or maybe it's just me. The Appeal continues to be my top favourite from this author.
But I do recommend this book to anyone who has read a Janice Halllett novel before and enjoyed her writing style.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review. Holy crap!! I love this author’s unique style of writing mysteries that end up just knocking one right on their butt by the end, asking what did I read? I think I have it figured out, then there are 5 more layers to what’s going on beneath that.

I already have this preordered to go on the shelf with the rest of my Janice Hallett collection. And I’m contemplating doing a reread of all her books. From now until the end of time I will read anything this author writes!

Long review bc I have a lot of thoughts! It’s a true 3.5-star book, but I’m rounding up because there was a level of couldn’t-put-it-down.

I’ve been on a Janice Hallett kick so I was excited to see this book available for an ARC. (Thank you NetGalley and Atria for my eARC in exchange for an honest review!) This is my third book by her and, unfortunately, my least favorite so far.

At first blush this struck me as a re-approach to some of the ideas in The Appeal, but with a defter hand. The framing device felt similar (an outsider investigating a toxic insular community) and done better here. I found the characters unlikable, and not in a fun love-to-hate-them way, but unenjoyable. It’s also victim to a personal pet peeve: when the readers learn new information, characters who already had that information start behaving differently. Spoiler-light example: <spoiler>over halfway through a character is revealed to have a disability, and all of a sudden other characters are referencing it when they previously had not at all. Why would they behave differently just because we, the reader, know now?</spoiler>

I was willing to stick it out because I was curious, and Hallett is an expert at writing stories that make you want to guess along. Tragically, I really did not care for the ending. I can’t explain why, but even with the satisfaction of partially guessing a twist (and some delightfully gruesome stuff) the last ~15% was a miss for me. Still, Hallett is an expert at creating interesting relationship dynamics, and as a person in a semi toxic grad program of my own (lol) I had fun reading along. It was a good reading experience, but ultimately not a super satisfying one.

TL;DR, if you’re considering this, just read The Appeal instead. It has some first-novel woes, but is a more fun and engaging read than The Examiner.

3.5 stars rounded up. This book was fast paced, easy to read and kept me wanting to turn the pages. Really enjoyed the way the story is told through messages, emails, journals, and reports. I didn't love it quite as much as her book The Appeal, this book seemed a little more far fetched considering the setting was for a masters degree in art and not a town theatre company.

Do you ever wonder what it would feel like to BE the detective, sifting through information to find clues and solve a crime? Janice Hallett's epistolary mystery novels give the reader that kind of experience. Each story is fully comprised of emails, letters, images, maps, texts, and other information that ultimately unspools a mystery.

In "The Examiner", we get to know a small group of students on a new Multimedia Art course. Through the year, things go terribly awry, and we unravel the mystery of what happened through their group chats, emails, other communications, and project work.

This is my third Hallett novel. Once again, I enjoyed the reading experience immensely. The central mystery was compelling, the story was well-paced, and the characters were all very believable (to the point that I found some of them very irritating lol). Highly recommended for mystery fans looking for something that breaks the mold a bit, and those who find themselves trying to figure out whodunnit while they watch or read the mystery genre.

One final note: I so appreciate the consistency in Janice Hallett's cover designs. They look great, and it makes them easy to spot on the shelves.

Many thanks to Atria Books and NetGalley for providing this copy for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

OH MY GOODNESS! I loved this book and I loved the format! I adore reading a book based on written communication and this was no different. The cast of characters was superb! I cannot say that particularly liked any of them and yet I was cheering them all on at different times throughout the book. The twist and turns happen throughout the book not just at the end, but the big ones that happen towards the end will leave you reeling and trying to remember everything you just read...like can it really be true! I loved Hallett's previous book and this one was no different! The subject matter of students/teacher in a MA Art Program is not something I thought I would be interested in, but wowzer! If you love a good mystery and morally questionable characters you will love this book!

Thank you to NetGalley for the earc!!!! I wait all year for her books so I can devoir them in like 3 hours. Can't believe I get to read this early.

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Just finished!!! 4 stars. My general rating scale, for reference
5: I'm am in love (subjective) with this book/This book is perfect (objective)
4: I really enjoyed reading this book and it's crafted with skill and artistry
3: I enjoyed reading this book, but did not feel that it was masterful craft-wise
2: I did not enjoy reading this book (subjective)/This book is actually bad (objective)
1: I hated this book

I will always rate Hallett's books high because it is always the highlight of my year to get to read them. Even when I have some issues with them (which I did with this one), there is something about just getting to sit back and have the mystery unfold quickly and in inventive ways that keeps me coming back. I love Hallett's style; I love how she uses different forms of media to tell the story. This one follows a couple of graduate students wo are trying to finish a one-year MA in fine arts. I liked the premise and found the characters to be entertaining.

In general, I think this book has a slow start. Some of the reveals I didn't see coming, but some of them I did anticipate--which I appreciated! One of my big critiques of *The Appeal* was that the mystery was unsolvable to the reader because they would have needed information that was never given to them. That wasn't the case here and still there were aspects of the twist that I did not see coming.

Overall, I didn't find that the story itself (the reveal; what it was that was really going on behind the scenes) to be super impactful to me, but it does bring up some good conversations about our relationship with technology, war, and the devastation of climate change on the environment. It is hard at some points to pinpoint who exactly the villain is, which is the point. I wish that there was even one character that I could actually like, though. Even the "protagonist," as they emerge, weren't my favorite to spend time with.

But overall, I would call this a very successful book! I loved reading it and can't wait to get my hands on a physical copy. Thanks again to NetGalley for the eArc!

My current ranking of Janice Hallett books as they stand now:
1. The Twyford Code
2. The Appeal
3. The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels
4. The Examiner
5. The Christmas Appeal (I really don't remember much about this one)

I also *will* be reading her middle grade debut in 2025 even though that's a genre I don't read at all. I'm a little obsessed with how fun her books are.

This book puts you in the front seat and makes you the detective! I wasn't sure I'd be a fan of the format but it was a really fun read and I loved playing detective and figuring it out as the story progressed. Great book for Agatha Christie/ Murder She Wrote fans.