thanks to netgalley and viper for the free earc in exchange for a fair and honest review!

i have read every janice hallett book since the appeal. i'm obsessed with her writing style and the way the stories are told; this wasn't an exception. the characters were very well fleshed out over the span of the book, to the point of being able to differentiate the speaker without looking at the title.
i do believe this book was probably especially cool to me because it's set at "royal hastings, university of london," presumably a play on royal holloway, uol, a school i really like and have looked into a lot, so i was able to picture a lot of the locations in my mind.
this book is very good, and the twists leave you wondering how you missed that. read this if you liked any of janice hallett's other books, or you want a unique mystery. overall, this was very good.

I was attracted to this book because I love dark academia and epistolary novels, however I found this to be less dark academia and more espionage in a continuing education course.

The first 100 or so pages (of the ebook at least) were very flat and contained mostly petty arguing amongst the students within the university's intranet system along with some cryptic messages from the "examiners" who are meant to provide an unbiased grade to the students following the completion of the course. These examiners are not directly involved in the course itself and only review materials and provide a grade at the end of the course. I have only done undergrad in the US, but I am fairly certain this is a UK specific academic role.

Finally more than a third into the book, the action picks up and we learn some shocking surprises about the folks taking this course. Given that this book is not written in a traditional narrative style, all of these revelations are shared through instant messages, emails, and essays both for personal use and to be turned it at the end of the course.

Although the plot was a very interesting concept, I found the execution lacking in that the motivations of some of the characters made very little sense and I didn't understand their role in what was going on. I was also baffled by how unprofessional and bizarre the students were despite the explanations provided. It was also completely nonsensical and a let down that the plot tied up with evidently no consequences for the various crimes committed throughout this year long course. It seemed as if no one even noticed what had happened or just totally ignored it. I am not familiar with the UK post graduate education system however this still strained credulity even beyond standards of fiction.

Ultimately I found this book to be a very unique premise that tried to be too much so ended up just being very confusing in parts and a little ridiculous.

Many thanks to Atria Books and to NetGalley for this ARC to review. This review is my honest opinion.

The Tell-Tale Heart meets Ocean's Eleven...sort of.

Through emails, college message boards, and WhatsApp messages, we follow a rag-tag group of people on a mission to complete a Multi Media Arts Masters (MMAM) program. Some are there truly for the art, some are there for a more nefarious reason. Can you solve the mystery of the missing student?

Like her book, The Appeal, I loved the storytelling through email and text. I felt like I was being nosy and trying to determine what was going on along with the external examiner and college admin. Jem's twist took me completely by surprise and explained so much. The roller-coaster of the ending definitely had me hooked. I will recommend Hallett to anyone who wants a good page turner! (BTW- a people carrier is the UK version of a minivan)

Huge thanks to #NetGalley, #Simon&Schuster, and Janice Hallett for allowing me the chance to read this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

This was good, not great. I was left a bit unsatisfied by the ending, and while the concept is cool, I found myself skimming through some of the duller aspects of showcasing school assignments and such.

This was an addicting, easy read. Epistolary as always with her novels. However, I think I’ve finally articulated that her books are never super memorable for me. The plot seems to drag out a lot and there’s too many POVs that I kind of get lost while reading the story.

Janice Hallett has done it again! A compulsive epistolary novel that kept me on my toes to the very last email! It’s incredible how multidimensional characters can be just told through emails, text messages, and class assignments. Would recommend to my friend’s who love a whodunnit. I would rate this 4.5 stars only because I reserve 5 stars pretty exclusively.

I was worried when I first started reading this book because it was a little bit of a slow start not unlike the Appeal. But I enjoyed it a lot more than the Appeal. The characters in the Royal Hastings Art course were a lot more relatable each having their own distinct personalities and backstories, something that I found different from the characters in the Appeal as the characters in that book all kind of melded together.

Once the story began to pick up I couldn’t put this book down. The twists and turns, the narrator turning out to be unreliable, just when I had thought I had the ending figured out Janice threw us another curve ball!! Overall this was a great book and I would highly recommend it!!

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for this digital ARC copy all opinions are my own.

3.75 stars! Janice Hallett delivers yet another suspenseful, tense mystery that enticed me from the get-go. Her ability to craft an entire mystery novel from emails, texts, and reports is truly astonishing. Every character has their own voice, which is insanely difficult to do when you’re only reading messages and don’t get any (or very few) details about the characters’ body language, physical traits, etc. Though some of the build up I found to be a little slow and boring at times, every detail matters and clicks together into an elaborate picture at the end, and the plot twists are jaw-drop worthy! I didn’t enjoy this one as much as The Appeal, but Hallett deserves all the recognition and applause - she’s an auto-buy author in my world.

Thank you so much to Atria for the e-arc!

5/5 stars. I LOVED this book. It kept me on the edge of my seat and left me trusting no one. I also loved the format of this book! It reminded me of Illuminae. Thank you NetGalley for the arc, please check this book out!!

Really enjoyed The Examiner and thought the characters were all pretty well fleshed out. I'm always intrigued by Hallett's modern epistolary novels and the characters created. My only criticism is that the story felt a bit stretched out too long but other than that the plot and characters kept me picking up the book again and again.

Janice Hallett is the absolute master of modern epistolary mysteries, each time selecting a new communications source to tell a story that makes the reader a detective. In the past she has used texts, emails, voicemails, theater scripts, children’s books, and news articles to build a tale. This time she’s primarily using “Doodle,” a Microsoft Teams/Slack-like group chat plus the student essays and reports of instructors. “The Examiner,” a final arbiter/reviewer and outsider, is trying to make sense of the grading of six students and he senses that something is definitely wrong — even to the point that a covered up murder might have occurred.

When reading a Hallett novel, it’s often best to be ready to jot down notes and keep track of the cast of characters before you get overwhelmed and your head explodes.

In the narrative, Gela is the chief tutor of a half dozen diverse participants in the Royal Hastings, College of London, Multimedia Art upper level (MA) course. She’s invested (and perhaps a tad desperate) in ensuring that this class succeeds enough to be featured in future college catalog offerings since a lot of the MA courses are being discontinued. She has handpicked the first participants.

The students:

Jem - youngest, jealous, makes cringe-y remarks, immature, gossipy, over-confident, dependent on her Dad as a chauffeur, and very nosy
Jonathan - gallery owner, in his 50s, seems too close to married Alyson
Patrick - art supplies store owner looking to join in with his customers’ creativity
Ludya - established graphic designer/single mother with two kids and time/money issues
Alyson - established artist, considered the “star” of the class, prefers to work at night
Cameron - corporate type with sensitive outside work, doing MA as a new hobby, not really engaged in the course, but possibly teacher’s pet (“kiss-kiss”)

Then we have the Examiner Ben, who is consulting with Tilda and Karen, just as the final group art project is installed, to see if his suspicions that something is amiss are true. He reviews the group conversations, private chats, and grading reports. Minor characters are admin Hannah (always trying to get paperwork from Gela) and art school technicians like Griff.

The group’s final collaborative project involves a real company with a long history that is trying to reinvent itself. There’s a group field trip (minus the annoying Jem) to the company’s archival site. Something is brought back from the corporate museum that probably shouldn’t have — and its inclusion in the final installation is a turning point.

Ms. Hallett’s brilliant talent is to make you feel like the primary detective — and her twists and revelations are amazing. You thought you were reading about the toxic teamwork during the final external review of an advanced art class, but in the end the final mystery is something altogether surprising. 5 stars!

Literary Pet Peeve Checklist:
Green Eyes (only 2% of the real world, yet it seems like 90% of all fictional females): NO This type of book has few physical descriptions of characters.
Horticultural Faux Pas (plants out of season or growing zones, like daffodils in autumn or bougainvillea in Alaska): NO Patrick considers suspending flowers in resin as a new business (and, um, he practices putting other things in resin, too).

Thank you to Atria Books and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy!

Hallett's books are so distinctive! I enjoyed the school setting of this one although I was puzzled for a long time how anyone could be in a MA pro9ram without having any kind of BA. I thought it must have been some British thing. I like how you really do get to know the characters despite them all being only represented by their text based communications and how she makes them seem like distinct people. So many writers can't do this even in a more conventional format. It was a lively, quick read.

Great pacing and great development for the characters. I was heavily invested in the plot and descriptive settings.

Wow! This one was fun.

I really enjoyed the unique format of this novel. It was easy to follow despite the different types of communication mods the author used. The characters were interesting, and there were many twists that I did not see coming. Jem was a particularly engaging character, and my impressions of her changed as the story developed. The story kept me guessing the entire time. I recommend checking it out.

Thanks to NetGalley for the book to review.

4 stars

If you ever find yourself with a full day of free reading time, the first author that I would recommend picking up to fill it with is Janice Hallett. All of the books that I have read by her are thoroughly engrossing puzzles that will leave you guessing from the first page to the last page. The Examiner, a mixed-media deep dive into the dark secrets lurking behind a MA Arts degree program, is no exception.

For me, Hallett does her best work when she works with a tight-knit but highly dysfunctional cast of colorful characters. The choice to put her seven main characters in the pressure cooker that is a graduate program is both highly entertaining as we witness altercations from petty tiffs to outrageous sabotage and haunting as the plot begins to twist and the reader is focused to question everything that has occurred thus far. While some of the twists and reveals felt like they went a little off the rails, I devoured this book in less than 24 hours and I will continue to pick up anything that Hallett writes.

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

Janice Hallett is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors and her new book, The Examiner, was another thoroughly enjoyable read.

Funding is being cut in the art department at Royal Hastings University in the UK. Gela Nathaniel has recruited six students to take her Multimedia Art course in hopes of ensuring her future. These students couldn’t be more different and chaos ensues as they struggle to work together to complete their final assignment which must be done as a team.

As she’s done so well before, the story is told from message board excerpts, what’s app messages, student final essays and other unorthodox means. What unfolds is a crazy and creative jigsaw puzzle that I find refreshing and fun. I encountered this author’s writing style in her book, The Appeal. At first, I found it hard to follow, but as I became used to this original way of telling a story, I was and continue to be awestruck by Hallett’s imaginative and intelligent writing.

I was entertained from the start and didn’t want to stop reading, constantly awaiting what would be revealed next. There were satisfying twists and an ending that wrapped up nicely.

I’ll be buying the audiobook when it comes out as I know there are things I will catch listening that I missed reading the first time.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this one! I love how different Janice's novels are and how engaging they are for the reader, I truly never felt bored. My one issue is that it sometimes felt outdrawn and the resolve could have come sooner, but overall I really enjoyed this.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for providing me this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

No one writes mysteries like Janice Hallett. All of her books are like puzzles that will really challenge you. I always look forward to seeing what new format she will come up with next.

The Examiner is told through an online message board for a masters level class, as well as some emails and texts between the characters. You know that someone will be dead by the end of the class, but WHO won’t be revealed until at least two thirds through the book.

There is a large cast of characters with big personalities and plenty of motives. There are several mysteries entangled in the main mystery, as well as plenty of plot twists.

I know returning fans and new fans alike will love this fun, engrossing mystery.

This was fine.

What I liked:
- The format was unique and that is always interesting
- Diverse and prickly characters

What didn't work:
- The characters never quite felt well fleshed out until the very very end
- The ending itself seemed a little rushed
- In the end, I didn't buy that all this story would have been written about in this format.

I will read any book that Janice Hallett releases. The examiner was a unique murder mystery set in a school setting and I found myself not able to put the book down as the story progressed because I wanted to know what happened. With every twist and turn I was sucked in and ultimately I was shocked by the ending.