The Examiner is the story of a Masters art course got wrong, told in a very unique way. It is Janice Hallett's trademark style of creating a story out of emails, texts, essays, anything but bog standard prose. It slowly builds up as more is revealed, and not always in a linear fashion, sometimes shining light on what the reader may have previously perceived to be an innocuous comment. It is clever and full of twists I didn't see coming.

Unfortunately for me, having very much enjoyed many of the previous works, this one took a bit too long to get going. The slow build up feels even slower, with barely any mystery hinted at for quite some time. At the beginning it felt like I was reading the messages between students, their work, comments from their tutor etc... but without any intrigue. The stakes do build dramatically by the end but the first quarter, if not more, didn't hook me in.

Recommended for fans of mixed-media. If you have read the author's other works and are looking for something in the same style, then this is another fun mystery in that slow-building, clever format. If you are new to Janice Hallett's writing, I wouldn't recommend this be your first one. Pick up the much more instantly engaging options of The Appeal or The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels.

I found this quite an odd book.

I do really enjoy books that have an interesting and unusual structure like this - it was told in emails, texts, assignments and diary entries. I felt like some of it worked well and some bits felt quite dull. It took quite a long time for the plot to get moving.

All the many descriptions and discussions about the art, assignments, technology and companies, whilst relevant, could be quite dull and repetitive at times.

Once the plot picked up a bit, I was intrigued and there were some really cool twists and turns that I didn’t see coming! Particularly enjoyed the reveal about Jem which was very clever!!

Quite enjoyed how the end left a few things up to interpretation as well. I like it when thrillers aren’t just tied up in a neat little ending.

So, pretty mixed feelings. However, I have really enjoyed books from this author before and I’d definitely try more in the future.

2.5* --> 3

I have a sneaking suspicion this will be a wildly unpopular opinion, but I’m afraid “ The Examiner” didn’t at all work for me. Multiple times I considered throwing in the towel, but this is Janice Hallett and I couldn’t not give her the benefit of the doubt.

For the first time, I felt the original concept of merely using messages and transcripts just wasn’t working. The assignments the students were working on brought little to nothing to the story and I found it all slightly tedious. Few of these characters are particularly likeable and there was one who annoyed me so fiercely from the very first sentence they uttered that I was about ready to throw my kindle out the window. 

It’s obvious there’s something going on that a few of the characters, and the reader, are unaware of. But if there were clues along the way that I should have picked up on to figure out what that was, I missed all of them. Heck, I couldn’t even understand why any of the students were there in the first place as I’m pretty sure I would have left after a day or two. The toxic environment was really getting to me.

Normally I would race through these chapters but somehow the pace seemed entirely off. It didn’t really seem like much at all was happening, but in hindsight I’m wondering if it wasn’t some kind of distraction. That said, it wasn’t until the 70% mark where something finally got me buzzing. That last quarter, where the pieces of the puzzle start to come together is why I read this author’s books. However, by then I had nearly lost all interest in the storyline, which went from slow and lacking excitement to being rather convoluted. Still, somehow ‘The Examiner’ did redeem itself in the end as Hallett was once again able to take me entirely by surprise.

I’m extremely surprised that I ended up feeling somewhat underwhelmed about it all. I normally really enjoy Janice Hallett’s books. This time around though, the concept just didn’t click with me. As I said at the beginning, I’m pretty sure I’m in the minority so don’t let my opinion put you off. And I will undoubtedly be reading Hallett’s next offering when it arrives.

Having not read anything by Janice Hallet before, it was certainly a revelation to be introduced to this writing style.
The story is told purely through text, direct messages, and group messages. There are also reports from examiners, support staff and tutors.
The premise revolves around six students enrolled on a Mixed Media Masters Degree at Royal Hastings College. The story is told principally from their interactions plus their tutor, Gela, {short for Angela, but with a hard G). In the background, we are told that three examiners are auditing the course. One examiner believes some harm has befallen or is about to occur to one of the students and asks the other two examiners to peruse all the messages and documentation. So, in other words, we are reading what these examiners are reading.
This approach is very different and I liked Hallett’s skill in that even though we only have dry messages and reports, you find yourself having an affinity with some students and thoroughly disliking others. There are a lot of layers to go through and surprise after surprise emerges about the students and their reasons for being there.
I did enjoy this unique way of storytelling, but with two minor problems. Firstly, about halfway through the book, we were getting lots of repeats of messages, but the pace had slowed so much, that there was a danger of it becoming boring. Secondly, in contrast to the messages, the conclusion and revelation were so fanciful, it was hard to get my head around.
So, it’s a jury out 3 star from me, but will probably pick up an earlier book from this author to improve my perspective.
As ever, sincere thanks to NetGalley, Janice Hallett and Serpent’s Tail, Viper, Profile books for the much-appreciated ARC in exchange for an open and honest review.

‘ Be aware that if my worst fears are true, then one of the students on this course is dead.’
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JANICE HALLETT DOES IT AGAIN! I would truly love to sit down and look at how she plots through these books, the intricate details that are dropped like breadcrumbs throughout the whole novel that suddenly hit you in the face with the big reveals, she truly is creating a sub genre of it’s own with her unique style of writing mysteries and I feel beyond fortunate to have had an early read of this one!
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The plot is gripping, the characters infuriating yet loveable, the story telling second to none. I cannot begin to explain how quickly i raced through this, as the minute I stepped foot into the world Janice Hallett had created, that was it, I was sucked in, there was no leaving! My big piece of advice for any mystery lover, is to just do yourself a favour, purchase all of her back list and this new title also, pour a cup of coffee, and just binge read these intricate, fascinating and oh so clever books!
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Cannot thank Viper Books for the arc more! I adored it!

The latest Janice Hallett book follows a similar style to her previous ones. It is told through various mediums, in this case a messaging service, essays, and Whatsapp.
Set in a university a diverse group are brought together on a MA art degree: Jem, Suzie, Jonathan, Patrick, Cameron and Ludya along with Gela their tutor.
The reader becomes the sleuth with the course Examiner reading the various communications and assignments to try and find out what happened on the course over the year. Did someone go missing on the course and what happened?
This is a fast paced addictive story which is hard to put down.
I highly recommend this Janice Hallett title which will appeal to previous readers and new ones!

I haven't read this book because it expired on Net Galley before I had a chance to read it. It is a shame as I was looking forward to reading this book.

The queen of the epistolary novel, and the modern day Agatha Christie, is back with my most anticipated novel of the year.

The Examiner focuses on course leader, Angela Nathaniel, and her attempt to pilot a new Multimedia Art course at the Royal Hastings University designed to bridge the gap between creatives art education and the job market. On the course is Alyson who is a renowned artist to bring credibility to the course; Patrick, the people-pleaser who wants to be everyone’s friend; Ludya, who can’t seem to balance the course workload with her family commitments; Cameron, a burnt out corporate professional whose idea of therapy is to complete a masters degree; Jonathan, who has management experience running a gallery but no creative experience; and Jemisha who’s ruthless ambition you should cross at your own peril.

Then there is the external examiner who is there to ratify the students grades but fears for the safety of one student who may, or may not, be missing. Therefore, they have access to the group chats, e-mails, tutor reports, essays, journal entries and Doodle (the university’s intranet) to solve what happened to them. In typical Janice Hallett fashion, the reader fills the role of the examiner in order to solve the mystery with the readers own point of view creating a unique reading experience. Nothing should be taken at face value and one of the early plot twists was incredibly satisfying both in terms of deceiving the reader as well as providing a jab at our own unconscious biases and assumptions we hold.

Unlike Janice’s prior novels, this was the first novel where the delivery of the main mystery didn’t seem equitably paced throughout. Janice Hallett chose to spend more time during the first third of the novel on petty correspondences between the main players and on the progress of their assignments. Whilst she succeeded in finding humour in the mundane and extrapolating that to extreme situations, utilising well developed characters to do so, this consequently meant that the main mysteries felt underdeveloped and less satisfying than it could have been. For the first time reading a Janice Hallett novel, I anticipated the plot twists and the plots consequent direction of travel which meant that the conclusion was not as shocking as I had hoped. Nevertheless, I had to pace myself as otherwise I would have feverishly finished this novel in one sitting.

Irrespective of my gripes, Janice Hallett is the most innovative author in the mystery-thriller genre and I will continue to wax lyrical about each release. Therefore, I am now setting my sights on her explosive introduction into the children’s literature genre next year in a Box Full of Murders.

If you thought your time at university was stressful, you should read The Examiner, you ain’t seen nothing yet!

This is the latest in Janice Hallett's twisty novels in which the reader is invited to be a detective, I have read, enjoyed and become familiar with her style that incorporates texts, emails, essays, Doodle chat group, instructors reports, and more to deliver the story. The University of Royal Hastings, not real, has set up a Multimedia MA with a tutor, Gela (Angela) Nathaniel has the threat of funding pressure, leaving her with the concerns of trying to ensure it succeeds, her future employment may depend on it. She must have six students from diverse backgrounds from across the nation on the course, which there is, none of whom are likeable, whilst you are left wondering what some of them doing on the course.

The course examiner comes from the outside, with the task of assessing and judging performance in a group project in deciding whether to award the degree to the students, and he has worries, something definitely feels wrong, could a murder possibly have occurred? He reviews the coursework, group interactions and relationships, and assessments. There is friction, cheating, secrets and more amongst the students, which consist of a wide age range, we learn of their backgrounds, from the irritatingly ambitious Jem, Patrick, an arts supplies store owner, Jonathan, owner of a gallery, single mother Ludya with financial issues and 2 children, Cameron, who is treating the course as a hobby, and the more established Alyson.

Gela herself struggles mightily when it comes to engendering group cohesion. Little is as it appears in this, at times aggravating, well plotted, puzzle of detective fiction, but I have to say that I was far from convinced by the conclusions. However, i did enjoy the entertaining journey, and look forward to Hallett's next book! Many thanks to the publisher for an ARC.

I love these style of books where it's told through messages and email. There were a number of twists throughout this book which kept in engaging until the end

As a longtime fan of Janice Hallett, i was eagerly anticipating *The Examiner*, and it didn't disappoint—almost. The story had me completely gripped from the start, showcasing Hallett’s talent for crafting intricate plots and compelling characters. I couldn’t put it down.

However, by the time I reached the end, I felt like I’d missed a crucial part of the plot. The conclusion left me with lingering questions, which slightly dampened an otherwise thrilling read. Despite this, *The Examiner* is still a strong addition to Hallett’s collection, and I look forward to her next book.

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This version retains the key points while being more concise.

‘The Examiner’ by Janice Hallett a thrilling fourth book within the mystery genre. This wasn’t my favourite Hallett book, but I loved the unique mixed media format; emails, texts, assessments and messages - books that push outside the normal scope of genres are up my street.

In terms of plot, I think the chosen mixed media - was an ideal to progress the novel and the mystery at the centre of the book, which allowed the twists to not be foreseen. I didn’t personally enjoy it as much as I thought I would, due to the format being similar to the Appeal, whilst I adored the academic aspect but when the technology company was introduced I began to lose interest and got confused midway through between what we knew and didn’t know, there remain a few questions - which may or may not have been answered. The character development was superb, and Hallett has created a set of (un)reliable narrators at the centre of the story - was someone murdered? Well I will leave you to find out.

I would recommend this book to usual fans of mystery, a good holiday read or someone who wants to explore books using an original format.

3.5 rounded to 5

As usual thank you to Viper Books for an ARC in return for an honest review

Thank you to Viper Books and Netgalley for my ARC. I’ve read and enjoyed four of Janice Hallett’s novels and was thrilled to get to read this.

Like her other books, this is written in a mixed media format - what’s apps, emails, essays etc. It’s such an interesting way of delivering information to the reader as it’s much easier to hold details back (such as about physical appearance), which allows for a few twists and turns.

I’m not going to even attempt to summarise the plot - it’s marvellously complex, but will say that the setting is that of an MA course and one of the students may, or may not, have been murdered.

I found this a little confusing at times but overall a great read. Hugely clever.

'The Examiner' is another deviously clever whodunnit from the new queen of crime, Janice Hallett. Like her previous novels, it is comprised of a dossier of assembled documents, in this instance all relating to an MA course in multimedia art at the Royal Hastings University.

As readers, we are greeted by the external examiner who is reviewing the work completed by the six students and is concerned that something has gone awry and that one of the students may have come to serious harm. We then work through a series of intranet messages, student assignments and reports by the course tutor to try and piece together exactly what has happened.

Hallett has once again assembled an engaging cast of characters whose online interactions provide much amusement as well as intrigue - including young, ambitious student Jem Badhuri, no-nonsense single mum Ludya Parak, acclaimed artist Alyson Lang and elusive corporate businessman Cameron Wesley. Tensions are quick to flare up between the students, especially once they start working on an installation for a big technology company. However, seasoned readers of Hallett's work should know to take nothing at face value as the novel is full of misdirection, with multiple moments where we realise that what we have been reading is not remotely what we think. I thought I would be wise to Hallett's tactics by now but was still floored by each of the plot twists when they arrived.

This is sure to delight anyone who enjoys intricately plotted crime fiction. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an ARC to review.

Janice Hallett is an absolute master at this style of non narrative mystery. The tale is told via WhatsApp and a college VLE, gradually unfolding into an intriguing story with unreliable narrators. Who is hiding the truth and what is the truth?

The queen of mixed media thrillers is back! The examiner follows a group of students in an art master’s program and that’s the last I am going to say without accidentally giving away any spoilers!

I have read all of this authors books and this one did not disappoint! The mixed media format made this so easy to devour.

I did find it a little repetitive in places and a little confusing at times. However, I loved the characters, in particular Jem and they’ll be hard to forget for a long time!

Another absolutely banger from the author!

I have loved all of Hallett’s previous books so was really pleased to be approved for the eArc of this latest one.

As with all of Hallett’s books this isn’t written in a traditional format. We see the messages the students sent back and forth to each other on the University message service, Doodle, as well as some of their written assignments and marks from the Lecturer, Gela.

I don’t want to say too much but what I loved with this one is we can see as the book goes on that we’ve basically got a whole cast of unreliable narrators, which I absolutely loved!

Jen and Patrick were my absolute favourites. I couldn’t get enough of them. The characterisation in general was excellent but these two were just perfection for me.

The final assignment was like a typical group project but on steroids and I loved the way the story came together at the end.

I did work out some twists but some definitely caught me out and I kind of want to read it again with the knowledge that I have now to see if that changes my views and how I read any of it.

Overall, a very clever and twisty tale. I have no complaints.

3.5-4*

Thank you to NetGalley and Viper for the arc.
This was a bit of a mixed reading experience for me. I’ve only read one of Janice Hallett’s previous books (The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels) but thoroughly enjoyed it and so I was really looking forward to reading this arc. Hallett is an assured and confident writer with an engaging writing style, but I have to admit that I found this one to be harder going. The premise of the story is that a murder may (or may not) have happened on a new MA art course. If you have read any of Hallett’s work’s before you will know that she favours a variety of different ways of forwarding the story (e.g. ‘audio tapes’, emails, newspaper cuttings, straightforward narration etc), this time however the bulk of the story is told through class chat on the course VLE and multiple subgroup WhatsApp chats featuring different variations of the 6 students who make up the course. I found myself constantly having to double-check which mix of students was chatting on each subgroup, and the long stream of chat/email exchanges got quite wearing by about the halfway mark. The numerous twists and turns were quite good fun -if more than a little far-fetched- and there were a number of genuinely creepy moments in there as well.
A good read if you can get past the constraints and the frustrations of the medium the author has chosen to carry the story.

This is my third read by Janice Hallet and I love the style she writes in.; a series of emails, and messages which gradually build up the clues as help solve the "whodunnit". In the previous two books I read (The Appeal & The Christmas Appeal) I liked that the story was set amongst the world of amateur dramatics and pantomime and I found them really humorous, this time however the setting was a mature students Art Course, which sounded promising, but then the subject of the art course was a sound installation for a technology company and I just became really turned off and confused by the more scentific aspects of the story. There was just too much time spent discussing the workings of the various components and it overshadowed the humour and the clever way the online messages reveal the mysteries. Full of promise but only 3 stars from me.

Firstly thank you to Viper Books and NetGalley for the ARC.

I love Janice Hallett’s work. This is the fifth book of hers I have read and wow - I still don’t know how she does it and still never saw any of the twists coming!

The Examiner is set out much like The Appeal. We begin with a group of external examiners assessing an MA course. Through the online communications and assessments, they believe that one of the students has gone missing…

As always the characters are really well fleshed out, the book is incredibly well paced and felt darker than usual. I absolutely loved it, thank you!