Loved, loved, loved The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels! This is witty, clever crime fiction written in Janice Hallett’s signature style of blending communication forms, rather than straight prose. The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels consists of text message and email exchanges, newspaper and book extracts and transcribed (mainly secretly recorded) conversations.

Amanda Bailey is a crime writer, commissioned to write a new book about a rather intriguing 18 year old murder case. That of four men who were part of a cult that considered themselves angels on earth, found dismembered in a warehouse in Alperton, north London. Their plan that night was to sacrifice the baby (the anti-Christ) of one of the members, Holly, but something went terribly wrong and they paid with their lives instead.

Gabriel – the cult leader – was imprisoned but always denies any wrong doing. The baby survived, their identity kept secret. But as they are now 18 years old, Amanda is determined to get exclusive interviews with both them and Gabriel and find out what really happened all those years ago in an Alperton warehouse.

Is it through Amanda’s research and correspondence with key witnesses and people connected to the case that this story is brilliantly told.

Unfortunately for Amanda, the Alperton Angels case is a hot topic and fellow crime writer Oliver Menzies is also on the hunt for an exclusive. The two know each other from when they were training to be journalists, but they are not exactly friends. This adds another intriguing dimension to the tale.

The world of a crime writer trying to hunt down the truth is wonderfully captured. Made even better by the fact Amanda isn’t always telling the truth. She’s a lead character you root for but she definitely has her own agenda too, one that is revealed in snippets throughout the story for maximum impact.

The dry sarcasm of Amanda’s former assistant and transcriber Ellie Cooper is also brilliant and really adds some great touches.

In terms of developing this story, I loved how Amanda writes a few different versions of the potential opening chapter of her book as she gets more evidence – it works to show just how multi-layered it is. The way the facts are weaved in and revealed are next level – just when you think the story is going one way, it swerves and gives you a jaw-dropping moment.

The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels blends crime and greed with the power of belief and people’s vulnerability to create this amazing story. It is one of those books that I was thinking about when I wasn’t reading it, just wondering what would happen next. A truly unique take on crime fiction that I know I’m going to read again to appreciate its intricacies.

Amanda Bailey:
The murder cases I’ve covered so far are all the same. Dead blonde, media frenzy, police fumblings, lucky psychopath.’
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Thank you, thank you, thank you to @viperbooks for sending me an early copy of this one! @janicehallett is truly at the top of her game with her latest! Her first 2 blew my mind with their creativity and this one has surpassed that!!
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Open the safe deposit box. Inside you will find research material for a true crime book. You must read the documents, then make a decision. Will you destroy them? Or will you take them to the police? Everyone knows the sad story of the Alperton Angels: the cult who brainwashed a teenage girl and convinced her that her newborn baby was the anti-Christ. Believing they had a divine mission to kill the infant, they were only stopped when the girl came to her senses and called the police. The Angels committed suicide rather than stand trial, while mother and baby disappeared into the care system. Nearly two decades later, true-crime author Amanda Bailey is writing a book on the Angels. The Alperton baby has turned eighteen and can finally be interviewed; if Amanda can find them, it will be the true-crime scoop of the year, and will save her flagging career. But rival author Oliver Menzies is just as smart, better connected, and is also on the baby's trail. As Amanda and Oliver are forced to collaborate, they realise that what everyone thinks they know about the Angels is wrong. The truth is something much darker and stranger than they'd ever imagined. And the story of the Alperton Angels is far from over.. After all, the devil is in the detail...
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For me, @janicehallett is just in a league of her own. The way she writes is unlike any other book I have read, the level of planning that must go into constructing these novels is honestly next level! I don’t know how her brain does it, but I am now eagerly hoping for and awaiting book 4

Wow…. Loved this complex, layered mystery, told through numerous formats -- emails, messages, fictionalized accounts of the incident, etc. I could not put this down and was fully invested in reading at a breakneck pace to gobble up this addictive novel.⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

What an addictive read! The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels sucks you in from the first page and doesn’t let up until the end.

Following a similar format to The Appeal (which I also absolutely loved!), The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels tells the story of one journalist – Amanda Bailey-’s attempts to write a book on a famous case from many years ago, using clips, WhatsApp messages, emails and transcriptions.

Though the way the story is told is obviously different to usual, it’s so readable and you become engrossed in trying to piece together the witness interviews, newspaper clippings and the thoughts of Amanda, her friends/ colleges, and her fellow (rival) journalist Oliver as we see them.

The book weaves in real crime cases from history and lots of fictional elements to make a dark but engaging story. The ‘characters’ Amanda speaks to are compelling, if not always likeable, and Amanda herself is an entertaining character which I loved following.

The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels is another great release from Janice Hallett, who never seems afraid to play with form and has, once again, written an intricate and capitulating mystery.

4* Janice Hallett has done it again. Taken a smart story, conceived it through a variety of communications and let it unravel in a way that will have readers on the edge of their seats. This one is the best yet.

You open a safety deposit box. The instructions suggest you should either close it quickly or pass the evidence to the authorities. That evidence relates to the mysterious case of the Alperton Angels a cult come suicide pact from several decades previously, but what happened to the few surviving cult members, including a baby who will now be an adult.

Told by Amanda Bailey, who is trying to piece the evidence together for a true crime book, this is a super twisty work of intrigue. For all the suggestions of the mystic (which isn’t my bag), hold on because every piece of evidence is weaved into a clever and surprising ending. This is worth the plaudits that will likely come following publication.

Many thanks to Serpent, Viper books and Netgalley for an ARC.

If you’ve read Janice Hallett’s work before then you know the drill… intricately woven stories that unfold via the medium of emails and text messages, and this book is no different. With “The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels”, the emails we see are mainly to or from author Amanda, who is writing a book about the eponymous cult that convinced a teenage girl that her baby was the anti-Christ.

As Amanda emails various witnesses to the case, or corresponds with those who have some connection to it, the story progresses at a wonderful pace, and the sense of intrigue grows. As it becomes clear that all isn’t as it seems with the case, Amanda must work to outsmart her rival - another author - while attempting to uncover the truth of what happened at the time and where the survivors of the case are now.

The characters, though only seen through their writing, are amazingly well drawn, and the plot is very clever. I love this author’s original and compelling way of telling a story and I will certainly be reading whatever comes next.

My thanks to the author, NetGalley, and the publisher for the arc to review.

I have read Janice Hallett's previous books "The Appeal" and "The Twyford code" so I was very keen to read and review this book.

I enjoy her unique style of writing as her characters are writing in texts, WhatsApp, texts, emails, voice recordings etc. This can be tricky to follow sometimes requiring the reader to make a few notes until they are familiar with the characters and the developing storyline.

True crime writer, Amanda Bailey, has had success in writing books including a Fred and Rose West etc. She is asked by her agent Pippa to write a book about a cult referred to as "The Alperton Angels" (not a real case) as it approaches the 18th anniversary of the crime. There are a lot of unanswered questions. A baby was to be killed as the angels believed the baby to be the Antichrist but a number of the angels were murdered and one was serving a life sentence in prison for a murder. Jonas and Holly escaped and the baby was saved. However, nobody knows where they are or the baby so Amanda is trying to track them down to interview them to discover the truth.

A fellow journalist, Oliver Menzies has also committed to writing a book but it becomes apparent that they have a history but agree reluctantly to work together and take a different "tack" on their respective books.

Amanda has a "transcriber", Ellie Cooper who is a great charcter as not only does she transcribe but she makes comments and suggestions which are highly amusing.

I did struggle initially in making sense of the investigaion but still found a excellent read and I would highly recommend this book.

I would like to thank Netgalley UK an the publisher Viper book for an advanced copy in exchange for a fair and unbiased review

I have been a massive fan of Janice’s books since devouring The Appeal in one day, and this didn’t disappoint at all.
Loved the concept, done so well and I loved the little notes by Ellie during the transcripts. Just brilliant.
Will be looking out for the next one in 2024, can’t come soon enough.

Similar format to The Appeal as the story is told through texts, emails and notes. I personally really love this way of storytelling as you feel more involved in solving the mystery. Much research has obviously been done on both cults and children who grow up in care, which makes this all the more believable. The only character that didn’t quite leap off the page for me was Jonah. I found his character very hard to pin down. I loved the tenacious character of Amanda as well as her assistant Ellie, who’s asides in the transcripts are genius. Very well written as you would expect from this author. The Twyford Code is one of the cleverest books I’ve ever read.

After thoroughly enjoying this authors first two books, I was looking forward to seeing what they had come up with this time!

This time, we follow author Amanda Bailey who has been commissioned to write the story of the Alperton Angels - a cult who had tried to convince its followers that a newborn baby was the antichrist. But what actually happened, where are the main players now and will any of them talk to Amanda?

This is another written in the epistolary style, as with the previous books, which makes it a unique and fresh reading experience telling a fantastically plotted tale.

I do love the format of this book, a sort of modern day ‘choose your own adventure’ style, where the story unfolds through a series of texts, messages and interview transcripts and you, the reader, have to try and work it all out. The information is doled out in such a way that it is almost impossible to work out exactly what is going on until you are almost at the end. It’s really quite clever.

The mixed media format also makes for a quick, easy and satisfying read. Overall a perfectly readable crime novel with some twisty bits and an interesting ending. I didn’t particularly like either of the main characters, but I suspect I wasn’t meant to.

I really enjoyed The Appeal and was very excited to read her next book.  I was really pleased that I was able to read it early through NetGalley. 

I like the style of Janice Hallett's books; the idea of being able to work out the mystery alongside the characters is really appealing to me.  I think it's something that lends itself well to her style and use of mainly emails, texts, transcripts etc.  I found the plotline in this book really hard to get to grips with.  There were a lot of different characters and different threads all going on at once and it was a lot to keep track of.  The first part of the book is mostly an info dump but even with that, I spent the vast majority of it completely confused.  It did make sense at the end and all the loose ends were nicely tied up but it was a long wait to get to that point.  I didn't particularly like any of the main characters either, I found both Amanda and Oliver to be irritating and Ellie's constant interjections in the transcripts was a bit annoying.  I thought the book itself was much darker and gruesome than I was expecting after The Appeal.  In some places, it was quite creepy and not good bedtime reading!  The amount of deaths got to be a bit ridiculous as well. 

Overall, I was quite disappointed by this book, mainly because of the amount of time I spent having no idea what was going on.  I would like to give it three stars because it is well constructed but I think my total lack of understanding is going to have to knock it down to two stars.  I received a free review copy from the publisher in exchange for my honest unedited feedback.  Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity.

As much as I wanted to love this book, I'm afraid the writing style just isn't for me. The premise of the book was so promising I just didn't connect with it.

Janice Hallett is a force for cranking out these books at the speed she is.
The Appeal was an absolute triumph for me, it was so fresh and engaging.
The Twyford Code lost me based on the formatting. With the transcribing from audio files and a lot of it getting lost in translation - literally - I found I wasn't as engaged at all and didn't really enjoy it.

I must say, The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels is definitely a return to form for Hallett. Again, this is mostly transcriptions from audio files, but it is much more legible. Throw in some TV show scrips, whatsapp messages etc. and we have ourselves another unputdownable thriller. I love when the conspiracies go right up to the top of the food chain!
I loved Ellie and Amanda, was saddened by the ending but found it really fitting. Will definitely be recommending thisone!

I'll say one thing for Janice Hallett, you never know what you're going to get! Yet again, this novel is written in a slightly different form ie that of transcription from interviews, interspersed with text messages. I always want to read these novels because I do like the different formats but, unfortunately, unlike The Appeal and The Twyford Code, I did find that the device here detracted rather than added to the story and it did get a bit confusing as to why some of the interviews really needed to take place and how they added to the story. I am sure Hallett will write better stories in the future, but this one did not live up to my expectations of her usual standards.

In ‘The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels’, a research file put together by fictional true crime author Amanda Bailey is shared with us, the reader, so that we can follow Amanda as she investigates a perplexing case involving people who believe they are angels put on earth to prevent the rise of the anti-Christ. Comprising WhatsApp messages, emails, voice recordings and other documents, pieces of a nearly 20-year-old puzzle are put in place to solve the case – but at what cost to those involved?

Has Janice Hallett herself made a deal with divine forces? As with her earlier novels, the way she crafts a gripping thriller by bringing together a series of conversations and snippets of information is just remarkable. You soon get used to the format of reading messages, emails and voice recording transcripts and become fully immersed in the mystery. With each discovery that Amanda makes, I felt a frisson of excitement and also trepidation as she gets closer to the facts of the case. Amazing, too, how you can glean people’s personalities just from text – the characters of Oliver and Ellie being stand out examples.

If you have enjoyed Janice Hallett’s first two novels, ‘The Appeal’ and ‘The Twyford Code’, you won’t find yourself disappointed. As ever, there are lots of different individuals involved, but I felt I was able to keep track of who was who – except where the author had other intentions – and, naturally, I was immediately suspicious of everyone! Another superb read from this author and one that has the rare quality of needing to be read a second time to enjoy all over again. Highly recommended.

This review is based on an advance copy; with thanks to the publishers, Viper, and to NetGalley.

She's done it again! I saw the author described as the new Agatha Christie and you know what, it's a big yes from me- the way she pulls me into her stories and doesn't let go til the absolute end is incredible. Really amazing work

I have read both of Janice Hallett's previous books. I absolutely devoured 'the Appeal' - read it in one sitting, and recommended it to anyone and everyone. Hallett's second book, I really disliked - so with this third novel I was a little bit dubious as to what I would make of it.

I'm really pleased to say that I enjoyed it - not as much as 'the Appeal' but it was definitely more up my street than 'The Twyford Code' - which completely lost me.
This book uses the mixed media format of Hallett's first novel, and is complex with lots of twists and turns. At times the book did feel a little too complicated, and I felt a little lost - however the payoff when everything was tied up at the end was worth it. (Not a lot of thrillers tie up all the loose ends)

I think this book would make a great film or TV series, and it feels so original and relevant. It felt like a true story.


I enjoyed this book, and I was definitely doubting throughout the reading experience what star rating I would give the book. My opinion changed throughout reading.
For me the book started well, but the more it went on, the more lost I got - until the final 10% where things were summed up.

I look forward to what Janice Hallett does next.

‘The Mysterious Case Of The Alperton Angels’ by Janice Hallett is the third book I have read by this author, and I continue to be in awe of her talent. Her style is bold and modern, and communication is at the core of her storytelling. She uses WhatsApp messages and emails to open up the story, and it is extremely effective.

Almost two decades after the Alperton Angels cult imploded, with the suicide of many of its members, Amanda Bailey is commissioned to write a book on the subject. But she’s not the only one. Her old rival Oliver Menzies hopes to uses his connections to beat her to it. But as they look into what really happened, it becomes apparent that collaboration is the only way to find out the truth.

The cult, and its charismatic leader, convinced two teenagers that a newborn baby was the anti-Christ and must die to save the world from evil. The girl came to her senses in time and saved the child. But where is she? And what happened to the baby? Amanda is determined to find out, but the darkness she finds is so much stranger and takes her in directions she could not have imagined.

The way the story is written made me compelled to keep reading. It was addictive. More and more clues are slowly revealed and it’s thrilling, dark and twisty. The first ‘WOW’ moment knocked me off my chair, followed by another and then another . Ingenious storytelling at its very best.

I was given this ARC to review.

This review will go live on 17 January:

Hi and welcome to my review of The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels!

I could probably make a living out of reading crime fiction if I were paid for every crime thriller I read. That is exactly why every novel by Janice Hallett is a sight for sore eyes: with her unique style she always shakes up the genre and The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels is another breath of fresh air.

The case of the Alperton Angels is a mysterious case indeed. Decades have passed and it’s still not clear what actually happened back in the nineties. There are a lot of theories and the book and its many messages, transcripts, script extracts etc. are composed in such a way that for the longest time I had no clue what to think. It was very easy to believe that what I was reading was actual research for a true crime thriller.

What I look for in mysteries and thrillers, Alperton Angels has in spades: all of the mystery, all of the intrigue, all of the suspense, red herrings and twists. What it also boasts that most other books don’t: a highly original manner of presenting the reader with all of the above, thus encouraging us to join in the sleuthing. However, if you want my advice, try and keep the sleuthing to a minimum if you don’t want your head to explode 😬

The less said the better in this case, so I’m going to keep this short and sweet: The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels is a fantastic, intricate and surprising mystery in a brilliant format and I had an absolute ball reading it. Highly recommended.

Massive thanks to Viper Books and NetGalley for the eARC. All opinions are my own.