The Fairway Players return and this time they are preparing for their Christmas pantomime, Jack and the Beanstalk. All is not well, however, with Sarah-Jane finding that not all of her fellow actors are pleased that she is the new Chair and the piece de resistance, the beanstalk, may actually contain asbestos. When a body is found, the whole performance looks like being memorable for all the wrong reasons! We join lawyers Femi and Charlotte as they examine the evidence, trying to ascertain who has something to hide.

Janice Hallett has become one of my favourite authors as I love her use of text messages, emails and other documents to tell the story, leaving the reader to piece together what has happened and, hopefully, solve the crime. In The Christmas Appeal, we once again meet The Fairway Players who we first met in the author’s best-selling debut, The Appeal. It was good to see what had happened in the time since that book and how the events had impacted upon the local community. You do not, however, need to have read The Appeal in order to enjoy this short book, indeed, this is an ideal book to introduce Janice Hallett if you have not read any of her previous work.

In The Christmas Appeal, we have a great mystery and a fascinating array of characters, many of them with secrets they want to stay hidden, but do any of these secrets involve murder? The story is told with humour and I found myself laughing out loud on more than one occasion, as mixed messages nearly cause a huge catastrophe!

This is a perfect book to read on the approach to Christmas and will definitely be another huge hit.

Sarah-Jane and her husband, Kevin, are in charge of the pantomime, Jack and the Beanstalk. The Halliday’s are still unhappy to have been ousted and will do whatever it takes to ruin this year’s panto.

The Fairway Players are planning to raise money to fix the church roof but will all be plain sailing?

Femi and Charlotte are reading the round robins from the group, the police transcripts to work out exactly what did and didn’t happen at the pantomime.

I enjoyed this short story and found myself laughing a lot. The author has written a great Christmas tale which kept me immersed from start to finish.

Interesting and plausible characters & I have to admit that it wasn’t quite what I was expecting at the end!

My thanks to Serpent’s Tail and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for my honest review.

The Appeal, Janice Hallett’s celebrated crime debut, is the one book of hers that I’ve not yet read. Having read and loved The Christmas Appeal, and knowing that it is set in the same madcap world of the The Fairway Players, I must make catching up with that very first book a priority. The characters, the set-up, the humour, intentional or not, were absolutely fabulous and right up my street.

Now I grew up in a family where it was almost a right of passage to join the local amateur dramatics groups. It started with the very local group who once a year, in the February half term, would put on the annual town panto, so you probably understand why this book resonated with me so much. I mean, it was never this dramatic, but still. The Christmas Appeal, as you might expect from the title, is set amongst the rehearsals and ill fated performance of this most traditional endeavours, the pantomime, with The Fairway Players putting on a charity performance of Jack and the Beanstalk in order to raise funds for the church hall roof.

Panto is not something that is meant to be taken very seriously, and Janice Hallett taps into this perfectly with a story which is lighthearted and tongue in cheek, with all the madness and farce of the best panto productions, amplified to such a degree that you might be forgiven for thinking someone may have been product testing some of the “sweets” that are purchased for the children attending the show.

Rivalry between fellow players over who should really be the chair of the group, adds a constant display of oneupmanship, in its own right comedic and chuckle some. We’ve all met a Celia Halliday in our lifetime, the Hyacinth Bucket of The Fairway Players, and the am-dram thesps, who would do anything to secure that best part, could be literally any of a number of work colleagues – we all know the type. They are strangely authentic and each one brought a smile to my face for different reasons.

This wouldn’t be much of a mystery if it was all just about the jealousy of one family (the Hallidays) towards another (the MacDonalds). This is definitely a story of double-crossing, secrets and pent up frustrations, and nothing is quite what it seems. From the most innocent of misunderstandings, to a very high stakes error in judgment, right through to a drunk pantomime horse and the unexpected early appearance of Santa Claus, much to the delight of the children and the horror of the cast, this story entertained from the start.

Told in the authors original style of a series of emails, statements, and text messages, and with interludes as the legal eagles, Charlotte and Femi try to decipher the case files sent to them by Roderick Tanner, this is a fast paced, fun, highly witty foray into the dangerous world of pantomime, and I loved every minute of it. Definitely recommended,

I was chuffed to have been approved for this on Netgalley. Especially as my first book on there 😍

It takes place a few years after The Appeal and features the return of some familiar characters.

Charlotte & Femi are given another set of transcripts to look over and see if they can source the corruption.

The relationships between characters are funny, dramatic and complex. There were times where I was laughing out loud, wincing & rolling my eyes.

This book is much shorter than The Appeal, I think it’s classed as 1.5 in the series, but it is not lacking.

The context is the same, texts and emails, making it quick to read. However I still found it an effort keeping up with who was sending to who.

Charlotte & Femi’s sleuthing skills seem to have evolved and it was great seeing them come across so confident.

I loved the Christmassy feel and it definitely got me excited for the cold evenings and festive performances that December brings.

Reading this was just a joy. As with The Appeal, the characters in this were perfectly observed and the story was told with a great wit.
I think it’s safe to say that anyone who enjoyed The Appeal will enjoy this one.
I’d basically read anything Hallett writes at this point!

4.5* The Christmas Appeal by Janice Hallett is a another clever story told in a trail of breadcrumbs via mixed media messaging.

Three years on from their last entanglement with the law, the Fairway Players, amateur dramatics group and political vipers nest, are staging Jack and the Beanstalk for one night only. Celia can’t quite get over Sarah-Jane being elected as leader of the troupe and everyone seems to have something to hide. Not much goes right on the run up to the big night but the show must go on.

Roderick Tanner KC again asks his juniors, Femi and Charlotte, to read the bundle of evidence to crack the mystery of what has happened.

This is a fantastic book. Clues are in unlikely places. The exchanges between the characters are barbed and often laugh out loud funny and the plot hurtles at breakneck speed. It’s novella length which I read in two sittings. The Christmas Appeal will be loved by fans of The Appeal but would also be a great standalone.

Thanks to Netgalley and Serpents Tail for an ARC.

I loved THE APPEAL so I was looking forward to seeing what The Fairway Players were up to this time.

This one is a short book compared to the previous one but it was still just as good. The witty one-liners, community drama that everyone has to stick their nose in and, of course, a dead body!

I thoroughly enjoyed this one and I quite liked the reveal around the dead body!

Highly recommend this one for a cosy Christmas murder mystery.

I love a murder mystery and this didn't disappoint. The characters were great and loved the way in which the story unfolded in part with the emails sent round to the 'cast'.

Did not see the ending at all and loved the twists and turns.

Janice Hallet writes a short tasty seasonal mystery novella in her trademark style and resurrects offbeat characters that will familiar to fans of The Appeal. There is fun, farce, rivalries, humour, mayhem, madness and murder as the Lockwood Fairway players plan to stage the Seventies production of the pantomime Jack and the Beanstalk, with the aim of raising funds to fix the church roof. Roderick Tanner (KC) provides the stack of multimedia documents, including social media, WhatsApp, texts and emails, for the curious Charlotte and Femi to peruse. Hallet is remarkable in how she lets the distinct characters emerge in all their glory through her unusual, stylish, and moreish format. There is intelligence, wit, laughs, suspense, twists and turns, iin this festive mystery, and even if you have not read The Appeal, please don't let it put you off from getting your teeth into this, you are unlikely to regret it. Many thanks to the publisher for an ARC.

I loved the Appeal and was beyond excited when I heard that the Christmas Appeal featuring the Fairway Players would be available in October. A fabulous quick read with all the ingredients we've come to expect from Janice Hallett's book.
A fantastic stocking filler for your favourite bookworm for Christmas

Expertly written by the wonderful Janice Hallett I devoured this like a tin of Quality Street on Boxing Day….
Great to revisit the faraway players, I loved the appeal, so it was great to see where the characters ended up.
Told though messages, emails, police transcripts and newspaper cuttings Hallett get again puts a interesting and modern twist to the classic whodunit Agatha Christie style of writing, like Agatha she manages to make political and social observations without it being pushed down your throat, very clever writing. She holds your interest, keeps you guessing and makes you howl with laughter at the mix characters.
While this story isn’t as complex or as long as The Appeal it is just a good. Full of dark humour and mystery. The story itself is less dark than The Appeal but it matches the Christmas theme so works perfectly as do all the clues to keep you guessing, though I did kinda work out in part the twist half way.
I always enjoy how Hallett gives a tidy ending whist leaving us hanging a little. She is a master.
This book is a must read for fans, would make a great Christmas gift along with a tin of chocolates to devour together on Boxing Day… simply one .of the best ARC’s I’ve read this year I actually wish I had waited to buy it and read it over the festive period…loves me good mystery with a festive feel.
Thank you so much for the early Christmas gift in way of this ARC in exchange for my review.
Is it good??? oh yes it is!!!!

The Fairway Players presents: The Jack and the Beanstalk Pantomime. 
Well, I say presents, but really where the Fairway Players are involved, disaster is sure to follow. 

How fun it was to be back with the old cast of The Appeal again. There is the usual rivalry between characters of course. Femi and Charlotte are back again too, doing their own detective work.

I liked that this was a quick, fast paced Festive read.

I have enjoyed all of Janice Hallet's novels so far and was looking forward to another episode in the life of the Fairway Players after her excellent first novel, The Appeal. I found her ingenious use of text messages, news and police reports had been an excellent way of telling the story in her earlier novels and I expected to be equally absorbed this time. However, I felt the innovative format was less interesting this time and the characters were harder to engage with, even though some were familiar from the first book. Perhaps it was the pantomime or the not-so-lighthearted Christmas setting that let this one down for me, as the whole plot seemed rather forced and ultimately quite slight. I feel she has moved on from the early 'cosy crime' feel and really developed with her Twyford Code and Alperton Angels novels, but this seemed rather a pale version of her first work. I still look forward to further novels, hopefully with a little more bite.

Firstly, although it's not necessary to have read 'The Appeal' before reading this book, I'd certainly recommend it. It will give you an introduction to the type of book it is and the format used, and will introduce you to the history of the characters and The Fairway Players which I think is important.

I really love Janice Hallett's books and was so excited to receive an ARC of this book. I perhaps should have checked the page count before reading as I was expecting it to be much longer than it was - I couldn't believe how quickly I got through it! The book was fun but the mystery wasn't as exciting to me and it didn't feel as involved as 'The Appeal' where you could take notes and work alongside the narrative to try and figure out whodunit.

Overall I would recommend this but be prepared that it's much lighter on story and mystery than the first book. But who doesn't love a Christmas murder mystery?

This Christmas novella revisiting the cast of Janice Hallett's wonderful novel The Appeal is no doubt going to end up in a number of Christmas stockings this year. I gorged it all in one go, easy to do at a manageable 200 pages. It contains all the same wit and humour from the first book, as well as a new mystery to unravel. Because of the length of the book, I don't think the mystery was particularly complicated and in that respect it doesn't quite match up to The Appeal, but it's such an entertaining, funny read anyway that I don't think it matters at all.

I absolutely loved The Appeal and was delighted to return to Lower Lockwood and the Fairway Players for another outing.

Once again the author is an absolute master of alternative formats, using emails, texts and other means to communicate the story. There’s a pantomime in production and once again warring factions are at work. It is definitely not the season of goodwill as plans are underfoot to sabotage the efforts of the producers!!

I really enjoyed this. It is the perfect seasonal piece. More hilarious, more farcical and slapstick that The Appeal. The round robin at the start had me in stitches. This is pure fun and my jaw ached with laughing.

Thank you so much to Netgalley and Viper for my copy of this highly entertaining read.

i loved the appeal when i read it in one sitting a few years ago, a compelling and funny murder mystery set in a small town. this one features the same characters with a few new ones. it was short and sweet, just not as interesting or gripping as the first

I really enjoyed this Christmas special which is a delight to read. It was fun catching up with the Lockwood characters and had the added bonus of making me laugh out loud more than once. It's just the right length to read on a winter afternoon with a cup of tea /glass of Christmas cheer and a mince pie!
Thank you to netgalley and serpents tail for an advance copy of this book.

The story:
After the events of 2018, you might think it was the end of the Fairway Players. But the show must go on, and it’s pantomime season!

With a 30-year-old beanstalk, power-grabbing cast members and disobedient dogs, the amateur dramatics group’s co-chairs already have their work cut out for them…

But when a particularly macabre challenge comes their way, will the Fairfield Players be able to pick it up, give it a wink, and firmly knock it out of the park?

My thoughts:
I’m so pleased to be back in the company of the Fairway Players! A festive follow-up to Janice Hallett’s 2021 bestseller “The Appeal”, the group of amateur actors are tackling their annual Christmas panto, Jack and the Beanstalk, with this year’s appeal being an ever-popular cause — the repair of the church roof.

However, as with its predecessor, we know all is not well, as the story is being told (via emails, text messages and police interviews), by Roderick Tanner, KC (retired) to young lawyers Femi and Charlotte, with the challenge of working out what’s been going on in the small town of Lockwood.

A few years have passed from the events that shook the Players in the original story, and there has since been a power struggle for control of the group. The passive aggressive, tit-for-tat emails between current co-chair Sarah-Jane MacDonald and aspiring leader Celia Halliday had me laughing out loud, as did a particularly unfortunate attempt to organise the party bags for Santa to distribute!

Janice Hallett is once again on top form, and the task of distinguishing between small-town pettiness and actual foul play is as challenging, and funny, as ever. Definitely one to put on your Christmas list for a great festive read!

It was so nice to return to the high drama of amateur dramatics! I really enjoyed seeing The Fairway Players and seeing how their Christmas panto would turn out. The format of this is the same as The Appeal, told mostly in emails & messages, and I just enjoyed seeing it spiral towards disaster with the backstabbing & that familiar curse of what can go wrong will go wrong. There’s plenty to laugh at, and that’s all before a dead body turns up.