The Christmas Appeal (2023) by Janice Hallett

Reading Christmas mysteries in August is not unheard of for me, nor is reading summer-holiday-set books in December. So, I had no qualms about reading this book ahead of the festive season and in fact I was very excited to hear earlier this year that Hallett was writing a follow up to her debut mystery The Appeal (2021), which is my favourite book by her to date. In the same vein as her previous mysteries The Christmas Appeal is structured using documents such as emails, transcripts, and WhatsApp message threads.

Synopsis
‘Christmas in Lower Lockwood, and the Fairway Players are busy rehearsing their festive pantomime, Jack and the Beanstalk, to raise money for the church roof appeal. But despite the season, goodwill is distinctly lacking amongst the amateur dramatics enthusiasts. Sarah-Jane is fending off threats to her new position as Chair, the fibreglass beanstalk might be full of asbestos, and a someone is intent on ruining the panto even before the curtain goes up. Of course there's also the matter of the dead body. Who could possibly have had the victim on their naughty list? Join lawyers Femi and Charlotte as they read the round robins, examine the emails and pore over the police transcripts. Will the show go on?’

Overall Thoughts
Hallett’s dedication is themed around Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol (1843): ‘For the Ghost of Christmas Past’ and this is also followed up with a quotation from the book, ‘These are but shadows of the things that have been.’ This is a nice touch, making a nod to the Christmas milieu of her story, as well as tapping into the fact that Femi and Charlotte through the course of the narrative will be dissecting and exploring documentary evidence, which will bring up a mystery from the past. This is a theme which crops up in the story itself when one character writes: ‘In my experience, if the past is buried away, it has a habit of popping up, without warning and when you least expect it.’

Whilst I don’t think Femi and Charlotte are provided as strong a motivation to perform armchair sleuthing this time round, the opening email to them from a previous, but now retired mentor, still sets the story up as a puzzle/challenge, putting it back into the groove of The Appeal: ‘While you establish yourselves in the field of criminal law, it doesn't hurt to keep the wheels of deduction turning. I have another fascinating case to run past you [...] I've read the enclosed and think I've worked it out. I wonder if you can.’

One of the highlights of this book is the opening email from Celia Halliday, which is a round-robin Christmas family newsletter email. Even when she is excusing the necessity for a round-robin email, she basically manages to insult her recipients: ‘More than that, we have such a vast number of friends that writing to you all individually would take far too long - so we only send personal emails to family and those we are especially close to.’ Her family newsletter made me laugh out loud a lot, as it is full of boasting, whilst trying to act modest yet failing miserably. For example, she shares how her husband got an OBE and she writes that:
‘The award of Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire comes with onerous responsibility. He had to change his credit, debit, library, gym, National Trust and Waitrose loyalty cards to feature the three little letters he is legally required to place after his name.’
The icing on the cake of course are the email responses to and about her newsletter, in particular the one from Carol Dearing, which reveals how Celia’s boasts are distorted versions of the truth or downright fibs. These opening emails, particularly Celia’s, were good at revealing character through the way someone writes and talks about things. Moreover, we get to see the characters from different points of view, which allows us to get a fuller picture of them, such as Celia, who over these opening communications emerges as a toxic version of Hyacinth Bucket. However, Hallett does not have a black and white cast of nice or nasty characters, as even those you initially side with, are shown later to have feet of clay. The start of the novel could maybe have done with a community family tree of sorts. It took me some time to place the various characters mentioned, as it has been quite a while since I read The Appeal, when these characters first appeared. So, there is probably an advantage to reading both books back-to-back, not least because plot events from the first do creep into this latest story. Finally, the amateur dramatics milieu of the narrative is established effectively at the start of the book through these messages, with past events alluded to which show the comic problems such groups can encounter. I also really enjoyed how components of the performance are woven into the mystery plot, including stage props.

One of the things I really loved about The Appeal was the way that the plot was built up layer by layer through the correspondence and documents that Femi and Charlotte read. The beginning of The Christmas Appeal is also strong at doing this as the emails establish the underlying tensions and rivalries within the amateur dramatics group and provides threads for future plot development, such as the Dexters, a couple who have not been seen since the auditions. What might have happened to them? Furthermore, the epistolary style of the novel works really well in showing what happens on the night of the pantomime performance. I loved how the problems and troubles kept piling up. Some of these you can anticipate, whereas others you are left to find out as you read at 90mph to find out what happens next. There is an element of Shakespearean Tragedy in this sequence in the way people’s plans go astray due to the machinations of others, as well as due to random and unpredictable events.

Nevertheless, what I think hampers The Christmas Appeal from reaching the same heights as its predecessor is its length. In comparison it is significantly shorter, and this does impact the plotting of the book. Firstly, this means that possibly quite interesting narrative threads become dead ends or get forgotten about, such as one relating to a particularly two-faced character. I hoped they would have had a greater impact on the overall plot, but they do not. Yet, I would say the biggest effect on plotting occurs in the second half of the book when Femi and Charlotte are given a newspaper headline which tells them that there is a dead body at the pantomime performance. But who is the victim? This information is not provided and at this stage Femi and Charlotte discuss they think they already know. I liked this aspect as it allows the reader to check their own ideas. What worked less well for me was when they are asked to identify the victim. The way Femi and Charlotte are set such challenges felt artificial and less like they were trying to solve a real case. Moreover, I would argue it is impossible or at least incredibly unlikely that they or the reader could ever solve that puzzle. When the answer was revealed, I did feel disappointed as it very much had to be something you were told, rather than something you worked out for yourself. I did check back over the earlier parts of the story to see if I had missed anything, but the best I come up with was one slender clue, but the wording is not strong enough to indicate it was meant to be a clue.

This problem unfortunately increased as I read through the second half of the story as it becomes clear that the narrative has not played fair with its textual armchair sleuths (Femi and Charlotte), nor its readers. The issue of withholding information is definitely present. Furthermore, unlike The Appeal, the role of the documentary evidence changes in the second half of the novel. In the beginning of the book, such evidence offers clues and ideas through showing you characters interacting with one another and you have to work things out for yourself. But in the second half the documents, especially the end ones, have to spell out and tell you things which you could not have otherwise known, thereby almost acting like a confession. All in all, I would say the case is not as complex as The Appeal and offers less for the reader to get their teeth into. I wonder if the format and structure of Hallett’s books do not lend themselves to being short i.e., around 200 pages, as this page length does not seem to allow an even level of plot and character layering.

Hallett has a fifth book coming out next year called The Examiner, which seems to be double the length of The Christmas Appeal, so I have high hopes this future mystery will have the page space for the epistolary narrative style to function at its best.

Rating: 4.25/5
Source: Review Copy (Viper)

P. S. For those who have read the book I have a plot related query written below in ROT13 Code, so don’t decode it on Google unless you want to encounter spoilers.

Fnenu-Wnar naq ure uhfonaq raq hc jvgu n ybg bs qehtf ba gurve unaqf (jura bar bs gurve tebhc reebarbhfyl ohlf gurz vafgrnq bs fjrrgf sbe gur nhqvrapr puvyqera.) Boivbhfyl Fnenu-Wnar naq ure uhfonaq qb abg jnag gb or pnhtug jvgu gurfr vgrzf, juvpu cebivqrf fbzr pbzrql, ohg V nz onssyrq nf gb jul gurl qvq abg whfg syhfu gur qehtf qbja gur ybb. Jul qb gurl jnag gurz tvira gb n qeht qrnyre gb erqvfgevohgr? Gur zbenyvgl bs guvf pubvpr frrzrq n ovg bss.

Definitely one for fans of The Appeal as have the same setting (the theatre group) and some character overlap.

Interpersonal drama alongside a dead body, who knows something? This was nice and short, around half the length of The Appeal, and I read it in an afternoon. It has Hallett’s signature page-turning style and I massively enjoyed reading all the pettiness and drama unfold as the group attempt to put on, and sabotage, a christmas pantomime.

The ARC unfortunately had some formatting issues but this didn’t take away from my enjoyment of the book.

I found the ending slightly disappointing, but apart from that this was super enjoyable. The Appeal remains her best work though.

Thank you NetGalley and Serpent's Tail / Viper / Profile Books, Viper for my approval to read and review this book.

Wow, this book was amazing!! I couldn't put it down!! It was lovely to revisit The Fairway Players and they certainly feel like friends now after reading their second book. The premise is they are putting a Christmas Panto - Jack and the beanstalk. It certainly has very memorable moments where you will laugh out loud at what has been written, especially when the comedic moments within the panto itself. It's a fast paced read with plenty of plot twists and turns with a few red herrings thrown in. I highly recommend you read this book.

I do love the inventiveness of Janice Hallett and that the devices she uses are so original. Nevertheless, it is nice to see her go back to her first format in this follow up to "The Appeal". This short story is not as intricate as the original novel but it is still a fun read and it is good to be back in the theatre watching the same backbiting and shenanigans continue. I don't think this one will shock you and it's pretty easy to work out what's going on, but a fun read nevertheless and one that Hallett fans will definitely enjoy.

The Christmas Appeal reunites us with the Fairway Players and god, was it good to have them back.

The brilliantly insufferable snob Sarah-Jane is now co-chair of the players and they’re putting on Jack and The Beanstalk as this years panto.

Poor Sarah-Jane has to deal with busybody Celia trying to sabotage her play AND a body showing up right in the middle of it all.

Lawyers Femi and Charlotte who are looking over evidence to try and solve the case, and the book is told entirely through text messages, emails and police reports as they try to piece together what happened.

It’s probably strange to say I adore a book about somebody dying but I honestly love Janice Hallett’s writing so much, it’s so fun and inventive and this follow up to The Appeal felt like I was returning to old friends. I loved it.

I’m a huge fan of Janice Hallett, I absolutely loved The Appeal, and this shorter christmas story with all of the familiar characters is so wonderful!! It’s gripping, the character development is fabulous, it’s so funny and comic at times, it is a perfect cosy winter mystery. I cannot wait to get a copy of this book so I can lend it to other people. I think this will get people out of reading slumps. This is just the sort of book that makes me fall in love with reading, I am so grateful that I got to read it before publication!

The Fairway Players just can't catch a break. Having finally put all that ... Mess ... Behind them, the group is getting ready to stage Jack and the Beanstalk as their annual panto. But tensions are running high backstage and on show night, disaster strikes!

This is another brilliantly, cleverly written mystery set in a community that I found myself oddly pleased to be back in. Couldn't put it down, there were some genuine laugh out loud moments and several unexpected twists. A lovely, cozy read!

I received a copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review

The perfect "cosy crime" Christmas read!

I laughed out loud several times whilst reading the Christmas Appeal which just goes to show how much I enjoyed it.

Comic misunderstandings, cloying and not entirely truthful, round robin Christmas letters, a mishap prone play and talk of a murderer arriving in the area, what more could you ask for?

When a dead Santa is discovered, we're left wondering how it happened and who was involved.

With rivelries amongst the actors simmering, it's interesting to see how this unfolds!

Perfectly written and I enjoyed that it was written in a WhatsApp message style format as it allowed for conversations to flow between the characters.

This is my second Christmas book this week and it's only August. This is my third read of a book by this author each one written in a unique style using letters, emails, text messages etc. I am still not sure how much I enjoy this style of writing but it is certainly different.

"The Christmas Appeal" by Janice Hallett is a Christmas themed novella with the Fairway Players back on stage preparing for the festive pantomime 'Jack and the Beanstalk'. The novel is set in the village of Lower Lockwood and the story is told in an assortment of emails, letters and texts.

The Fairway Players are aiming to raise money for a church roof appeal but there is tension in the group and plenty of disagreements. The characters communications drip feed information throughout and make you feel you may be able to solve the puzzle yourself. I know there are many people who like this style of writing and although I enjoy the books it does seem to stop the flow for me personally.

I did enjoy this festive read, a cosy tale told in an unconventional way that kept me entertained. A 3.5 star rating for me.

I would like to thank both Netgalley and Serpents Tail for supplying a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

This book should come with a warning not to read it in a public place because omg it made me laugh out loud so many times and got me some very odd looks !!
I was so thrilled to be given an early copy of the book from the publisher and also over the moon to be back with the Fairway players from the previous novel The Appeal and I absolutely loved it. I am actually lost for words to describe what an incredible read the book was it had everything that I love in a story and I can honestly say there isn’t anything about it that I can fault.
So superb writing , a whole cast of wonderful characters and a clever plot Janice Hallett gives us all of these things and more I really can’t praise her enough for giving me such a wonderful reading experience … this is why I read to be taken out of myself and loving every minute of it, so a massive thank you to her.
This is a 100% , 5 star must read please don’t miss it it will light up your day.
My thanks to NetGalley and Serpent’s Tail / Viper / Profile Books for giving me the opportunity to read the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

So pleased that Janice Hallett has reunited us with the Fairway Players for a Christmas novella set in the same world as "The Appeal", this time in "The Christmas Appeal". It did remind me of "The Play that Goes Wrong" and a series of loveable characters in farcical situations. It would be the perfect book to give a crime-lover at Christmas.

really enjoyed this book. wacky group of characters, would love some more, exploring the exploits that these charters get up to whilst trying to put a play on

A lovely festive update to The Appeal. As with other books by this author, this is a clever and well plotted mini novel. Bits of it are properly laugh out loud funny.

A short, funny clever story perfect for the run up to Christmas.

This was such an amazing comeback to the Lockwood and the Fairway Players circle! I devoured this in an evening, relishing in how amazingly Hallett works intertwines plot with the email format. Anyone who read the Appeal and loved it will love this seasonal novella as much or even more!

I adore Janice Hallett and I was lucky enough to get a copy of her latest novel #thechristmasappeal via #netgalley

Fabulous as always, it is a lighthearted, cosy sort of crime and if you've read #theappeal already then you will recognise many of the characters.

The cast of suspects are as always enthusiastic in the endeavours and expertly entertaining.

I found myself with a smile on my face the whole time I was reading.

I really hope this isn't the last time we hear from the Fairway Players.

I enjoyed The Appeal The first novel are setting the fictitious village amateur dramatic society. For this novel, the background is a Christmas panto which predictably goes wrong. A body is found inside a giant jack in the beanstalk prop. The mystery is who is the party and how did it to find itself there?
As with the previous novel the story is told as a succession of text messages and emails , I did find myself getting rather lost with the characters as a story flips about quite a lot, because of this I found I didn’t enjoy this novel as much as the previous one.
Anyone who has been involved in how much dramatics would know that it is there a potential hotbed for stories and I love the way the author has done this.
Because of the way the story is told there isn’t much chance for character development. This is primarily a story lead novel.
I read an early copy of the novel on NetGalley, UK, then novelist published in the UK on the 28th of October 2023 by Viper
This review will appear on NetGalley UK, good reads and my book log, bionicsarahsbooks.wordpress.com.

I really enjoyed this, would be a lovely quick read in the lead up to Christmas. Unlike The Appeal I did figure out what was going on before the reveal but that didn’t spoil the ending. It was great to visit Lockwood again and I would read more of the trials and tribulations of the Fairway Players!

I loved returning to the world of "The Appeal" in this book! It's light, simple and funny rather than repeating the complex web of connections that made "The Appeal" so compelling, but I really enjoyed it anyway and imagine it would make a fabulously fun festive read. I will definitely be recommending this to readers at Christmas time!

What a delight to be back in the company of the Fairway Players as they rehearse their Christmas pantomime, Jack and the Beanstalk, in aid of the church roof repairs. The usual hilarious backstabbing, one-upmanship and ludicrous casting and design choices are all evident in the round robins, emails and text messages under scrutiny from the two young lawyers Femi and Charlotte. Can there really have been another murder in this small but active community, and who is it this time. Slyly observed and sharp as ever, this is a short but sweet festive treat not to be missed.

Janice Hallett is one of my favourite authors, I even got to see her in Edinburgh at a Toppings event to celebrate her hardback release of The Alperton Angels. I absolutely adore her writing and The Christmas Appeal did not disappoint.
This cosy, festive murder mystery revisits the cast from The Appeal to solve a new murder which happened in the small town. But don’t worry, you don’t need to have read The Appeal to read this book, it is all very self-explanatory.
Books which let the reader solve the crime themselves seem to be the rage at the moment on bookstagram and booktok, so I’d definitely recommend getting your hands on this one – right in time for Christmas!
Thank you again to Janice Hallett, Rachel Quinn, Viper and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.