I’ve said it before but I think it’s worth saying again Janice Hallett has a mind like no other . Another fantastic read that honestly you have no idea where it’s going the planning must be immense. An examiner for a masters fine art degree has access to all the intranet and works of the group and thinks there might have been a murder or is he reading too much into it? With twists and turns and a gasp out loud moment this book has everything

Another unique and enjoyable read from Janice Hallett.
The book is written him the form of emails , group messages and longer essays which helps make this the unique read that it is .
There are a group of mature students on a MA Multimedia Art course , this is a new course and the students seem a strange bunch .
We learn more about them and their backgrounds and learn that all is not is at it first seems and there are ulterior motives for the students attending the course .
I won’t describe anymore of the book as I don’t want to give any spoilers away .
I can say that Janice Hallett has done it again and is fast becoming one of my favourite authors
The book does have a slow start but gains pace and I love the ending !
Unique , enjoyable and intriguing!
Thanks to NetGalley and Serpent’s tail/ Viper / Profile Books

The story:
All is not running smoothly in the inaugural year of Royal Hasting’s Multimedia Art MA. The tutor is desperate for a successful course to keep the university’s arts program running, the mature students are an instant personality clash, and a year-long project for a corporate client looks set to raise tensions even higher.

But after *something* occurs on a seemingly innocuous materials-sourcing trip to Somerset, it seems there is more going on between the students than petty competition and jealousies. Will the external examiner be able to get to the bottom of what’s happened? And will all the students make it to the end of the course unscathed?

My thoughts:
Janice Hallett is now firmly established as a go-to author for me, and I was eagerly awaiting her latest story, written in her distinctive, epistolary style. And if you thought the Fairway Players were bonkers (see “The Appeal” and “The Christmas Appeal”), you haven’t met the students of Royal Holloway’s Multimedia Art MA!

As always, the author had me laughing out loud with some of the exchanges between the characters, from their unexpected stay in a budget hotel family room to ‘save costs’, to the exploits of youngest student Jem, a character not shy to go after what she wants!

Hallett’s trademark, modern epistolary style this time sees the story take place mainly via messages between the students, their tutor and various staff, on a university’s intranet system, and via phone messages. There are six students in total, and they seem a fairly unlikely collection for such a course – an over-qualified artist, a man whose family runs an art gallery, a busy and flustered graphic designer, a burnt out marketing exec, an art supplies shop owner, and young Jem, a fine arts graduate. Why they’re all really there becomes apparent (or does it?) as the story progresses, with events taking a dark and mysterious turn after a trip to Somerset. What was the real reason for going? What happened while they were there? And who really came back?

What I find interesting is how this style of storytelling leads you to fill in blanks for yourself without realising, especially regarding the pictures of the characters you build up in your head. I suppose that’s the same with all novels to an extent, but with everything told via the medium of intranet messaging and WhatsApp, it’s even more the case. And Hallett uses this very cleverly, showing our mental pictures to be wrong by suddenly revealing attributes of the characters we’d had no idea about before, and that casts what we’ve read into a whole new light. As always, I was flicking back to read past sections again, with new knowledge gained, as I went along!

Overall, another gripping, fun and crazy ride that led in some very unexpected directions from a master of twisty story telling!

My first Janice Hallett novel completed!

Giving this fours stars because even with the slow start I was intrigued from beginning to end and desperately trying to find out what was going on.

It’s a great feat of writing I think, to be able to imagine characters and their personalities so perfectly when all you’re reading is their messages and intranet posts.

I did think the ‘big reveal’ felt far fetched but I just followed along for the ride and enjoyed myself!

I’ll definitely be picking up another of her works.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher.
4 ⭐️

Another twisting read from this author, written in her now familiar style of emails & texts etc. Some readers find this distracting but I find it intriguing, adding another layer to my head scratching.

As the title suggests, we find ourselves at university studying a Multi Media Arts Masters. A disparate group of six students are chosen by head of program, Gela Nathaniel. She is under scrutiny due to her grading of certain individuals; some of the students are not who they say they are & an examiner fears for someone’s life.

Cleverly written, with a complex plot interspersed with some much needed humour & asides. An entertaining read.

4.5 stars. Janice Hallett is a 100% go-to author for me, I will read anything she writes before I know anything about it. She never lets me down, and this is no exception - what a brilliant story, brilliantly written.
The amount of insight, detail and backstory that Janice manages to get into what are mainly public communications is amazing, it must take such thought to write in this style and we, as readers, benefit from it massively. The style makes the pace of reading quick and almost frenetic as you start to get to the end and all the threads come together.
The story is completely original, and just pulls you in immediately. The key twist in the storyline hit me like a ton of resin (this will make sense when you read it!), I didn't see it coming at all. I thought I knew roughly where we were going to end up and then I found myself down a completely blind alley, agog. It was excellent and so much fun to read.
The cast of characters were great opposites of each other, every kind of person was represented. There are a lot of people to keep track of but I never felt lost. They all had very individual voices and ways of communicating, which helped a lot.
All I can say is that I hope Janice is sitting somewhere right now, writing another book because I just can't get enough!

Honestly, I think this is Hallett's best book up to date! She can make the path towards the answer of the whole mystery so surprising. This type of book is just so much fun to puzzle the story together.
You do start realising something went wrong with the group of students but it takes a while for the documents to com clean about this. There were a few twists and revelations that I did not see coming. The characters feel very real and possible, not all very likeable though. Nothing is as it seems and that makes Janice Hallett's book so amazing!
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the digital ARC.

Six mature students embark on a new Masters degree course in the field of art. With nothing in common and all with their own agendas for completing the course, Alyson, Jem, Patrick, Jonathan, Ludya and Cameron must work together and with their tutor, Gela, to earn their degree and deliver one final project. Following their year-long journey, an Examiner reviews their coursework and online message board communications and notices something amiss. Six started the course, but how many will reach graduation?

The main thing that I noticed about ‘The Examiner’ is that the first half of the book had, what I felt, quite a slow pace. The structure of the messages sent between the course members gradually revealed information about each of the characters and other interesting little details that Janice Hallett fans will be meticulously scrutinising for any clues, but the patience put in in the early stages certainly pays off as the novel progresses.

I put the book down several times during this first half out of sheer irritation at some of the characters, which is just another example of Hallett’s excellent writing skill! I felt Ludya and Jem were particularly stand-out characters, and Griff the permanently exasperated Technician also made me chuckle as I recalled my own experiences at university.

As tensions mount between the course members and the completion of their final project draws nearer, the pace most definitely picks up, and the reader (and the Examiner) is given new, eye-opening information about earlier events that ensure the pages keep turning. In fact, one of the best things about Janice Hallett’s novels is how you can read them twice; the second time enjoying noticing all the details that now have additional meaning and context.

I absolutely loved ‘The Examiner’ - each new novel by Hallett is such a treat. If I were to recommend this book, I would suggest that the reader has already read an earlier novel (or two, or three) by the author, to ‘get their eye in’ to the style of writing. This book felt longer than her previous books and I think a little prior experience of the fantastically unique style would go a long way to persevering with the initial introduction of the characters and plot.

Huge thanks to the publishers, Viper, for the advance copy on which this review is based.

If competition in academia is typically so fierce because the stakes are so low, what will happen when the stakes are raised to murder? It’s a question every bit as thorny as the conundrums facing the venerable British institutions—amateur dramatics, children’s literature, niche religious cults—skewered by Janice Hallett in previous novels. With The Examiner, she applies her trademark wit and signature cutting-edge epistolary style to the secrets, rivalries, and betrayals within a university setting.

Higher education funding cuts have hit Royal Hastings University and esteemed lecturer Gela Nathaniel has been left with just one course for the 2023–24 academic year: the new MA in Multimedia Art. To prove the course’s worth to university management, she has handpicked six students for the trial run: Alyson Lang, established artist; Patrick Bright, retirement-ready art shop owner; Ludya Parak, single mumtrepreneur; Jonathan Danners, gallery owner; Cameron Wesley, corporate burnout; and Jem Badhuri, recent graduate.

They’re a motley crew to be sure, and it’s not just their different art specialisms that set them apart. Given their diverse characters—not that Gela ever gets round to filling in the diversity forms—tensions bubble from the “getting to know you” stage as egos and styles collide, and after artwork has been incinerated, clay thrown and accusations of both theft and infidelity raised, there seems little chance that the final group project will be a success. Perhaps it’s even worse than that, however, as the group seems be down one student by the end of the course.

Indeed, The Examiner is related through the students’ instant messages, emails, diary entries and coursework submitted via the university’s Doodle information management system, as well as correspondence from certain members of staff, as accessed by the course’s external examiner. That unfortunate individual is meant to use data available on Doodle to audit the students’ final grades but soon comes to suspect that something terrible has happened during the course.

The canny formatting favoured by Janice Hallett means that the reader occupies the position of the external examiner—that is, the detective. All of the course materials are set out in chronological fashion for the examiner to work through while verifying the grades awarded by Gela, which means that events of the academic year are slowly revealed, as are the personalities of those involved, as The Examiner progresses. This renders the story attention-grabbing from the outset, and it’s impossible not to attempt puzzling things out alongside the examiner.

But, while the fact that something peculiar has happened is immediately clear, before the examiner can get to the details and unpicking of the mystery, the intricate character- and world-building are frontloaded in the style of a freshers’ icebreaker event. Interestingly, the mixed media narrative style means that the students and Gela first get to introduce themselves through their welcome messages and stated aims for the course, and then their true natures are revealed through their interactions.

As a group and individually, taken at face value, the six students are thoroughly unlikeable. They’re a perfect storm of shameless egomaniacs with fragile self-esteem who are all willing to ruthlessly pursue their (professional) goals. This means that there’s next to no chance of them sacrificing their plans and pulling together to complete a group project, which really calls into question Gela’s thinking in selecting guinea pigs for a new course centred on diversity, inclusion and cooperation. Still, all the bitching, back-stabbing and attempts at sabotage are really very funny.

Plus, once enough communiqués have built up to allow for a more nuanced interpretation of comments and behaviours, the genius of Hallett’s characterisation becomes further apparent. The group is entirely comprised of anti-heroes, which allows for plenty of schemes and double-crosses and means that its impossible to fully get to grips with what’s going on. When it’s feasible that the entire bunch are unreliable narrators, the layers of the mystery deepen and the intrigue mounts.

Although they’re all perfect for their roles, a couple of characters stand out. Relative youngster Jem comes across as a friendly keen bean who is particularly committed to furthering her art career. However, she has a will of iron and a tendency to pursue her curiosity to quite extreme lengths. Her desire to assert herself and willingness to stoop as low as necessary to even a score also give rise to some of the best—both the funniest and the most startling—moments of the story.

While his people-pleasing attitude initially gives him the appearance of Jem’s opposite, the humble Patrick has surprisingly depth and his everyman nature means that his messages to the others reveal things that the stronger characters would never tease out. The two of them also work well together as a dynamic-ish detective duo, hunting for evidence of their fellow students’ misdemeanours almost from week one. Ultimately, the hijinks, shenanigans and skullduggery of them all are a joy to behold.

Moreover, despite the limited locations, the world-building is just as good as the character-building. In creating Royal Hastings University, Hallett has drawn inspiration from her time at Royal Holloway, University of London, and she has the environment and atmosphere of a university down to a tee. From the petty squabbles to the unnecessary bureaucracy, the lack of resources to the threat of publish or perish, it all rings true and works brilliantly well as a background for a mystery novel. The mundanity of it all really highlights extraordinary turn of events.

And what perplexing events they are. The external examiner has concluded that one of the students has met a terrible end, but who? How? And why? After the setting and characters have been richly evoked, Hallett allows the mystery to unfold in a tantalising way, dropping intriguing clues into the students’ humdrum messages and providing twist after revelation after twist. Most similarly to The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels, the story takes a number of highly unexpected and almost preternatural turns.

The Examiner makes for a riveting guessing game from the outset, combining key aspects of the classic whodunit with near-impossible puzzles more closely related to a howdunit and whatexactlywasdunanyway. It all makes for an unexpectedly macabre mystery that delivers surprise after surprise as the six students do their best to one up, show up and cover up their way through a course that proves memorable for all the wrong reasons.

I received this book from NetGalley and the publisher, in return for an honest review. This review is based entirely on my own thoughts and feelings.

Overall rating : 4*
Writing skill : 5*
Characters : 4*
Plot: 3*
Format: 2*
Uniquness: 4*

Its taken me some time (sleeping on it) to articulate my thoughts on this book. Right off the bat the writing is absolutely stellar. I invisioned thats art lab with such clarity. Im now desperate to read her back catalogue if this books anything to go by.
The characters were fab, loved Jem right off the bat, Pat too, and without any spoilers, I knew there was something fishy about Alyson.
The format blew my mind at times, I dont think the ebook I recieved from Netgalley will be anything like the finished article, as I really struggled to work out what was going on quite a lot of the time; whether it was emails, or whatsapp messages or diary entries, they all kind of looked the same.
The plot was great however and as said before the writing took me right there, and back to UNI.
really really liked this one, but would perhaps recommend waiting for the finished version, and picking it up physically.
As ever, thanks to Viper for this ARC.

I think I loved it :) The format was a bit off because I read an advance digital copy, and I believe this would've been better read in physical format. Having said that, I did enjoy the different episcopal format that the book is written in. I don't often read stories written this way, in fact I think the last one I did was TGLAPPPS which was many moons ago.

I loved the pacing - very, very fast paced. And I loved the characters. All so so different, so easy to keep track of. A few of them I absolutely hated, which made it so much more fun. A few twists caught me off guard, a couple I saw coming a mile off. But basically a super fun read and I think I'll recommend it.

One point, the main driver for the storyline, I didn't really like - because of it's implausibility - but it was tiny really, so doesn't affect my enjoyment of the book overall.

I'll look into more of this authors work. Well done JH.

I do love Janice Hallett’s signature style of writing her novels, and for anyone who hasn’t yet read one (why not?) this latest book is written in the form of emails, texts and essays and follows six students studying a Multimedia Arts Masters program at the Royal Hastings University. Wonderfully written, quite labyrinthine and enormous fun trying to solve the mystery. The clues are there and the reader has to find them and the clock is ticking…

Briefly, Gela Nathaniel, head of the Arts centre has chosen six very different, and rather unusual students to take part in the new course. Accused of having favourites her gradings are in question. Some of the students appear not to be who they are purporting to be and one of the examiners believes that somebody’s life is in danger. Just another normal day at the office!

It took me a while to get right into this but when I did I was so invested I had a notebook and pen at the ready! The characters are excellent and you couldn’t find a more unlikely group if you tried, from the seemingly overqualified Alyson to the struggling Cameron they have little in common. This really is a very clever book with plenty of the authors trademark wit to keep you smiling and a cracking, if rather complex, plot to uncover. Great fun and very entertaining.

4.5⭐️

Janice Hallett is an absolute genius! I loved the Appeal and the Christmas Appeal and The Examiner is as every bit as witty and clever.

Although the writing style of broadcast messages, emails and texts takes a bit of getting used to, it just works.

A brilliantly concocted group environment of art students and their background stories lead you into a web of mystery and misconceptions.

The storyline is great, the plot and twists are fantastic and the author’s ability to draw you in and lead you down the garden path is just insane.

What I also love about this author’s books is her extraordinary observations of human behaviour and her skill to create those characters with certain traits that we all recognise in someone.

I can't wait for the next one.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and the author this ARC.

I have read all of this authors books, and I am resigned to the fact that despite all the clues laid down, I will never guess who did it and why!!
The titular examiner is the person who assesses exam grades at a college or university. The course tutor will follow a marking sheet, then an essay is chosen at random from the three groups of grades they have given to the students, usually Pass, Merit or Distinction, to be reassessed to see if the criteria has been followed and maintained. I used to find this aspect very stressful when I was teaching over thirty years ago.
The course in this novel is a MA degree in Art multimedia at Royal Hastings college. It is a debut course, there are six students, Jen, Patrick, Jonathan, Alyson, Ludya and Cameron. The tutor is Gela. There is a mixture of practical assessments, and essays, which will culminate in a final project. that has been requested by a local sponsor. So far, so normal.
The story is told via the medium of email messages between the students and their tutor. We are quickly aware of clashing personalities and back biting behaviour. There is a fire, equipment goes missing, a trip to Somerset to work on a project appears to be where the rot sets in, and there are concerns that a student may have died. A radio is key, and those diversity forms that never get filled in are clues, but it is a very complex story, I found this to be the most difficult book in this series to get to grips with, it will test your sanity at times! It is a mark of this authors ability to befog and confuse the reader that meant even as I read the denouement, I was still lost and none the wiser of what had happened!!
A deserved five star read. I think I am looking forward to any future books by this author.
My thanks to Netgalley and the publishers Serpents tail/ Viper/ and Profile books for my advanced read, freely given in exchange for my honest review.
I will leave reviews to Goodreads and Amazon UK upon publication.

Janice Hallett definitely knows how to take you on a full twists and turns journey with puzzles within puzzles and I had fun reading this one.

It’s set following Examiners reviewing documents and coursework submissions for an MA course where we also follow the students and the relationships and plot that unfolds.

I will say, this isn’t far favourite on Hallett’s work and felt that at times that I was just waiting for things to happen and for the puzzle to unwind. I think previously there’s been little ‘omg’ snippets spread throughout the book with a big number of reveals at the end where this all felt it lead to the final 50-80 pages instead so there was a lot of building up (not necessarily a bad thing! I was maybe just impatient).

If you’re a fan of Janice Halletts work and race through these books due to the ease of reading, the drama, mystery and the construction of writing then I would recommend. Overall it was fun read.

Having read and thoroughly enjoyed other books by this author I was really looking forward to this story. I did really struggle with the mixed media format on this one though. Instead of making the story faster and more intense I found it almost too detailed on the course content. I think if I hadn’t read others it may well have been a dnf. Maybe it was just a very slow start, but it did pick up about half way through and improve. I did find the story quite far fetched but equally there were some good twists. Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for giving me access to an early copy of this book.

This is another gripping page turner by Janice Hallett that is full of twists, turns and misdirection all in the form of transcripts.
I really enjoy reading this sort of book, it's full of opinions from each 'voice' and little atmosphere from the variety of settings due to the nature of the 'evidence' that we have been presented with. This means that it feels similar to the reality of solving this sort of case, I was presented with all the available evidence and left to figure out what, if anything, had happened to one of the group and if something had happened, who had it happened to?
The ideas and subject in this book is quite different to those I have read by Janice Hallett previously as those revolved mostly around a certain dramatic arts group! But this was equally as gripping to me as the group involved were all hiding things from us initially and as those secrets were revealed, it changed my opinions on what I had been told previously and lead me away from a few wrong turns. I really liked that about this book particularly, my thoughts on what might have happened was almost constantly evolving with the new information I was receiving until I discovered how wrong/right I had been in my deductions and assumptions!
I really enjoyed this book and am looking forward to reading more by this author in future

Wow. This book threw me for a loop. Wait, is that the saying?
No matter.
I thought this was a fun format, we got to know the six students through their messages in the schools ‘Doodle’ system.
Then trouble starts to stir, like a godlike creature spying on them all, thinking “Hmmm, what to throw in next…?”. Not everyone gets along with everyone, as in real life. One of our students, Jem, suspects someone has died because that person has not been around lately, well, based on what she has seen, anyways.

They receive projects along the way, and we follow them as some excel and some struggle.
The one I thought died, did indeed not. The ones I thought were having an affair, was not. My head was almost spinning.
As the plot thickens, I read for longer than planned every time I picked up the book, I just needed to know what was going on, and I needed to know it now.
The way this book was written drew me into the drama, which I normally don’t like, and kept me there to unravel the rest to satisfy my curiosity.
And I have realized that I need to read this book again, now that I know what I know.


Note: I will post this next week on www.instagram.com/lady_j_reads.

I loved Janice Hallett's 'different' way of presenting her mystery writing- as letters, notes, messages etc between the characters, however I felt it was a little overused in this instance. With no chapter breaks, it felt quite long winded and I found it a faff to have to look carefully each time at who was messaging who, which chat group it was, who else was in that group etc.
Sometimes I found myself starting to skim, which I try to avoid.
I didn't find any of the characters likeable (intentionally I suppose) so I didn't really connect with the book on any level. Only the fact that I love books about academia kept me reading.
I found a lot of the coursework submissions to be unrealistic for an MA and that grated on me as I read.
Definitely my least favourite by this author.

Using Janice Hallett's now well-established approach of a modern take on epistolary fiction, The Examiner recounts the exploits of a small group of art students on a new MA course. Through reading emails, internal messaging, Whatsapps and course notes, one of the external examiners for the course becomes convinced that something is afoot: one of the students is missing, and the others are implicated in a cover-up.

The plot is convoluted and the characters didn't always feel convincing (which is sometimes for good reason, but unfortunately seems to affect the book more widely). Although enjoyable, it was far from my favourite of Hallett's.