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!

Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

I love the author’s style of story telling and the way all of the clues are there for the reader to try and figure things out. This one was a little far fetched but still very enjoyable

Wow, what a grim dark tale this was at first I couldn’t see what was going on but as the story unraveled the plot became clearer.
Wonderful range of characters and that unique email/ communication style of writing.
What’s not to like- a grim and gripping novel - chilling but a bit funny too.

This is a 4.5 for me but it's a good one.

It reminded me a lot of my academic days and having to work in groups at uni - it's fantastic at shining a light on what teamwork is really like. The writing itself is stellar and the way it's done through messages made it so easy to read.

The first half I was hooked. The middle started to drag a little but the ending was good - Jem's story is the best. I didn't see her plot twist coming at all and her character was strongly well written. There's lots of twists and turns which is great and kept me on edge. There were some parts at the end that I was confused by and I couldn't understand why they had relevance but overall it's a great mystery thriller.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Viper Books for the ARC in exchange for my honest unedited feedback.

I don't know quite how she does it, but every single book that Janice Hallett releases brings the reader something new, and yet undeniably familiar. Anyone who has read any of her previous books will know that her style is not just to present us with some linear mystery, narrated in first or third person, but to utilise any number of narrative tools to ensure that her story is revealed to the readers, whilst systematically building the mystery and intrigue with every turn of the page. For The Examiner, she utilises a slightly different blend of narrative testimonies, in this instance the Doodle entries of a group of university post-grad students and their (Doole being the intranet site and chat room for the College), WhatsApp messaging and the assignments submitted by the students, along with their corresponding assessments.

I suppose it has a certain feel of The Appeal, in that there are a group of people outside of the teaching group who are trying to unravel the secrets buried within the various chats and assignments, but, other than a sneaking suspicion that something untoward happened over the course of the, well, course, it is not immediately clear exactly what mystery, if any, we are trying to uncover here. The instigator of the 'investigation' as it were, is the course assessor, the independent examiner who is to validate the course grades in order to award the MA to the relevant students, and from one simple comment that they make, I'll admit, I was hooked. If what the intimated was true, then just one short set of conversations in, I already wanted to know the what, where, why, when and, even not really knowing the characters, the who of exactly what transpired over that year.

Now what Janice Hallett really excels in, aside from creating infuriatingly fabulous mysteries, is creating a beautifully diverse, and some might say, seemingly neurotic cast of characters. This rag tag bunch of (mostly) mature students, really didn't have anything in common, creating a complex dynamic, one that was often quite fraught and packed with conflict. Coming from very different walks of life, and with very different motivations for being on the course, you would struggle to understand quite why most of them are even on the course in the first place. Let;'s just say that not all of them demonstrate an overwhelming commitment to gaining their Masters. But that is part of the beauty of the story, that wondering what they really stand to gain from the course. and, to be honest, from seeing the curriculum, I'm not sure what the tutor, Gela, had been hoping to achieve either.

But ... Janice Hallett is, if nothing else, a master manipulator. The reason we read these books is in the vain hope that we will be able to puzzle out her motives and methods in advance of any grand reveal. That we may prove ourselves to be sleuths of Sherlockian capability and that we will be able to read between the lines and just instinctively know which direction she is leading us in. She is so adept in creating a puzzling mystery, that no matter how frustrated the characters might made me - and believe me, the six students, Jem, Cameron, Ludya, Patrick, Jonathan and Alyson really do take some effort to like even the tiniest bit - I felt compelled to read on. And even though some aspects of the mystery are pretty well spelled out to us, Janice Hallett still managed to pull the wool well and truly over our eyes once again. To perfect once more the sleight-of-hand that even the most skilled of magicians would be proud of.

This book really didn't go where I was expecting. With more bends in the road than Spaghetti Junction, whatever you think you may know, it's probably not going to match this story - at least not entirely. Did I suspect certain aspects? Well, yes. I have a very suspicious mind and I read a lot of crime fiction. Did all my suspicions play out exactly as I thought they might? Well, no. I was more Watson than Sherlock, more Hastings than Poirot. In proximity of an answer, but my deductions off by just a fraction. Certainly there are elements of the story that totally blind side the reader, and many things which seem to come out of nowhere, but not in a way that made me feel cheated. Because it seems that everyone in the story is hiding a little something. Apart from Griff, one of the college Technicians. He is most brutally honest and transparent. I kind of respect that.

I tore through this book, finishing it just a day, and it's probably one of my favourite of the author's books to date. It has also made me doubly glad that I never did take that Arts degree in College. Between this and another book I read recently, that field seems far too fraught with danger and petty jealousy. I'm rather glad I stuck with the far more transparent world of American Literature and Politics that I came to study instead ... Another absolute belter of a read, packed with mystery, misdirection and misinformation. Loved it. Highly recommended.

We all know that special hell that is a group assignment, but this one takes the cake!

I love the way that Janice Hallett structures her books with a non-traditional format - in this instance, the story is primarily told through messages on a university’s internal messaging system. It seemed like chaos at the start, but I soon came to grips with each character & was absolutely hooked with the drama that this small group of people created. We begin to see that something is bubbling away under the surface, and trying to figure out what is going on becomes part of the fun. There’s so many reveals, big and small, that you’ll guess some things but you won’t guess everything. There were so many times that I thought I knew what was going on, only to find out on the next page that I was completely wrong.

I was hooked with this riveting read & devoured it in one sitting. I can’t wait to see what Janice Hallett comes up with next!

I received a free review copy from the publisher in exchange for my honest unedited feedback, thank you NetGalley and Viper Books!

Janice is a a master of her craft. Her background in screen writing means her books set themselves out as a play, I always think of J.B Priestly’s “An Inspector Calls” which I read in school because her work reminds of this so much, we’ve got unreliable characters telling their versions of the story until the truth unfolds. The way the plot is written so that it tells you things if you read between the lines will always fascinate me. There’s always little hints throughout and then when the real story of how the character met their fate is revealed and you’re literally gasping at the revelation thinking, “of course! Why didn’t I see this sooner?”

The characters in this book are diverse and quirky in their own regards. They all have secrets or things that aren’t quite the truth. You only know the important details about certain characters when the plot needs you to know, and it’s so clever!

It was around the 60-70 percent mark where the stakes for all the characters really began to ramp up and the final third of the book I was completely immersed in. I did not expect the plot twists throughout and the ending truly shocked me.

I really enjoy the format and the pace of Janice Hallett’s work, the use of texts emails and other formats in story work is really hard to make convincing and keep the reader engaged, but Hallett has mastered this structure in her work and for that reason I will always recommend to my friends to read her books.

I greatly enjoyed The Appeal so was very excited to read this book. I liked the plot and the mystery kept me wanting to read on throughout. At times I did feel like the characters were ‘too much’ in a sense and I felt myself growing bored of their attitudes but would recommend for the plot none the less.

I really enjoyed this one. In fact after the appeal it might be a new fave from Janice Hallett. There is a reveal around the 300 page mark which literally had be stunned. Very clever.

I jumped at the chance to review The Examiner a month before its release date, thank you @netgalley and @viper.books

I’ve been a huge fan of Janice Hallett from The Appeal and her format of writing just works for me. It lends itself to a fast paced thrilling ride of deceit, intrigue and mystery. This didn’t let me down. The second half really ramped things up for me post-Somerset visit and I found myself gasping after some of the twists and turns we were taken on. I loved it.