I’ve got another debut novel for this week – The Appeal by Janice Hallett. The style of this book is very unusual . . . the mystery is told solely through emails and texts. It took me a little while to get hooked, but once I did, I could NOT quit reading until all of the twists were sorted out.
Two young law students are given stacks of emails and texts to read by their boss – his task for them – to discover who committed a murder and possibly free an innocent person jailed for the crime. (Essentially the reader is uncovering the mystery along with the law students.) The Fairway Players is an amateur acting group in the midst of staging a new play. Right after the auditions, the founders’ granddaughter, Poppy Reswick is diagnosed with a brain tumor. Play rehearsals continue along with fundraising efforts to help with Poppy’s treatments. There are LOTS of characters who sent emails/texts in the midst of this situation. Thankfully, the author lists all of them, along with their backgrounds, two different times in the novel. The texts are very revealing – so if you read the book, pay close attention to their details.
This was a really clever mystery because of the way it was written. I thoroughly enjoyed it! But I did almost give up after about 50 pages because I was so confused – so be prepared to stick with it a bit before the confusion clears up!!
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