Janice Hallett - The Appeal

The Fairway Players, a local theatre group, is in the midst of rehearsals when tragedy strikes the family of director Martin Hayward and his wife Helen, the play’s star. Their young granddaughter has been diagnosed with a rare form of cancer, and with an experimental treatment costing a tremendous sum, their castmates rally to raise the money to give her a chance at survival. 

But not everybody is convinced of the experimental treatment’s efficacy—or of the good intentions of those involved. As tension grows within the community, things come to a shocking head at the explosive dress rehearsal. The next day, a dead body is found, and soon, an arrest is made. 

In the run-up to the trial, two young lawyers sift through the material—emails, messages, letters—with a growing suspicion that the killer may be hiding in plain sight. The evidence is all there, between the lines, waiting to be uncovered.

Comment: I got interested in this book because it was mentioned somewhere that the mystery would be developed through the exchange of emails. I was very curious to know how the author would present things and if the plot would make enough sense.

The Fairway Players is a group of amateur actors and they have several plays performed in their local community. They are ready to start the auditions for a new play when everyone is shocked by the news of little Poppy, the granddaughter of director Martin and star actress Helen, who has a rare type of cancer. Poppy's apparent only hope is a new drug, but one that is only available in the US and at a very expensive price. Thus, the family and those they are close to start to do what they can to find funding, while still maintaining the play's work and rehearsals. As the exchange continues and times passes by, though, it becomes more and more difficult to understand who is doing everything for the sake of Poppy and who is hiding secrets, especially when someone starts asking questions... and then, someone is found dead...

This is the first book I try by this author. I see many readers have loved it, others thought it didn't go as far as it could, but for me it ended up being very enjoyable and rewarding, even though the very end wasn't as brilliant as I hoped for. Still, practically at the end of the year, it had that extra something that made me give it five stars on Goodreads, the first I give in 2025.

I had great fun going through the plot. This method of presenting things through email/letter exchange isn't new to me, I've enjoyed the majority of books with a similar style I had read before, and my expectations of this method here were all met. It might seem weird and unlikely one gets to follow things as well, namely understanding character evolution, but it's precisely the reading between the lines exercise that makes this work out so well to me, when well done.

The story starts off very plainly, the group of actors has just finished a play, they are ready to do another, this time a drama. As the emails keep coming, we get to know a lot about the main characters' personalities, even the ones who are not actively participating in the emails, and I had a great fun going though all this and sympathizing more with this or that character as things move along. Of course, it also becomes very obvious there is something shady going on, whether about the Poppy's fundraising or about the doctor involved in her treatment at the hospital.

The author did a good job placing all clues and all characters on a certain level, some things do seem rather obvious at the end but before that, I must say, some details started to feel a little easy to guess where they would go. I will confess that the supposed big reveal in the end wasn't that surprising to me, only the why. Still, although the twists weren't that convincing, it didn't ruin my fun reading the novel. I really think the author was clever in plotting and in the delivery method, and it did make me curious to think if more stories presented like this one (that I'd like of course) would be out there..

While this is ongoing, we get to have a few breaks in plot by two other characters. Femi and Charlotte are young lawyers, reviewing the case because it is known someone dies and someone goes to jail for it. Until a certain point this is all a mystery, and things progress slowly. Then, when we finally learn who died, when the email exchange part reaches its climax, these lawyers repeat things in a more concise manner so that the final becomes easier to understand. I think this was a little anti climatic... perhaps continuing with the email format until the very end would have been more satisfying to me, it would not feel as if there was a break on the novel, as I think this choice made it seem.

I don't think this was the most incredible plot ever, no, but the slow developing plot, and the tension we could feel though the exchanges, especially as some apparently innocent things turned out to be part of a much bigger picture later on, made this a very gripping reading. It's one of those situations where the final disclosures and the the identity of the killer aren't that important after all - hey weren't to me - but the journey to get there was the true prize. For that, I will certainly try something else by this author, even if not in this format.

Grade: 9/10