We will discuss “The Appeal” at 6pm on Wednesday, February 1.
The film director Jean-Luc Godard once said every story has a beginning, middle and end, but not always in that order. The Appeal by Janice Hallett reverse engineers the mystery insofar as the clues come first THEN the dead body. So, while you are wondering Whodunnit?, you are ALSO wondering Who has it been done to?. As the story unfolds, we realize each of the characters has reason to kill or be killed. We were surprised the whole way.
INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER
Named a Best Book of 2022 by The New York Times, Air Mail, and more!
“[W]itty, original…a delight.” —The New York Times
Perfect for fans of Ruth Ware and Lisa Jewell, this international bestseller and “dazzlingly clever” (The Sunday Times, London) murder mystery follows a community rallying around a sick child—but when escalating lies lead to a dead body, everyone is a suspect.
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—nor 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.
A wholly modern and gripping take on the epistolary novel, The Appeal is a “daring…clever, and funny” (The Times, London) debut for fans of Richard Osman and Lucy Foley.