Book Review: The Appeal by Janice Hallett

The Appeal follows two law clerks as they sift through the evidence of a murder case following a possible miscarriage of justice that may have put the wrong person behind bars. Who was murdered and by whom is not clear until the end of the book which makes the story interesting for the reader. Like Charlotte and Femi, we read looking for clues, following hunches and noticing anomalies.

The story centres round The Fairway Players, an amateur theatre group which is run by well-to-do couple Martin and Grace Hayward and their family. Grace was once a professional actress and still steals every scene; Martin directs and makes the big decisions.

Among the cast is Issy Beck for whom the theatre company is a godsend, giving her confidence and a social life. We soon get the feeling that Issy is not well respected among the troupe, or at work in the hospital where she’s a nurse in a geriatric ward. When Samantha Greenwood takes a job on the ward and offers support, Issy latches on to her, persuading her and husband Kel to audition for the Players’ new play.

When Martin emails everyone to tell them that his grand-daughter Poppy has a rare and aggressive form of cancer, the play takes second fiddle to a huge fundraising drive to pay for a cure. With emotions running high, large amounts of money at stake and a fair number of secrets and lies, you can be sure we have all the ingredients for murder.

Janice Hallett has written a clever and beguiling mystery, with the whole story told in the emails, texts and police reports that make the body of evidence that Charlotte and Femi have to re-evaluate. Somehow Hallett allows the personalities of the characters to shine through as if the book was written in a traditional way with descriptive passages and dialogue. It’s an interesting read and there are plenty of red herrings to trip up the clerks and reader alike.

Hallett is an award-winning journalist, former communications advisor and has written plays for stage and screen. The Appeal is her first novel. Her next book The Twyford Code is out early next year - one for the must-read list, I think.

20 October 2021

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