The Appeal
Janice Hallett'Extremely addictive, it will reel you in, one piece of evidence at a time. Ingenious & highly original' - ALEX PAVESI
'Gripping. I loved the ambitious & unusual approach' - SOPHIE HANNAH
'This is a case you're about to become obsessed with. A triumph' - ALEX NORTH
In a town full of secrets...
Someone was murdered.
Someone went to prison.
And everyone's a suspect.
Can you uncover the truth?
Dear Reader - enclosed are all the documents you need to solve a case. It starts with the arrival of 2 mysterious newcomers to the small town of Lockwood, & ends with a tragic death.
Someone has already been convicted of this brutal murder & is currently in prison, but we suspect they are innocent. What's more, we believe far darker secrets have yet to be revealed
The Fairway Players, a local theatre group, is in the midst of rehearsals when tragedy strikes the family of director Martin Hayward & his wife Helen, the play’s star. Their young granddaughter has been diagnosed with a rare form of cancer, & 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's 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, & soon, an arrest is made. In the run-up to the trial, 2 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 & gripping take on the epistolary novel, The Appeal is a “daring…clever, & funny” (The Times, London) debut for fans of Richard Osman & Lucy Foley.
Janice Hallett is a former magazine editor, award-winning journalist, & government communications writer.