The Appeal by Janice Hallett

I love a good epistolary novel AND I love a good mystery, so when Janice Hallett put the two forms together in a modern way, her work was sure to be a winner in my book! Roderick Tanner, QC of Tanner and Dewey LLP has sent a collection of documents, emails and messages to two young lawyers from the firm. Someone has been arrested for murder and he believes they were wrongly convicted. His firm is working on the appeal and he wants fresh eyes to look at the files and determine if they come to the same conclusions he has reached.

It is through these lawyers’ eyes that we get to examine the case file. Read carefully as we learn about the members of the Fairway Players, a community theater preparing for a summer production. Martin and Helen Hayward are director and star actress, respectively, and alphas in their small community. Their young granddaughter, Poppy, is diagnosed with cancer and their community rallies around them to raise the funds needed for experimental treatment. Not all community members are supportive of the efforts or treatment and tensions rise until dress rehearsal when it all comes to an explosive head. The next day, a body is found.

There are a lot of characters in the book, but there were two lists of key players in the book which helped to keep them straight. I loved the format of this book for a mystery because I felt like I was part of a murder mystery event with all the clues and pieces and a case to solve. The format really kept me reading because so much of it was short emails and texts that I kept thinking I would read just one more and then pages would go by. I really enjoyed this murder mystery and highly recommend it!

Check out The Appeal by Janice Hallett at the Library (https://catalog.lclibs.org/polaris/search/title.aspx…).

If you enjoy solving murder mysteries using given clues, check out The Gretna Mystery files from the Library too! Episode 1 can be found here: https://catalog.lclibs.org/polaris/search/title.aspx….