The Christmas Appeal, Janice Hallett
The Christmas Appeal, Janice Hallett
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The Christmas Appeal
A Novella

Author: Janice Hallett

Narrator: Aysha Kala, Daniel Philpott, Rachel Adedeji, Sid Sagar

Unabridged: 3 hr 36 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 10/24/2023

Synopsis

This immersive holiday caper from the “modern Agatha Christie” (The Sunday Times, London) follows the hilarious Fairway Players theater group as they put on a Christmas play—and solve a murder that threatens their production.

The Christmas season has arrived in Lower Lockwood, and the Fairway Players are busy rehearsing their festive holiday production of Jack and the Beanstalk to raise money for a new church roof. But despite the season, goodwill is distinctly lacking among the amateur theater enthusiasts with petty rivalries, a possibly asbestos-filled beanstalk, and some perennially absent players behind the scenes.

Of course, there’s also the matter of the dead body onstage. Who could possibly have had the victim on their naughty list? Join lawyers Femi and Charlotte as they investigate Christmas letters, examine emails, and pore over police transcripts to identify both the victim and killer before the curtain closes on their holiday production—for good.

About Janice Hallett

Janice Hallett is a former magazine editor, award-winning journalist, and government communications writer. She wrote articles and speeches for, among others, the Cabinet Office, Home Office, and Department for International Development. Her enthusiasm for travel has taken her around the world several times, from Madagascar to the Galapagos, Guatemala to Zimbabwe, Japan, Russia, and South Korea. A playwright and screenwriter, she penned the feminist Shakespearean stage comedy NetherBard and cowrote the feature film Retreat. She lives in London and is the author of The Examiner, The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels, The Appeal, The Christmas Appeal, and The Twyford Code.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Shelley's Book Nook on December 01, 2023

My Reviews Can Also Be Found On: The Storygraph and The Book Review Crew Blog This was a hilarious holiday mystery novella. I really enjoyed the first book, The Appeal and this one features the same characters. I loved that this was partly an epistolary novel with emails, texts, voicemail and intervi......more

Goodreads review by Melissa (Semi-hiatus for Work) on November 07, 2023

Cute Christmas mystery with the same characters from The Appeal. Lawyers Femi and Charlotte are tasked to "solve" the mystery presented to them in a series of e-mails, voice recordings, text messages, etc. The Fairway Players are preparing a one night only performance of Jack and the Beanstalk to hel......more

Goodreads review by Baba on December 12, 2024

It's back to the Fairway Players community theatre group from The Appeal. Once again fuddy duddy sounding but ultra smart lawyer Roderick Tanner, JC sends Femi and Charlotte collated correspondence surrounding a mystery with the theatre group from Christmas 2022. This book, like The Appeal is made u......more

Goodreads review by Ceecee on August 11, 2023

4.5 rounded up Mr Roderick Tanner, KC (retired) piques the interest of Femi Hassan and Charlotte Holroyd (The Appeal) in a sequence of documents relating to a case concerning The Fairway Players. Their latest production is a 1978 West End version of Jack and the Beanstalk, directed by Sarah–Jane McD......more

Goodreads review by Dez the Bookworm on December 19, 2024

This was an interesting novella that takes place around Christmas. Beyond this fact, there really are no other Christmas feels to this book. Soooo, if you’re looking for an involved holiday whodunnit, this isn’t quite that. This novella can be read in one sitting, which made it worth if for me. Mult......more

Quotes

"Four gifted narrators bring listeners this holiday treat told through emails. A dozen members of the Fairway Players, an English amateur theater group, discuss their upcoming pantomime of “Jack and the Beanstalk.” Their emails reveal the essence of each writer—their subtle power grabs, petty jealousies, and barely concealed hatreds. With so many characters, it could have been difficult to identify each speaker. Happily, Aysha Kala, Daniel Philpott, Rachel Adedeji, and Sid Sagar so deftly individualize the dialogue that the production sounds like it has more than four narrators. The story includes a dead body and crime solving, but what's best is its dry humor and wonderfully depicted characters."

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