Hello hello, and welcome or welcome back to my little bookish corner of the internet. Today I’m bringing you my review of one of my standout August reads, The Appeal. It was a book I’d been wanting to read for a long time, and when I got around to it, I was not disappointed.
Synopsis
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 two mysterious newcomers to the small town of Lockwood, and ends with a tragic death.
Someone has already been convicted of this brutal murder and is currently in prison, but we suspect they are innocent. What’s more, we believe far darker secrets have yet to be revealed.
Throughout the Fairway Players’ staging of All My Sons and the charity appeal for little Poppy Reswick’s life-saving medical treatment, the murderer hid in plain sight. Yet we believe they gave themselves away. In writing. The evidence is all here, between the lines, waiting to be discovered.
Will you accept the challenge? Can you uncover the truth?
Review
The Appeal was a sheer pleasure to read. Rather than a narrative, the book is written as a stack of evidence provided to two law students; email exchanges, text messages, and the ocassional messaging between those two students discussing the current situation of what they’re reading. Through these emails and messages, we are given a look into a close community that has been shaken by a tragety… and the months building up to it, allowing us to get a fully rounded idea of the people within said community.
To write a novel in this way is a truly daring, unique branch out into writing crime fiction, and yet, it is done so well, you would hardly know this was a debut novel. Each character is clearly defined, to the point that by the time you are absorbed into it, you almost don’t need to read the writer of each email. You get to know who is who really vividly, and really quickly, too. I don’t think I’ll stop being impressed by how magical this is.
I read the last part of the book at super speed, absolutely desperate to know the conclusion and see if my suspisions were correct, and to be proven right or wrong. I almost didn’t mind whether I was right or wrong, I just wanted to know.
Janice Hallett is a new name to watch, and I can’t wait to see what she brings to the reading world next.
Thanks for stopping by for this five star raving review. This really is one of those books that once you read it, you’ll be recommending to everyone around you, if only just so you can discuss it all with them!
And On She Reads 