The Appeal
Ratings93
Average rating4
Perfect for fans of Ruth Ware and Lisa Jewell, this international bestseller and “dazzlingly clever” (The Sunday Times, London) murder mystery follows a community rallying around a sick child—but when escalating lies lead to a dead body, everyone is a suspect.
The Fairway Players, a local theatre group, is in the midst of rehearsals when tragedy strikes the family of director Martin Hayward and his wife Helen, the play’s star. Their young granddaughter has been diagnosed with a rare form of cancer, and 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 is 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, and soon, an arrest is made. In the run-up to the trial, two 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 and gripping take on the epistolary novel, The Appeal is a “daring…clever, and funny” (The Times, London) debut for fans of Richard Osman and Lucy Foley.
Series
Featured Series
1 primary book2 released booksThe Appeal
The Appeal is a 2-book series with 1 primary work first released in 2018 with contributions by Janice Hallett.
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This is a good book for people who like to work out the details of a mystery from the clues. The format was hard to get used to, to a good idea. Some things were guessed but not the full picture.
An ingenious puzzle mystery written entirely in electronic correspondence (mostly emails and text messages). As one might imagine, this requires some straining of credulity, particularly regarding persons who exist only via said correspondence. It also seems absurd that a pair of legal counsel would never meet in person to discuss the evidence but would laboriously go over it via WhatsApp. However, I found it compulsively readable and couldn't sleep until I'd gotten to the end. The plot was certainly primary, but the characters were acceptably interesting and it was fun to see how the author revealed their characters through their missives. I enjoyed the “Little Theatre” setting too. In some ways, drama is in some ways the opposite of the epistolary form – as it relies on people interacting in real space and time. But on the other hand, through letter-writing one can conceal one's real identity, as does an actor. So there was a neat tension of literary form along with the criminal intrigue.
This book man. It was not great. I read it because the concept seemed interesting (discovery documents in a law case!), but it just didn't work.
Also, if I realized the bulk of the mystery was going to be financial crimes, I probably wouldn't have even bothered, because it's so dull.
Why does everyone email each other all the time?! Some of it, sure. Email doctors, email your business correspondence, email people overseas. Yes, that makes sense. Emailing that you're waiting for someone? Or about a kid's toy? No! Just text! Especially since there are also texts included! One character at one point even emails(!) something to the effect of “why are you emailing? You were just standing next to me!” And, yeah.
I also feel like I never really got to know the characters. Issy is annoying and almost childlike despite being a nurse, but she's the only one I really felt like I understood even a little.
Revealing things through different phases of discovery is interesting, but just made me feel left out of what was going, or deliberately misled, a lot. I understand that's what mysteries usually do, but it just didn't work.
And, though I guess understandable, not having correspondence from certain characters made me not really care about them at all. The murder is so convoluted. The resolution is so anticlimactic.
Two stars because it reads fast and I wanted to know what was going on, but overall it just didn't work for me.
