The Appeal

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.