Review: The Christmas Appeal by Janice Hallett

 

The Christmas Appeal by Janice Hallett

Publication Date: October 24th 2023 by Atria

Pages: 208

Source: Publisher 

Rating: ★★★½

Links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | Goodreads

My Thoughts:

Sarah Jane MacDonald is the chairperson for the Fairway Flyers a group organizing plays and in this instance a pantomime (which I had never heard of before this book) of Jack and the Beanstalk during the Christmas season. Organizing it is a challenge with Celia, a co-chair (?), jealous and undermining her efforts and with the crazy mishaps at every turn. On opening night, a body is discovered and it’s interesting to see how it all comes together and plays out by the end.

 The Christmas Appeal was fun. The story is told through an epistolary format: emails and text messages, and it did take me a little bit to get into the story since I hadn’t read the first book in the series. Also, the way the text messages displayed on my Kindle were so small I’d have to either magnify through my phone or enlarge the font every time I’d get to a page where we went back to texting. I think I would’ve fared better reading it on my iPad because I could enlarge the page without so much hassle. I’m sure this isn’t a problem with a print copy or the finished e-copy, but it did slow my progress and impact the pace of the story for me.

The discovery of the body didn’t happen until well into the story so most of it is the politics, backbiting and hilarity between these crazy characters! It all works out and there’s a little twist in the end I enjoyed!

3.5 Stars

Book Description:

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.