The Christmas Appeal is a moderately well written and cleverly constructed sequel(ish) mystery by Janice Hallett. Released 24th Oct 2023 by Simon & Schuster on their Atria imprint, it's 208 pages and is available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout.
The author is well known for her multimedia style of writing. Readers are provided a mix of emails, texts, and other media clues and red herrings. The characters are members of a local dramatic group, the Fairway Players, and then more or less left alone to puzzle out what's going on by themselves.
The format of the mystery is challenging, and readers might struggle for immersion. This one is also character heavy with a large cast, and there are some difficulties with keeping them all straight. That being said, once the book achieves liftoff, it's an engaging and surprisingly cleverly constructed puzzle.
Three and a half stars. This would be a good candidate for a mystery book club read/discussion, public library acquisition, and home use. It's a very oddly formatted book, but readable and engaging after a while (the first third is a slog).
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
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