Tag: janice-hallett

The Examiner by Janice Hallett

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With her new book, The Examiner, Janice Hallett creates an original cross between a thriller, a who-done-it and a spine-chilling genre. The story is told in her usual masterful prose of texts, emails and other social media platforms. This well-crafted imaginative narrative will have you stunned as you read the story and especially as it begins to come together and of course, the absolutely shocking ending!

The Royal Hastings University’s Mulitmedia Art course has six students who the head of the department, Gela Nathaniel has hand chosen for a new innovative class. But unfortunately for her, from what she reads from their texts and emails these “students” have become nothing but a headache!

The class consists of:

Cameron, an executive in marketing.

Patrick, the manager of an art store.

Jem, a recent graduate who is a sculpter.

Johnathan, who assists in running his family’s art gallery.

Ludya, a single mother who is a designer and desperate for income.

Allyson, a well-known artist who is there…just because.

But immediately the reader begins to see the dynamics of the group start to fall apart. At first, they are cordial, but very quickly they seem to begin to turn on each other as to who is not doing enough of the work, or who seems to come and go as they please. Jealousy in its purest form. As artists, they also begin to critique each other’s work, and that too becomes a problem. They are supposed to be working together to an end goal, but that seems unlikely to happen.

As they push towards their final essay and project which will be judged by an examiner, we begin to see the cast of characters in a different light. Each seems to have their own secrets and dislike which then spills over into their work. They also have a group dark secret which no one knows…not even the reader!

We discover Gela has her own secrets. Who are these students? What are they hiding and why? Then, of course they start to turn on each other. This experiment seems to have gotten out of control. No one really seems to be who they say they are and when the truth reveals itself, so one is safe, at least not from each other! It’s every artist for themselves as the final project begins to sink.

The Examiner is a remarkable, inventive, intense story of a group of students and their love/hate relationship which gets them into a great deal of trouble as they begin to fall apart and reveal an astonishing secret.

Thank you #NetGalley #AtriaBooks #JaniceHallett #TheExaminer for the advanced copy.

The Christmas Appeal by Janice Hallett

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The Christmas Appeal is a novella which once again follows the kooky bunch of actors who make up the Fairway Players, the acting troop who appeared in Hallett’s first novel, The Appeal. Most of the characters are new, but we do have a few of the cast from the original. A few things are the same. There is backstabbing, jealousy, revenge and oh yes, a murder! It is hilarious and in her enjoyable writing style, emails and texts, which makes for a quick delightful read.

Set during Christmas, a time of Peace on Earth and Goodwill, the Fairway Players have clearly not received the message. The Fairway gang under a new husband-wife directing team in Lower Lockwood, England some of whom are determined to unseat the couple. They seem to not be able to do anything right! So, while trying to put on a Christmas pageant, Jack and the Beanstalk, which of course some feel is stupid, they all seem to try and make each other miserable.

The production is for the children, which they all seem to have forgotten as they continue to fight and make fun of each other. The proceeds are to benefit the church which needs a roof repaired. But the beanstalk which had been used in a production years ago is in need of a cleaning as it will be the center of the story. Oh, how it will be the center!

But of course, everything begins to fall apart immediately, and as the date of the show nears, the beanstalk is deemed too big, the sweets are needed for the bags of goodies for the children, and unfortunately more patrons keep getting invited. Also, rumors begin to swirl about there being something terribly wrong with the beanstalk. The “candy” is delivered day of and as for the beanstalk, well of course during the show a skeleton falls out of it. But the audience thinks it’s part of the show and therefore the performance is deemed brilliant! Much to some people’s chagrin.

So once again we have our two levelheaded lawyers on the case with their now retired boss. They begin to sift through all the emails, texts, etc. to see if they can find out just what happened and how a body could have been left in the beanstalk for years and no one seem to know.

So, who on earth is the dead body? Who spread the rumor of there being something terribly wrong with the beanstalk? Will this be the end of the Fairway Players? With a few cameos from characters from The Appeal, The Christmas Appeal is a laugh out loud mystery which does not disappoint, and even if you think you’ve got it all figured out well, you’re probably wrong!

Happy Holidays!