The Appeal: The smash-hit bestseller

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It's a brilliantly fresh, ingenious and original whodunnit that is heading to the top of the bestseller chart if there's any justice. And as he prepares for the appeal, he presents two of his star pupils with additional written evidence that came to light after the trial and the guilty verdict.

Janice's debut novel, THE APPEAL, was published by Viper (Serpent's Tail) in January 2021 and hailed as 'dazzlingly clever' by the Sunday Times.

One day I’d like to explore a more conventional style, but I’m not quite done with this approach yet! The QC character, Tanner, just seemed to disappear, and never reappeared to confirm that the students had arrived at the same conclusion as he had. At play rehearsal, Sam announces that the fundraising for Poppy is a fraud, that the drugs they are fundraising for don’t exist, and that Helen didn’t lose a child. Issy has long felt isolated at the hospital where she works and hopes to build strong bonds with her new co-workers.

As Sam begins to take a closer look into what’s going on with the fundraiser, she runs into a figure from her past, oncologist Tish Bhatoa. I don’t read lists of characters provided at the start of books for the same reason — if they’re not made memorable in the context of the story, I don’t care

This ingeniously conceived whodunnit encourages the reader to turn detective in a murder case set against the backdrop of an amateur dramatic club. To this end, she introduces them to the Fairway Players, the local theater group of which she’s an incidental part. A wonderfully smart, urbane, and neatly-observed mystery that plays the game well and establishes Hallett as a name to watch. However, much of what’s here is very successful: the structural games played with each letter from barrister Roderick Tanner, QC (“[G]oing forward you must ask: who already knows [the victim] is dead and who doesn’t?and even the classic mystery trope of finding the guilty person based on rationale that it would be a spoiler to divulge here. And maybe in difficult times, that freshness and that inspiration, and just a really good story, is something we yearn for. Through their cast lists and committee minutes we are provided with a handy aide-memoir to who's who. I haven’t read All My Sons for a while, and my memory is fuzzy, but I’m pretty sure it’s about a family who is hiding a dark and shameful secret. The Fairway Players immediately begin fundraising, but as the money comes in, it seems that the Haywards might be using it for costs unassociated with Poppy's care.

I dunno how the ebook version is formatted, but there’s no need to flip back and forth to re-review evidence or anything like that — it can be read as a “normal” narrative would, so there’s no disadvantage to an ebook, certainly. It’s not only a cleverly constructed murder mystery but also an incisive and often hilarious look into the social dynamics of small towns, exploring what would drive some to pursue the truth no matter the cost. Steven becomes equally fixated, working with a helpful librarian, Lucy, to decipher a code in Twyford’s books, which he comes to believe will lead to hidden treasure. Photograph: Waterstones/PA ‘A real word of mouth hit’ … Janice Hallett’s book The Appeal has pipped Richard Osman to the post on the shortlist for the Waterstones book of the year.

These don’t necessarily always pay off — would Sam Greenwood’s reason for leaving Médecins Sans Frontièrs in the Central African Republic really be that shameful, that much of a Damoclean sword over her head? In black and gold and a bright arsenic green, this is undeniably one of the best-looking books about true crime to ever grace my desk. They could afford these drugs if they sold their assets, but they are affronted by the very idea of paying for healthcare and prefer others to foot the bill.