Book Review: The Silent Appeal | Janice Hallett

The Silent Appeal by Janice Hallett
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Well, that's another exciting mystery set in Lower Lockwood!

I first discovered Hallett's work through an ARC of The Christmas Appeal - I still haven't read the first book, The Appeal. The format was, and still is, innovative - maintaining the same conceit of a Roderick Tanner, a retired KC, sending files to Femi Hassan and Charlotte Holroyd for their review and opinion - and letting you unravel the mystery with them through WhatsApp messages, emails, journals, case notes, as well as Hassan and Holroyd's own summaries. Not so many police transcripts in this one! I suppose a major difference between this novel and the Christmas novella is that in the Christmas one, if I remember correctly, they found a long-dead body and were in fact solving a cold case. Here, the murder just happened a year ago, and they're looking for clues to assist in an upcoming appeal - in the hopes of changing the outcome of a current sentencing. This gives it a little more urgency.

All the different formats makes for difficult - yet light - reading. It's breezy in the sense that you don't have to go through dense text, or filter the mystery through a singular narrator. You can really skim through the emails and messages. And yet, the multiple formats makes it hard to keep track of who's who and what's going on when - especially when the time skips a bit here and there. It's easy to get caught out by missing a crucial date, or a strange name change, because there's a tendency to disregard "unimportant" information like names and time stamps as mere "formatting". There is a list of characters near the start of the book, but it's a bit hard to refer to when you're reading the e-book; I have to say that this book is also best read in print.

One thing I still find very weird (interesting-weird, not bad-weird) about this format is that since you're reading in real time with the "detectives", you don't actually find out who got murdered until about 80% in. I mean, you kinda know there is a murder because it's mentioned at the start, but for the rest of the time until the body is found, it's mostly gossip, jealousy, and affairs (and lots of admin) surrounding The Fairway Player's staging of Agatha Christie's play, The Hollows. The difference this makes is that because you don't know who got murdered, you can't really start forming opinions on who might be the killer until that point!

And there's so much going on between the characters. The Silent Appeal leans heavily on the themes of jealousy. There are various affairs (and accusations of affairs), casting envy, professional (well, as professional as amateur theatre can get) rivalry, as well as the mysterious reappearance of Sarah-Jane's sister, Nicky-Rose. Nicky-Rose is the one who really throws things off kilter, as well as Issy, who's apparently a character from the first book. I thoroughly hated Issy (ugh, so annoying!) and hoped many times that she'd get killed.

Ultimately, I did enjoy reading The Silent Appeal, but it's not a format that I'll especially look forward to for murder mysteries, especially since you don't quite get the murder aspect of the mystery until you're almost at the end.

Note: I received a digital ARC of this book from Atria Books via Edelweiss. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

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Book review: Green City Wars | Adrian Tchaikovsky

Green City Wars by Adrian Tchaikovsky
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Skotch, a freelance raccoon investigator is tasked by his former employers, big corp Uzco, to bring in the fugitive mouse scientist, Dr Meece. The problem is, every single animal faction in the city (and from the country) is also trying to get their hands on Meece. Not necessarily alive. Oh, AND they all think that Skotch knows where he is. What's a raccoon to do to stay alive?

The fun part of this story is obviously the world building. This isn't one of those completely anthropomorphic animal stories like Redwall or the Farthing Wood series where the animals are given human attributes and speech just because.

These animals are artificially engineered by humans to be smart and tasked to run human green cities from the shadows. All the undesirable jobs that are looked down upon? Animals do them, from turtles to rats to mice and racoons. But it's also nature vs artificial intelligence, where sometimes sheer animal instinct overrides the intelligence gifted to them by science (also known as plangent). There are scientific repercussions and rules that govern these societies - the most important of which, Rule Number One, is to not involve the humans.

It's first and foremost, though, a PI story - in a rather old-school, hard-boiled detective noir style. Dark, gritty, with a main protagonist that keeps talking at you. Which, unfortunately, is a style I rather dislike. Still, the plot itself, while simple, unfolds in a complex maze with revelation upon revelation, hooking you again at just the right time to go "hhmmm just a bit more". It also starts off slow, but picks up as more and more factions try to get in on the action. There's a "last stand" scene that reminds me of Colin Dann's Battle for the Park - beautiful and tragic and perfect.

I'd actually recommend this more for noir readers than sci-fi, because whilst the science is important and underpins the whole thing (you cannot actually take out the science worldbuilding and be left with ANY story), it kind of comes second to the tone of the story.

Note: I received a digital ARC of this book from PanMacmillan/Tor via NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

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Book Review: Murder at the Spirit Lounge | Jess Kidd

Murder at the Spirit Lounge by Jess Kidd
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Nora Breen is settling in at Gore-on-Sea. Detective Inspector Hilary Rideout is getting into a habit of asking her to accompany him to cases, she stops by to listen to music and drink coffee with Hosmer of Hosmer's Photographic Studio, and she's been recommended for a writing gig with the Gore-on-Sea Herald. Then Dolores Chimes' reading goes disastrously wrong, leading to the death of the medium herself, followed by the people in attendance. Breen and Rideout must solve the mysterious killings before the last victim - Rideout - dies.

I enjoyed this one quite a bit more than the first book (Murder at Gulls Nest). I'm not sure whether it's because Breen is less unlikeable in this one, or because I'm somewhat familiar with her now. The third person present tense is still a little jarring at times, but it is what it is. (I cannot figure out why this irks me so much when I've read other stories in this style - maybe because those were usually short stories and not a full novel? idk)

I'm ambivalent about the love triangle subplot, even if it does add to some of the tension in the book. Rideout and Breen's relationship has progressed to a place where it feels more natural - and rather like a good partnership - even if Breen is a little oblivious to Rideout's feelings. Adding another suitor, which Breen is again rather oblivious about, felt rather awkward.

At any rate, the mystery itself is a tantalising morsel. There are so many threads to pull on, so many secrets and hidden relationships to reveal, and it's easy to get absorbed into the tragedies playing out in Gore-on-Nest. It snaps along at a good pace, full of tension.

Overall, another exciting whodunit!

Note: I received a digital ARC of this book from Atria Books via Edelweiss. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

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Book review: The Killer Question | Janice Hallett

The Killer Question by Janice Hallett
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Picked up this ARC from Edelweiss because I loved The Christmas Appeal. The Killer Question is written in a similar format - through emails, texts, police transcripts, and so on - so knowing what to expect made it easier to orient to the book. I do think that the underlying premise/framing of this one - Dominic Eastwood trying to pitch the bizarre story of his aunt & uncle and their pub to Netflix - made a lot more sense than a KC sending notes from a cold case to his ex-students to solve.

Sue and Mal Eastwood run a rural pub called The Case is Altered, and their one big draw is the weekly quiz nights, that Mal sets himself. Then a body is found in the nearby river, and a new team starts winning all the quizzes all the time. Tensions start running high - more for the quiz than the dead body. At the same time, Dominic includes transcripts of a police operation Sue and Mal were caught up in before their retirement, with the implication that both events are closely realted.

It's a bit slow in the beginning as you get to know Sue and Mal and the various quizzers at this quaint little pub, but snowballs (avalanches?) from the mid onwards to the end as secrets are revealed. Had some suspicions about what was going on at The Case is Altered, but did not expect that final twist!

Note: I received a digital ARC of this book from Atria Books via Edelweiss. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

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