Appeal

A 3.5 I rounded down. I found this to mostly be a really good time and engaging page turner. Nothing amazing, but readable and fun.

However it did go on too long for me. Reading the two legal folks puzzle it out got tedious, not that I had figured it out myself. I also found some of the content of book annoying - the use of words like “savage” and “primitive” when speaking of African countries, as well as the use of sexual harassment for plot.

The emails you read strain believability - I would have been texting 90% of this content - but I appreciate reading emails and not texts. It was a unique way to experience a mystery and provided a lot of humor. I love petty behavior and there was plenty of that.

Some parts of the resolution of the mystery I enjoyed and some I didn’t, but overall it was fun enough.

Read this in about 24 hours, so the descriptor ‘gripping’ is well-deserved. I was drawn to this by the voyeuristic promise of being presented with ‘case documents’, in the form of correspondence between our cast of characters, and trying to unearth the murder mystery. Much of the novel establishes what leads up to the murder rather than the event and its aftermath, so I wouldn’t call it a murder mystery in that sense. Nonetheless, it presents a curious cast of characters, members of an amateur theater group, and their inclinations and underhanded motivations that lead to the dreadful climax. I managed to pick this one up from the library, as it is definitely one to read in paper rather than ebook.

The premise of the novel is completely ridiculous—so don’t pay too much attention to it. All these characters send way more emails than I probably have in a given year, and for the most mundane things. That’s just not realistic in this day and age… not to mention, the concept of trainee lawyers being given a sheaf of documents, but purposefully not told the entire context behind it and what the case is about? I am skeptical. Still, the process of ‘sifting through the documents’ and trying to uncover what the issue at stake is was a fun and exciting one. It kind of reminded me of playing Danganronpa and trying to piece together the events that led up to the murder, who the suspect(s) is, and why it happens. As another review mentions, it is sort of like a game in that way—you are a participant as much as Femi and Charlotte are. Don’t take it too seriously and you’ll have a good time.

The characters were a bit overwhelming at first, especially keeping track of who is who and what their relationships are. Still, I find that Hallett did a good job of keeping them consistent to their roles—and though there were aspects of the ending that I didn’t find surprising, there were others that intrigued me, as far as the relationships go. Some of the drama involved in the ending was too much for me, and I had to roll my eyes at some events. While I saw some things coming, others just… didn’t make as much sense, as far as ‘motivations to kill someone’ go. But the way the author presents the events, through these documents and in pieces at a time, helps to build up the tension and leave the reader turning the pages for more.

There are some important discussions hinted at in the novel, but we don’t get the space to really breathe and go through them, which is a pity. The theme of outsiders entering a strict social hierarchy, in particular, was a fascinating one. Just like The Guest List, I found myself thinking that rich people really are intolerable at best, and that their petty dramas could do more to make me care. Still, that doesn’t reflect all of the characters, so there are still some reasons to want to keep reading to find out what happens. As a quick thriller, this one isn’t going to win any awards, but it does the job and the epistolary format made it a rather more fun experience than I would have received from a story of this caliber.