The Christmas Appeal

A Novella

De: Janice Hallett

Narrado por: Aysha Kala, Daniel Philpott, Rachel Adedeji, Sid Sagar

This immersive holiday caper from the “modern Agatha Christie” (The Sunday Times, London) follows the hilarious Fairway Players theater group as they put on a Christmas play—and solve a murder that threatens their production.

The Christmas season has arrived in Lower Lockwood, and the Fairway Players are busy rehearsing their festive holiday production of Jack and the Beanstalk to raise money for a new church roof. But despite the season, goodwill is distinctly lacking among the amateur theater enthusiasts with petty rivalries, a possibly asbestos-filled beanstalk, and some perennially absent players behind the scenes.

Of course, there’s also the matter of the dead body onstage. Who could possibly have had the victim on their naughty list? Join lawyers Femi and Charlotte as they investigate Christmas letters, examine emails, and pore over police transcripts to identify both the victim and killer before the curtain closes on their holiday production—for good.

Reseñas de la Crítica

"Four gifted narrators bring listeners this holiday treat told through emails. A dozen members of the Fairway Players, an English amateur theater group, discuss their upcoming pantomime of “Jack and the Beanstalk.” Their emails reveal the essence of each writer—their subtle power grabs, petty jealousies, and barely concealed hatreds. With so many characters, it could have been difficult to identify each speaker. Happily, Aysha Kala, Daniel Philpott, Rachel Adedeji, and Sid Sagar so deftly individualize the dialogue that the production sounds like it has more than four narrators. The story includes a dead body and crime solving, but what's best is its dry humor and wonderfully depicted characters."

Another Hallett Home Run.

I mean, what is there to say? Janice Hallett is a superlative writer, the standout star of my 2024 reading list. The audiobook actors were once again amazing, and performed the dozen or so characters with such skill that one could identify who was writing a text message before the third syllable was uttered. If you have an extra few hours for a good long holiday walk, spend it listening to this book.

This format!!

I am loving this format of audiobook/book. As an audiobook, it feels a lot like it might have been listening to a mystery radio program years ago. I thought the performance was wonderful.
The story itself is intriguing and full of wit. I feel that I might listen to it yearly!

A Modern Christmas Murder Mystery in Epistolary Form

This is a fun little novella full of cast of questionable characters. Once you get into the story, it's hard to stop!

A funny holiday mystery…

I thought this was a fun read with an interesting style. I listened to the audio while I read with the book and I can say it definitely lends itself more to reading than listening but is still a good read for the holiday season.

The humor, characters, and plot are excellent. The print edition is great because the characters and humor are easier to savor.

There is nothing to dislike here, as this is a treat to read and listen to.

Such a cute short story!

The characters came to life, I loved how each had a voice actor, I loved how the story got brought to life with them, and I truly enjoyed the few hours of listening to this story

All the tea

If you’re that person in your office who likes to hear all the drama without being a part of it, this is your book. There were so many moments of, “oh no, she did NOT just do that!” And some fairly comical moments. The mystery drew me in and kept me interested, and the multiple narrators keep it fairly straightforward with the epistle style narrative. Considering the entire story is told through texts, emails, and group chats, the author does a masterful job showing without telling. You really get a feel for the characters through the way they communicate. And the tea is strong!

Really hard to pay attention

There's a trend in books: instead of writing a narrative, the author strings together various text messages,
emails, phone calls to move the story forward. This is supposedly in the traditional 'epistolary style..' as if
a character is writing his/her thoughts in a letter. Let's be real: a letter is more informative than a
text message which is short and sweet, and reveals little about the sender or receiver.
This technique of putting together a mystery leaves the reader in the dark: what is going on here?
I had a difficult time paying attention because I did not give a fig for any of the characters or the situations.
There was little effort in fleshing out the characters, the setting or in the response to the crime.
The narrators were serviceable but on the whole, this was not my cup of tea.