Author Janice Hallett has made a name for herself of late as a master of modern epistolary mysteries. She doesn’t create a straight narrative. Rather, she tells the story through email exchanges, text messages, and notes between the characters. Readers of The Appeal will recognize some of the same names have returned for the latest amateur play.
The Fairway Players are once again desperate to put on a fabulous production (however improbable), this time to raise money for a new church roof. What could be more charitable than that? Their plan is a panto mashup of “Jack and the Beanstalk” with a surprise Santa. But the real surprise comes when dress rehearsal reveals a dead body hidden inside the long-forgotten beanstalk prop.
Message from the Rev. Joshua Harris to Sarah-Jane MacDonald on December 23, 2022:
6:32pm Rev. Joshua Harris wrote: My goodness, Sarah-Jane! Mother and I just heard that scream in the vicarage. The panto must be going down a storm. Bravo to the Fairway Players!
The result is a smart, funny short novel taking cues from the bustle of the holidays while capturing the essence of something so very British — The Pantomime. Even as much of an Anglophile as I am, I don’t entirely understand this very campy, slapstick tradition. There are stock characters in recognizable stories (like “Peter Pan,” “Cinderella,” or “Jack and the Beanstalk”) but the plots often take wide deviations from the source material. These Pantos encourage audience participation like booing and shouting “It’s behind you!” They’re raucous, colorful performances filled with sensory overload.
In The Christmas Appeal characters trade barbs, share secrets, and point fingers through their various communications, acting out their caricatures in daily life. All of these documents have been gathered as a case file for later review. The reader gets to see these competing narratives unfold and follow the various red herrings (chuckling) until the mystery is solved.
My thanks to Atria for the advance galley. Read via NetGalley.
Publisher: Atria Books (October 24, 2023)
Language: English
Hardcover: 208 pages
ISBN-10: 166803588X