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A review by nostoat
The Killer Question by Janice Hallett
4.0
I received a free eARC through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
If Janice Hallett has no fans assume I am dead. This latest book has: local pub drama, a publican group chat, quiz controversy, multiple friend groups having little spats, and of course...murder! It's a mystery inside a mystery with a side of a twist on a twist (on a twist? I perhaps lost count, but it didn't feel overdone!) The character work in this one felt very similar to her first, The Appeal, which will always have such a grip on me. I loved the local pub landlords and the various quizzers so much, all with their little quirks and hints of wider life outside of the quiz nights (poor Andrew and his desk job that he hates so much💀).
One slight drawback with this book, and I think also with her last is that it feels like her mysteries are moving away from the fair play style she started with in The Appeal and more to the type of mystery where crucial information isn't revealed until late into the book. HOWEVER, this one specifically is told through a series of emails mimicking the pacing and layout of an imagined docuseries, which would do exactly that: keeping the juicy information until later in the series to surprise viewers and keep them watching.
In all, I'll never shake the thrill of being told a story through this format of emails and texts and transcripts of recordings, it always feels like being in on The Gossip of the characters' lives in the besssst way.
If Janice Hallett has no fans assume I am dead. This latest book has: local pub drama, a publican group chat, quiz controversy, multiple friend groups having little spats, and of course...murder! It's a mystery inside a mystery with a side of a twist on a twist (on a twist? I perhaps lost count, but it didn't feel overdone!) The character work in this one felt very similar to her first, The Appeal, which will always have such a grip on me. I loved the local pub landlords and the various quizzers so much, all with their little quirks and hints of wider life outside of the quiz nights (poor Andrew and his desk job that he hates so much💀).
One slight drawback with this book, and I think also with her last is that it feels like her mysteries are moving away from the fair play style she started with in The Appeal and more to the type of mystery where crucial information isn't revealed until late into the book. HOWEVER, this one specifically is told through a series of emails mimicking the pacing and layout of an imagined docuseries, which would do exactly that: keeping the juicy information until later in the series to surprise viewers and keep them watching.
In all, I'll never shake the thrill of being told a story through this format of emails and texts and transcripts of recordings, it always feels like being in on The Gossip of the characters' lives in the besssst way.