Whatever this is, it's not about a play.
The Appeal is a murder mystery novel first published in 2021, and was the debut novel by Janice Hallett.
Written in an epistolary style, the plot centres around 'The Fairway Players', an amateur theatre group based in the small English town of Lockwood. In 2018, Leading into rehearsals for their latest play, the granddaughter of the Haywards (the director and the leading lady) is diagnosed with a rare form of cancer. A fundraising appeal is started to raise money for the expensive treatment. However, as the rehearsals continue, teansions flare between the members of the group - new and old - and eventually results in one of the players mysteriously dying just before the opening night.
The story is framed by the investigation of two law students, Femi and Charlotte, who have been tasked by their tutor, Roderick Tanner QC, to read through the contextual documents and piece together the events surrounding the death - an investigation that is complicated by the fact that the tutor is convinced that the prime suspect (who has already been tried for the murder) is actually innocent.
Warning: as this is a murder mystery with many twists, lots of spoilers are below.
The Appeal provides examples of:
- Actually Pretty Funny: In order to keep their musical act for the charity ball, Sarah-Jane lies that Poppy is going blind due to her illness. This works, but SJ is mortified by the lie. The Haywards? find it absolutely hilarious.
- All of the Other Reindeer: Poor Issy. Nobody seems to like her, whether at work or at rehearsals - even Sam eventually seems to tolerate her at best. The worst thing is she's very aware of it, but can't ever seem to do the right thing to change anybody's attitude towards her.
- Because You Were Nice to Me: James Hayward is one of the few characters to stick up for Issy and gives her chances to mingle with the inner group. He also seems to be genuinely nice to her in their correspondences. Whilst it's never outright stated, this might explain why Issy takes the fall for Sam's murder and follows James' plan with no question. Even after she is released, Issy continues to defend James and his character.
- Cast Herd: As there are so many suspects, Tanner's secretary groups the suspects and their connections this way, rather than alphabetically (to Tanner's bemusement).
- Double-Meaning Title: 'The Appeal' can refer to both the charity appeal in honour of Poppy Reswick as well as the court appeal that is taking place in the framing device.
- Dramatic Irony: Reviews of the production of All My Sons sing special praises to Helen Hayward’s performance, noting the difficulty of playing a deluded woman blissfully unaware of the spiraling web of lies around her. By this point, it’s become increasingly clear that’s an accurate description of the real Helen Hayward amidst the in-fighting of her fellow cast, as well as the many lies her husband and son have built.
- Framing Device: the main murder plot has already taken place in 2018 - the current plot is the appeal, as the law students race against time to find evidence that exonerates their tutor's client.
- The Ghost: The communications from Sam Greenwood and Helen-Grace Hayward never appear within the novel. This is justified in universe for Helen (Martin says that she avoids using technology to communicate),but it's notable for Sam considering how many other characters' communications revolve around her, and it's clear she's communicating back. it's especially egregious considering Sam is revealed to be the murder victim .
- Here We Go Again!: Much of the incidental drama revolves around Isabel’s tendency to cling and obsess over any smidge of kindness someone offers her. After being cleared of all charges, Isabel announces her plan to enter the legal field to “repay” Femi and Charlotte, indicating exactly where her new fixation has shifted.
- Karma Houdini: Downplayed. Dr. Tish helped instigate much of the plot, forcing the Greenwoods out of Africa, covering up her brother’s crimes, and orchestrating much of the cancer scheme with the Haywards, but had successfully avoided investigation by choosing to stay in Africa. However, her Heel Realization has left her guilt-ridden and charity focused, implying that her “victory” has not offered her much relief.
- My God, What Have I Done?: After spending excessive amounts of time protecting her brother and sabotaging Sam’s life, Dr. Tish is left stunned and horrified when she gets confirmation that her brother was a rapist. By the time she finally attempts to make amends for all the damage she’s done, Sam Greenwood is dead.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Samantha Greenwood tries to stop workplace bullying, provide aid to a family in a medical crisis, and expose corruption in both Africa and England. It gets her forced out of her original job, emotionally wrung out from an overly clingy Isabel, ruins her existing relationships including her marriage, increasingly ostracized and subject to rumors, suffers an emotional breakdown after failing to expose a financial conspiracy, and finally murdered.
- Red Herring: Several.
- Kevin MacDonald, for Femi and Charlotte. The law students briefly become convinced his flu is a fabrication that provides a perfect alibi to commit murder. It becomes clear quickly that he truly was sick, with no relevance to the crime.
- Despite brief hints that The Dog Was the Mastermind, Magda the secretary genuinely had no connection to the financial conspiracy. Her missing emails and messages are the result of a very purposeful deletion from the criminals using her computer.
- The Reveal: So many - this includes the identities of the victim, the accused murderer and the actual murderer. These are, respectively, Sam Greenwood, Isabel Beck, and James Hayward.
- Laura Malvern was a fake identity created by Isabel to hold her perceived 'toxic' traits.
- Clive Handler and Lydia Drake were respectively Sam Greenwood and Martin Hayward.
- The experimental drug from the USA never existed. That particular spoiler leads onto the reveal that Poppy never had cancer. Even worse, the men of the familynote knew about the scam.
- Serious Business: The performance of All My Sons in July. At first it's highlighted how maintaining the rehearsals maintains some normality for the Haywards as Poppy is being treated. However, as tensions start escalating it starts to seem odd that the Players are so determined to complete their performance (to the point where Paige Reswick steps in after Sam Greenwood has a breakdown at the dress rehearsal - odd consider her two-year-old daughter is still going through chemotherapy!)
- Spanner in the Works: Isabel Beck. Introduced Sam to the Players, putting an observant outsider right into the perfect place to interrogate the lies and deceptions of the chemotherapy procedures. Her proximity to the murder also prevents Sam’s death from getting labelled as a suicide, especially once she decides to take the fall.
- Sunk Cost Fallacy: Sarah-Jane MacDonald's core issue. Despite being practical, intelligent, and a talented organizers, she allows herself to ignore many warning signs regarding the suspicious events surrounding the Players because she’s put too much time into organizing everything to imagine she’s been duped. Perhaps most damning after Sam’s public accusations against the Haywards. While she’s initially the only person to genuinely consider if Sam is accurate, she allows one contradiction of Sam’s evidence to determine that all of Sam’s evidence should be discounted.
- Spoiler Cover: It's fairly subtle, but on the original cover art, there is a bullseye directly over one of the top flats in the background of the buildings. It could be seen as that particular flat being targeted, but it also works as a spoiler considering the victim died after falling from her top floor balcony. - a fact that doesn't get revealed until the last third of the story.
- Wham Line:Therefore, going forward, you must ask: who already knows Sam Greenwood is dead and who doesn't?
