The Christmas Appeal by Janice Hallett

 

A return to The Fairway Players sees rehearsals for a Christmas panto take place amid a power struggle for control of the amateur dramatic group. Gossip abounds when hints of asbestos begin and end with a dead body.

Janice Hallett wrote the extremely unique The Appeal, which centered around a murder involving The Fairway Players. The Christmas Appeal sees us returning to the village of Lockwood a few years later as The Fairway Players rehearse for the annual Christmas panto.

I did nothing but chuckle from beginning to end. Misunderstandings and misdirection are front and centre as the group rehearses a 1970's version of Jack And The Beanstalk. There are all the stresses and strains you would expect in the month of December, compounded by the pressure of rehearsals and trying to ensure everything is perfect, but added to this is the friction between the chair of the amateur dramatics group and the woman who believes she should be in charge, Celia Halliday. Celia is the stand-out character in the story, you can just picture her, in fact you probably know someone just like her! Every time the OBE was mentioned I laughed out loud and I think I actually snorted at the "no-BE". 

The use of text messages and emails makes this an easy and engrossing read, however, it's impossible to guess what is going to happen, or the number of things that go wrong. You'll gasp with shock at the cavalier way some of the disasters are handled. 

The building of two new housing estates nearby has increased the opportunity to introduce new characters, the few that we meet are fantastic additions. I do hope that we see a return to The Fairway Players again.

The Christmas Appeal by Janice Hallett will be published on 26th October 2023 in hardback, ebook and audio format. My thanks to NetGalley and Viper Books for a review copy.