Jonetta's Reviews > The Christmas Appeal

the setup…
The Fairway Players are back, this time under the direction of Sarah-Jane MacDonald, replacing the Haywards. It’s a Christmas pantomime production of Jack and the Beanstalk and for those of you outside of the UK, that’s a type of musical comedy stage production designed for family entertainment which was developed in England. Rehearsals are underway but the season isn’t fostering “goodwill to all men” as there’s an effort underway to undermine Sarah-Jane to unseat her as director for future performances. However, things get thorny when a dead body turns up on stage. Lawyers Femi Hassan and Charlotte Holroyd are back to sift through the emails, letters and other communications for now retired senior attorney Roderick Tanner to figure out the victim and killer.

the heart of the story…
I love the epistolary story structure, especially on audio with multiple narrators. The emails are snarky, often passive aggressive and always entertaining. There are so many laugh out loud moments to distract you from figuring out the whodunit but that was secondary to the overall journey. Many of the Players from the first book return, this time with bigger roles and under suspicion. The day of the performance was a really fine piece of writing as multiple disasters were in play but as they say in the business, the show must go on!

the narration…
This felt like a full cast production with the four narrators and all of them managed to embrace their characters so well they came to life. If you like audiobooks, then you’ll love this performance.

the bottom line…
Femi and Charlotte set the stage as the story opens with them tasked with solving the mystery but it quickly transitions to the Players, all in fine form. This turned out to be even better than I had anticipated and it was fun getting back to Lower Lockwood. There’s a sort of twisty element to the conclusion, making this even more of a wonderful listening experience. It was a fine way to start off my holiday reading. 4.5 stars

Posted on Blue Mood Café

(Thanks to Simon & Schuster Audio for my complimentary copy. All opinions are my own.)