Janice HallettReviews

This is not your usual who-dun-it with buildup, murder, and fierce interviews. Instead, the reader reads the documents in the case, along with the investigators, who are commissioned to discover the real murderer after a person has been convicted. So we are in the same position as the investigators, complete with text messages between them and the appeals attorney (barrister? I forget), nudges to go back and read parts of the evidence, extra information as it arises, and some amazing characters. No 'live' dialog, no suspects in the same room, none of that, and yet completely captivating. The end is satisfying and then chilling. Highly recommended.

Like Hallett's other books, this one took the form of emails, transcripts and WhatsApp messages etc. Journalist Amanda and her colleague/enemy Oliver investigate the historic case of the Alperton Angels - a (very small) cult, whose leader was imprisoned after the murder of a waiter, the rescue of a baby and two teenagers, and the suicide of the other adults.

I enjoyed this to start with, but it was far too long, there were too many characters, the whole thing was over-the-top and the inclusion of the Wessexes was unnecessary and distasteful. It felt as if the author couldn't quite decide how to end things. As a plus I thought the portrayal of Amanda's determination to use anyone and anything to get her story was well done.

Like her previous novel, The Appeal, this book is a triumph, and highly entertaining. It is presented as a series of documents, featuring emails, WhatsApp exchanges and SMS messages from a number of characters, all of whom have been involved in the events surrounding the production of a community pantomime by the amateur dramatic society in the small town of Lockwood.

As with the earlier book, a bundle of papers is delivered to two young paralegals in a firm of solicitors, and they are invited to study them with no prior knowledge of the case or its context, and see what conclusions they come to.

The plot revolves around the actions and jealousies found among the members of the Lockwood Amateur Dramatic Society. The correspondence is cleverly presented – we don’t always see both sides of an exchange, and all sorts of sub stories emerge.

The characterisation is great, too. All in all, this works wonderfully – far more effectively than my clumsy synopsis might suggest - , and all sorts of subplots and strained relationships emerge. When I first encountered the book, I had my doubts about the format, wondering whether it might simply be gimmicky. That could not be further from the truth. The drip feed of information, like an old fashioned epistolatory novel, works excellently.

Janice Hallett manages the plot adeptly, too, and I lost count of the unexpected twists and turns, all of them entirely plausible.

I had a lot of fun with this whodunnit, told exclusively through emails, text messages, transcripts, and other documents. Hallett does a great job developing her characters and giving the reader a real sense of them without relying on standard descriptions and interactions.

The story is slightly convoluted and I had a bit of an issue in the beginning keeping track of who was who, but it didn't take long to get it all sorted in my head. The novel focuses on a community theater group in a small English village; the leader of the group has a granddaughter recently diagnosed with cancer, and the community rallies around to raise money for a life-saving treatment. But something isn't right... And then one of the actors is killed... dun dun DUN! I won't say more because you deserve to experience the fun for yourself.

4 stars

True crime writer Amanda Bailey has the golden opportunity to write one of the first books in a new true crime series, and she's all set to focus on the Alperton Angels, a cult killing from twenty years ago that may not be all that it seems. Unfortunately, a long-time rival, Oliver Menzies, is set to write a book on the same topic for a different publisher. Their editors encourage them to work together and take different angles, saying there's plenty to be found in the case for two different books. Amanda isn't convinced, but she's determined to get all the information she can, even if some of it has to come through Oliver. As she delves into the case, she finds some loose ends that might even prove that the wrong man is behind bars. But the deeper she digs, the more it seems like someone powerful doesn't want the truth to come to light...

This epistolary mystery is presented as a set of case files: interview transcripts, text message logs, emails, all pertaining to the Alperton Angels case. It's up to the reader to sort through and determine what really happened, and there are definitely some twists and turns before the end. If you're up for this kind of narrative, I'd recommend this one.

I didn’t expect all of this when I initially picked up this book. In fact, I wanted to read Hallett’s latest novel but this was the only book of hers that my library had, so I picked it up.

This was such a fun and fascinating mystery. There were a handful of times where I thought I was cracking the code but by the end I knew I hadn’t quite got it. And yet I still had fun reading along. It reminds me of that one Agatha Christie novel where the murderer was the narrator in the final pages of revelations.

The Mysterious Case Of The Alperton Angels (2023) by Janice Hallett. When you start this book you find yourself faced with the challenge of reading the large collection of various forms of documents and then going into the mystery, or handing it all off to the police. There really is no choice here as you are either going to read the story, which is a clever collection of letters, other hand written documents, transcriptions from interviews, a mass of e-mails and their responses, and printouts from other web sites. Collected they tell the tale of a small cult, perhaps six members, or a few more, from the past located in Alperton. They were the Angels, most famous for a collective suicide of most of the few members.
The cult was led by the charismatic Gabriel, a con man of long standing who managed to talk, or brainwash, several other petty criminals into doing his bidding. The biggest thing they did was convince a teenaged couple that their baby was the anti-Christ and that only the Angels could save the world by destroying the child at the proper time. Somehow the girl sees the insanity in this plan, escapes with baby and boyfriend in hand, and get the police involved.
The members of the cult commit suicide while their leader is captured and ultimately goes to prison.
That is just the set up of this time-bending, mildly mind-blowing trek into the secrets that surround the Alperton Angels. Now, almost 18 years later, true crime author Amanda Bailey is commissioned to write a revelatory book about the Angels. She determines that the greatest spur to boost sales of her book would be to find the now young adult child. The identity of the girl has been hidden, as well as her location and living arrangements. Her parents, the teens of back then, have also managed to hid from the public for most of two decades.
The documents talked of at the beginning of the review constitute the gist or this matter. This is not a typical narrative tale. Rather it is constructed through a long series of talks, chats, reading of papers, electronic communications and so forth. All of that is what you would find in the safety deposit box that you have just opened. The story has all taken place sometime in the past and you are left to sort through everything and try to make sense of it all. It is much like a puzzle room that you have been dropped into. Now it is up to you to make sense of it all. But don’t despair. Even with the time traveling papers, even the temporal transportation of key peoples and events, and the very mixed-up revelations from some of the characters, all will be revealed.
This is not a book to be entered into lightly, but it is worth the trip.

This is a cozy mystery revolving around the Fairway Players Theater Group managed by Martin and Helen Hayward. They are very selective about who is allowed into their exclusive group of amateur actors. Each year they work on one play which they take very seriously demanding dedication from the group members. There is an eclectic cast of characters involved with these productions. This year they are working on All My Sons by Arthur Miller and have deemed it a fundraiser with the proceeds to benefit the Haywards' granddaughter, Poppy who has a rare form of cancer and eligible for experimental treatment.

Samantha Greenwood and her husband are new members to the group this year having returned from their volunteer work in Africa for the past 8 years. Isabel Beck is an interesting and needy player who finds an immediate connection with Samantha as she is also a nurse. There are many text messages and emails exchanged throughout the course of this book alternating between the characters which provide insight into their true motives as opposed to those which they want others to believe. Unfortunately, a dead body being found before rehearsals for opening night throws a wrench in the once tightly scheduled event. Alternating chapters have attorneys who have been assigned to gather information regarding the death are also emailing and texting furiously to determine who is responsible for this apparent crime.

There are many twists in the story to keep you guessing as well as some shady but humorous characters.

We travel back to Lower Lockwood in this novella to witness the Fairway Players preparing for their Christmas play. This year Jack and the Beanstalk was selected and the monies raised are allocated to pay for a new roof for the church. It is helpful and advised that you read the first book, The Appeal, as it will explain all the changes that have occurred resulting in additional cast of characters. The fallout from the dead body discovered in book 1 has tremendous impact on the Fairway Players Group.

The story is told mainly through emails and text messages between the characters. As can be expected there are several people who don't particularly like one another but have to endure for the sake of the charity play. Celia Halliday has emailed the Players regarding necessary information for the auditions and rehearsals. It wouldn't be interesting without new members and the petty trash talking amongst the crew. There is a lot confusion with this amateur group as they attempt to save money by purchasing candy from a recently paroled friend and tracking down the mysterious beanstalk which seems to have "disappeared" since it was last used. Just as they hold their breath hoping all goes well the night of the performance, a dead body makes an appearance onstage that has everyone looking like a suspect. Again, lawyers Femi and Charlotte are there to investigate the situation including the emails and texts with the police reports to identify the victim and killer.

The best written epistolary mystery I've read! I feel like this format could get annoying very quickly, yet Hallett does such a strong job weaving everything together and creating a super intriguing cast of characters that it is easy to fall right into the story. I also think "The Appeal" is, at least partly, very solvable by the reader, which always bumps up a mystery rating for me. All in all, a very unique and engaging novel; I'm impressed that this is a debut and would love to read more from Hallett.

I enjoyed this mystery/thriller so much more than I thought I would having heard the words, "entirely epistolary mystery/thriller". It's really masterfully done! I'm thinking of checking out more of Janice Hallett's novels, as this one was very skillful. I did find the ending/ultimate resolution wildly unsatisfying, but in that aspect your mileage may definitely vary.½

Unique mystery thriller.

This is an absolutely different type of crime or mystery thriller because of the way it is written and how the narrative evolves through different writing styles. Using the various communication formats of emails, texts, WhatsApp messaging, etc., the complicated story evolves via random snippets. The reader is not sure what is true which heightens the skepticism about the story line.

The Alperton Angels case is infamous. Apparently some crazed fools decided they were angels and that they were meant to destroy the Antichrist in the form of a newborn baby. Or was that really what they were doing? Amanda Bailey, a journalist, has been asked to write a book about the old crime. She tries to track down old witnesses and police who were involved in the investigation. Meanwhile, an old colleague turned nemesis, Oliver Menzies, is also tasked with writing about the Alperton madness. As they both try to figure out what happened way back when, people start dying before they can interview them. Very convenient. The cover up is real and somebody doesn’t want them to know what really happened in the warehouse that night.

This was quite an interesting story and I enjoyed it as I tried to discern what was going on so it kept me on my toes. I really like when an author takes a different storytelling approach and does it in such a fascinating way. Some might not like that this is not a linear narrative but I certainly did.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for this e-book ARC to read, review, and recommend.

Very clever. The narrator, Steven Smith, has just been released from prison after many years. He decides to find out what happened to an old teacher who read a book by Edith Twyford. He records on a phone given to him by the son he never knew he had the story of his life and the search for the answers to what happened to his former teacher. We find out at the end of the book that the characters he writes about in his book and the author of the messages sent to son are all from Steven Smith, who is hidden away in an unknown island location. Kirkus: Through a series of audio recordings, a former felon recounts his attempts to solve a literary code that may lead to stolen gold�or maybe that's all a red herring.The novel begins with a letter written in 2021 from a police inspector to a professor, asking him to listen to a set of audio files that were found on an iPhone belonging to a man who's gone missing. What follows is a novel made up almost entirely of recordings and letters: recordings created by Steven Smith, who has recently been released from prison, wishes to connect with a son he never knew he had, and is haunted by a strange experience from his childhood that he only semi-remembers; and letters shared between Inspector Waliso and professor Mansfield in response to them. When Steven was a child, his teacher read the class a book by an author named Edith Twyford and then took them on a field trip that seems to have ended in tragedy. Trying to figure out what happened that day, he reaches out to the other children who were there and discovers that each of them has become fascinated with the ?Twyford Code? that the author seems to have threaded through her novels. Twyford may have been a secret British agent during World War II involved in Operation Fish, a secret mission to move all of Britain?s gold stores to Canada for safekeeping. As he is drawn deeper into the intrigue of the code, Steven also records the story of his life¥the deaths of his parents, his rough upbringing, and how he fell in with a family of criminals and eventually went to prison for theft. In a book with this many twists and turns, of course, there?s no way of knowing what's true and what's not, and Hallett continues to pull the rug out from under the reader every time we think we understand what's going on. The good: It?s complicated, in the best way, and the reveals over the last section of the book are truly gaspworthy. The bad: The recording gimmick does begin to feel a bit gimmicky, and this structure makes up 90% of the novel.Code lovers rejoice! This one?s for you.

I was thrilled when I heard that Janice Hallett had a new book coming out. I think her writing is so very, very clever. Her latest - The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels - is perhaps the best book yet.
The Alperton Angels were a cult 18 years ago. The members truly believed that they were indeed, angels, sent forth to Earth to save the world from the Anti-Christ. They believed that one young woman's baby was the the Anti-Christ. And the young mum? She decides to take the babe and run. Where could they be now?? Okay, that's just the tip of the story. There's so much more to explore!

Hallett reprises the epistolary style of writing that I adore. The book is told through emails, screenplays, podcasts, amateur sleuths groups, book excerpts, phone calls, texts, testimonies, police files and so much more! There's also a transcriber who adds her thoughts about things.

Amanda Bailey is a true crime writer. She's a large personality, dogged in her search, determined to find the now eighteen year old baby. She's got some serious skills. But there's another author, named Oliver Menzies, on the hunt as well. His direction, point of view and skills are quite different than Amanda's. The two clash over who can write what, and hiding what they do find out. And the third detective? It's you, dear listener. There's a myriad of supporting characters in the book. Some are seen once and others play a larger part. But they're all integral to the plot.

The plotting is absolutely brilliant in my opinion. The clues are sometimes right there to see, while other times they're longshots. Hallett throws in more than one twist and turn on the way to the final 'aha'! Hallett's writing is addictive and you'll find yourself up late, reading just one more chapter.

A brilliant book and an easy five stars!

Eighteen years ago, the police discovered the mutilated bodies of several members of the Alperton Angels cult in an abandoned warehouse. The cult members, led by the charismatic Gabriel who is presently in prison for murder, had believed they were angels sent to save the world from the Antichrist which had been born to teenaged parents who were members of the cult. They were at the warehouse to sacrifice the baby but the girl had changed her mind and called the police. The mother and child had been taken in by social workers and had both disappeared into the system.

Now true crime writer Amanda Blake has been commissioned to write a book about the case along with another writer but from different perspectives. The two decide to work together and share their research. But the deeper they delve into the mystery, the more discrepancies they discover in the official police account of what happened in that warehouse.

The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels by Janice Hallett is one twisty completely addicting tale. The story is told through WhatsApp messages, transcripts of witness statements, drafts of possible first chapters, and pages from a fiction series and a play based on the cult. There are a whole lot going on in this book and, at times it does seem hard to keep up with all the characters. But it kept my attention throughout and the ending, wow, I did not see that coming. A great read for anyone who enjoys unique mysteries with plenty of twists and turns, interesting characters, and a very satisfying ending.

Thanks to Edelweiss+ and the publishers for an arc of this book in exchange for an honest review

A true crime author, Amanda Bailey, decides to revisit the case of the Alperton Angels. The Angels were a cult that convinced a young girl and her boyfriend that their baby was the anti-Christ and needed to be sacrificed. The girl called the police and she and the baby were rescued and subsequently disappeared. Amanda believes that finding the baby who is now about to turn 18 is the perfect angle for he book.
Amanda isn't the only one with the idea. Fellow author Oliver Menzies has the same plan. He and Amanda share a complicated history, but their publishers decide they should work together on the story.

Digging into the events they discover that there is still a lot of mystery surrounding what happened beyond the fate of the mother and baby. Recollections of witnesses to the events don't always agree on details. Not all are eager to share what they remember. As they delve further into the story it seems there still is some danger surrounding the Alperton Angels, and maybe not everyone wants to know the truth.

Janice Hallett tells her story through WhatsApp messages, transcripts of recorded conversations, and draft chapters for the proposed books. There is a lot to keep track of. The nature of the messages and conversations keep the story moving propulsively forward. Twists and turns along the way keep readers constantly on their toes. Hallett does a masterful job at creating both mood and suspense. The story never flags and the ending comes at you like a freight train. This is a great story sure to please fans of mystery and suspense.

I was provided a copy of this book by the publisher.

The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels by Janice Hallett is a wonderful true crime thriller and one of its kind. The narration style is totally different from what we normally read. The story advances through a series of WhatsApp messages and interviews. I did not know about the Alperton Angels Case previously, and the plot was mind-blowing. But the most astonishing part is the climax and revelations by the author. The whole plot is medium-paced, but it would not hamper your interest in the book. The book also gives a strong message about religious beliefs and how easily some people can bend them for their own malicious purposes. The ending just shook me. I must say that the book is one of the best I have read this month. Definitely, the book deserves 5 stars.

DecipherIt™
Review of the Atria Books (USA) paperback edition (August 1, 2023) of the Viper Books (UK) hardcover original (January 13, 2022)

Because. Everyone in this room is clever enough to understand that this book belongs to another world. A different time and place. Then she gets a flourish in her voice and says: the past is a foreign country. They do things differently there. Who said that? She looked at us all expectant.
You just did miss. I knew how to make her laugh.
She tells us the name of whoever* said it, but blow me I can't remember now.

I was only so-so about Hallett's breakthrough book The Appeal (2021) which overstayed its welcome and wrapped up with an Unsatisfactory Ending Alert™. I enjoyed the novella-length sequel The Christmas Appeal (2023) though, probably because of the shorter length and the comic antics. Feeling goodwill towards Hallett I decided to go back to The Twyford Code (2022) and give it a chance.

The Twyford Code is actually pretty ingenious, but feels about 100 pages too long. Your attention and enjoyment start to flag towards the middle as too many repeat scenarios seem to occur. The concluding explanation though is quite brilliant and can't be discussed further due to spoiler territory. Along the way there are clues that what is going on is not necessarily everything that it appears to be. But really, I'd say this is an 'impossible to solve' (or 10 out of 10) mystery on the Berengaria Ease of Solving Scale® as the machinations and complexities are just pretty far out there. You end up admiring it in the end, but perhaps not loving it.

This is written in Hallett's trademark style of the epistolary novel, with the only tweak being that the texts are transcriptions of audio recordings. The transcriptions are done by a fictional app called DecipherIt™ which makes occasional mistakes. Those add a bit of fun to the proceedings as the reader then has to themself decipher what was really being said.

So it is somewhat of a reserved 4 star rating, mostly given for the tour-de-force ending!

Footnote
* It was author L.P. Hartley and it is the opening sentence of the novel The Go-Between (1953).

Having just finished The Heiress by Rachel Hawkins I was looking forward to Janice Hallett’s latest foray into a book written by way of emails, texts, WhatsApp Messages, news articles and such. She is so clever and often laugh-out-loud-funny. I was totally unprepared for this story which I did not put down until I had finished it. Yep, one afternoon, no getting up not even to make a sandwich or have a yogurt. While this was not what I had expected it was so much better.

It involves a cult, three men and two teenagers who believe they are angels in human form, planets aligning for the first time since July 16, 1623, “a phenomenon known as a Great Conjunction”, a kidnapping, multiple mutilated bodies, another unexplained death and two writers trying to be the first to unravel what actually happened. The missives fly, between the writers, their agents, their editors, those on the Interview Wish List - lots and lots of characters who are involved in some capacity. There are amateur detectives, members of a murder club, social workers, police officers and a few nefarious people that will need sorting. This is sheer brilliance and Janice Hallett has become an “I will read anything she writes” author.

I want to thank Atria Books, Simon & Schuster, and NetGalley for a copy which I loved and devoured.

3.75 stars. this was way more fun than it should have been. it's such a soap opera and gossip mill but i couldn't tear myself away, for probably more than 300 pages. the solving of the crime was actually way less fun for me, but everything up until then was just great. it's intricate and just so so clever. and more about relationships and family and class and the way insular communities work than about the mystery, actually. which was really fun for me.

i have always loved everything epistolary and epistolary adjacent and this is no exception. it does seem wild how many emails are sent that i would have thought would just be texts, but maybe i underuse email more than i realized. (although really making these texts would just make the book so much longer, so that's probably why it was done this way.) i don't think the structure of the lead lawyer withholding info and giving riddles for femi and charlotte to solve works, but i'm more than willing to put that aside for the fun of it all. this will be so fun to talk about in book group.

i love that "the appeal" is the courtroom appeal, not the fundraising appeal. just brilliant. i think femi realizing the truth, though, was a huge leap that didn't make sense to take. that wasn't something that works, in my opinion. but again, i'm not sure how much i care. the entire solving of the crime, the realizing helen's son didn't die of meningitis seemed to have no basis. so this isn't perfect, but it was otherwise so good that i can overlook something that normally would be pretty big. i thought she handled so many different voices and so many threads so well. there is a lot more going on here than at first glance, and she makes it seem effortless. this is really just so well done.½

The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels by Janice Hallett takes a modern twist on an epistolary novel and is highly recommended. Rather than letters, the narrative develops through modern modes of communication: transcripts of interviews, texts, email, WhatsApp messages, scripts, online articles, podcasts, drafts of written work, etc.

Amanda Bailey is a true-crime author who is planning to revisit a notorious case from 18 years ago and write the definitive book about the what happened and the baby involved. The Alperton Angels were a lethal cult who believed they were angles. The currently imprisoned leader, who called himself Gabriel, brainwashed re-named teens Holly and Jason to believe that they were also angels and that the baby they were caring for was the anti-Christ. After the fatal events from years ago, the teens and baby disappeared. That baby would be 18 now.

Amanda is sure she can uncover what really happened and the real identity of the teens and the baby. When she starts her research she learns that an old rival Oliver Menzies is also planning a book on the exact same subject. The two are equally industrious and assertive journalists who are eventually forced into an uneasy collaboration by their publishers.

Following along with Amanda's fiendishly clever efforts to research and uncover material, you will be able to piece together clues and have questions arise as you follow all the clues and information which arises. It is a layered, complex narrative that can change with each new data piece and questions arise constantly. It is in doubt that the truth is known or has ever been told. The tension rises along the way as people with information seem to be dying.

Ellie Cooper, is a PhD student and the transcriber for Amanda's recorded interviews. She also inserts her own comments and observations as her work is shared, which are refreshing and always appreciated while reading.

Generally, I enjoy epistolary novels but I will admit that this felt like a little too much of a good things and toward the end I longed for some story telling in a more traditional format. It could have been due to the length of the novel. The ending is a shocking twist and made pushing through worth it. 4.5 rounded down.
Disclosure: My complimentary review copy was courtesy of Atria Books via Edelweiss.
http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2024/01/the-mysterious-case-of-alperton-angels.ht...½

This was a really neat read, different format, but it works well. Takes a bit to get into, but keep going

The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels offers a real treat for fans of mystery novels with complex, creative plotting. It's one of those books that encourage late-night reading binges.

This is my second Janice Hallett novel (my first was The Twyford Code), and it certainly won't be my last. The novel follows a cold case, the "Alperton angels murders," in which a group of self-proclaimed angels determined to prevent the birth of the anti-Christ fail in their task, commit suicide (or did they?), with only a handful of cult members remaining: their leader, who is serving a life sentence for a related murder and two teenagers, the parents (or are they?) of that potentially apocalypse-initiating baby, and the baby itself.

Amanda Bailey, a well-known author of true crime novels has been tasked with writing a book based on that cold case as what will be the 18th birthday of that baby nears. If she can track that baby down and get exclusive rights, she'll have a blockbuster on her hands. But of course, there are complications.

The baby has been carefully hidden within social services red tape. Other authors who have researched the case are dying of what are assuredly unnatural causes. And Bailey finds herself forced to collaborate with a hated rival who seems to be embracing the angels and anti-Christ logic underlying the crime. Imagine the possibilities...

The novel consistently surprises until the end. If you like mysteries that make you think, you'll love The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels.

I received a free electronic review copy of this title from the publisher; the opinions are my own.

I would give this book 4.5 stars for review.

I thought this was such a unqiue read. This book worked so much better for me and i think that was because of the various formate!! I think some of the multi media elements did not work as well for me but i was so captivated by this read and def did not predict the read!!