# The Christmas Appeal

By Janice Hallett · The Appeal, book 1.5

Profile: https://hahafiction.com/books/the-christmas-appeal-65f7df71/

The Fairway Players need a new church roof, so they’re putting on Jack and the Beanstalk. Rehearsals bring rival ambitions, an inconveniently large prop and very little seasonal goodwill. A dead Santa adds a mystery for lawyers Femi and Charlotte to unravel through the group’s emails, letters and transcripts.

## What makes it funny?

Celia’s Christmas update boasts about an improved production of Glengarry Glen Ross with the swearing removed and a happy ending added. A private reply supplies the missing detail: David Mamet’s response came from his lawyer. Her son’s exclusive driving course receives a similar correction.

### The comedy at work

Hallett lets readers compare the version people circulate with the version they tell someone else privately. Polite group emails sit beside furious messages, and the arguments over a volunteer production accumulate into farce.

### Try this if…

The pleasures are partly those of overhearing a disastrous committee meeting. Readers who like theatrical ambition, social snobbery and clues hidden among ordinary messages have a short holiday mystery to work through.

### Good to know

BOLO Books says the novella can be read independently, but it reveals surprises from The Appeal. Read that novel first if you want to preserve its mystery. Expect a story assembled from written exchanges, with a corpse and a potentially asbestos-filled beanstalk among the production problems.

## What to expect

- Genre: Mystery
- On the shelf: Cozy mystery
- Kind of humor: Dry wit · Farce · Satire
- Format: Novella
- Published: 2023

## A few distinguishing details

- A Christmas round robin corrected by private footnotes
- An amateur pantomime and a dead Santa

## Sources & further reading

- Review: [BOLO Books review](https://bolobooks.com/2023/10/the-christmas-appeal-the-bolo-books-review)
- Reading sample: [Publisher sample](https://viperbooks.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/wpallimport/files/PDFs/9781800817357_preview.pdf)
- Publisher: [Publisher](https://viperbooks.co.uk/work/the-christmas-appeal)
- Review: [Reading Reality review](https://www.readingreality.net/2023/12/review-the-christmas-appeal-by-janice-hallett)