THE HAHAFICTION LIBRARYThe Christmas AppealJanice HallettTitle placeholder · cover unavailable

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On the HahaFiction shelf

The Christmas Appeal

by Janice Hallett

The Appeal · Book 1.5 · 2023

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.

Mystery Cozy mystery Dry wit Farce Satire

From the publisher’s blurb

“One dead Santa. A town full of suspects.”

Read the full description at Viper, publisher description

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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.