Six students. One murder. Your time starts now…
Once again, Janice Hallett has created a cosy, clever murder mystery composed entirely of everyday documentation and messages, this time surrounding a multimedia art course.
What’s it about?
Since the start of their one year MA, the mature students have caused their course leader trouble, from setting light to each other’s work to stealing from the lab.
When they finally reach the end of their course, the external examiner raises a more serious concern: based on their submitted coursework and intranet messages, he thinks that one of the students might have been murdered – and the others are covering it up.
What’s it like?
Very readable, this is an engaging murder mystery, populated by unlikeable characters who are all hiding things from each other (or from the reader!), and told in short bursts through official and unofficial records, making it easy to pick up and put down.
Like Hallett’s debut novel, ‘The Appeal’, the pace varies: after a section that drags a bit in the middle, Hallett abruptly unveils a ‘hidden’ set of messages that reveal a very different story to the previous presentation and the pace escalates dramatically.
Final thoughts
Hallett makes effective use of juxtaposition of conversations to create humour as the characters lie to and manipulate each other. Although it isn’t clear who is hiding what for a long time, the distinct personalities come through perfectly in the combination of messages and other documents. The ending is very effective, too, resolving everything that went before and creating a surprisingly unsettling final page!
I look forward to reading Hallett’s latest book, ‘The Killer Question’, set in the competitive world of pub quizzing.
