416 pages
Publisher:
Viper
Release
Date: August 29, 2024
Blurb
Six Students. One Murder. Your Time Starts Now...
The students of Royal Hastings University's new Multimedia Art course have been
trouble from day one. Acclaimed artist Alyson wants the department to revolve
around her. Ludya struggles to balance her family and the workload. Jonathan
has management experience but zero talent for art. Lovely Patrick can barely
operate his mobile phone, let alone professional design software. Meanwhile
blustering Cameron tries to juggle the course with his job in the City and does
neither very well. Then there's Jem. A gifted young sculptor, she's a promising
student... but cross her at your peril.
The year-long course is blighted by accusations of theft, students setting fire
to one another's artwork, a rumoured extra-marital affair and a disastrous road
trip. But finally they are given their last assignment: to build an interactive
art installation for a local manufacturer. With six students who have nothing
in common except their clashing personal agendas, what could possibly go wrong?
The answer is: murder. When the external examiner arrives to assess the
students' essays and coursework, he becomes convinced that a student was killed
on the course and that the others covered it up. But is he right? And if so,
who is dead, why were they killed, and who is the murderer? Only a close
examination of the evidence will reveal the truth. Your time starts now...
Review
WOW!!!
Where do I start?
This is the fifth book by Janice Hallett I’ve read, so I had a pretty good idea what to expect but WOW, the author managed to exceed my very high expectations with this well-plotted and intriguing story. It made for compulsive reading from the start with the tension initially building gradually until, by the time I reached the last quarter, the story suddenly exploded and rushed forward with shocking revelation after shocking revelation. And just when I thought I had all the answers, Hallett had another trick up her sleeve; one that will have me thinking and wondering about this book for some time to come.
Like Hallett’s previous books, the story is told in email messages, texts, and essays as the narrative follows a diverse group of students in an art master’s programme where nothing and nobody is as it appears to be at first glance. Also as in her previous books, we have a small cast of main characters. There is Gela who needs students for her new master’s programme before her funding is cut. She ends up with a hand-picked group of six students who couldn’t be more diverse. From the very first day the students are nothing but trouble, but it isn’t until Ben Sketcher, the external examiner who has access to all the communications between the university and the participants, starts asking questions that it becomes clear exactly how worrying the situation is. Ben is convinced one of the course participants is in serious danger or possibly, already dead. From the start there are growing tensions between the course participants. Messages between the participants individually or between Gela and one or another of the students imply that there’s stuff going on behind the scenes the others, and therefore the reader, aren’t aware of.
Although I took pages worth of notes while reading this story, I don’t want to
say anything else about what happens for fear of spoiling it for other readers.
Suffice to say that nobody in this story is who they appear to be. Much to my
delight I was able to answer one or two questions before the author spelled the
answer out, but I have no idea if that was Hallett’s intention or if I’m
getting better at solving some of the mysteries in her story. What’s more, finding
those answers only threw up new questions because the full mystery wasn’t unravelled
until the very end. As it should be.
The writing in this book is excellent. All the main characters have their own, distinctive voices and I was impressed with how the art the candidates create comes to life on the page and becomes visible to the reader. This story hooked me from the start and never released its grip. Just when things appeared to become a little clearer everything turned more obscure. The format means the reader doesn’t get all the information, only that which the characters want you to know, and that meant I was kept guessing for the longest time. Every time I thought I had a grip on what was really going on, something happened to make me rethink everything I thought I knew.
In my review of The Appeal I wrote: ‘After having read all three of Janice Hallett’s currently available titles I have to conclude that she is something of a genius when it comes to slow reveals and misdirection while still giving the reader all the information they need to keep up with the investigators.’ The Examiner has only strengthened that opinion. I’m in awe at how Janice Hallett managed to tie everything in this story together and answer (almost) every question the reader might have. One question remains unanswered, though but that perfectly fits the complexity of the story as far as I’m concerned. It also ensures that this is a book I will be thinking about long after I finished reading it.
Related reviews:
The appeal: https://helenasheat.blogspot.com/2023/09/the-appeal-by-janice-hallett.html
The Twyford Code: https://helenasheat.blogspot.com/2023/07/the-twyford-code-by-janice-hallett.html
The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels:
https://helenasheat.blogspot.com/2023/06/the-mysterious-case-of-alperton-angels.html
The Christmas Appeal: https://helenasheat.blogspot.com/2023/10/the-christmas-appeal-by-janice-hallett.html
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