When The Killer Question was announced, I knew I had to snap it up as a mystery aficionado, fan of Janice Hallett’s previous work and keen pub quizzer (as setter, host and participant). So I had to drop everything to read this and I think this might be her best yet. As usual it twists an unusual narrative format to pull you into this twisty and layered mystery packed to the brim with surprises.

Hallett has a wonderfully twisted brain that captures the rich complexity that can hide within the mundanity of everyday life. Her books are rooted in the hilarious and hateful little moments of life that you may miss, perfectly matching the breadcrumb trail of clues she sprinkles in. You are utterly captivated by the characters you may love or hate, but they feel like they could step off the page at any time. She has an indomitable style that stands out from the crowd and never fails to capture me. The modern epistolary mystery novel is undoubtedly her space and she impresses me with her sheer ingenuity. Every time, she pulls out a new format that feels inspired and surprising that you haven’t seen it before, pulled straight from real life. I mean who else would combine a murder and a pub quiz? It is fantastically imagined and the type of concept that pulls you in as a reader. The story builds on this concept to deliver a taut and twisty story that will surprise and delight you.

The central mystery as always is incredibly well-constructed with a veritable buffet of clues, characters, misdirects and reveals that shake the table. You always know you’re in safe hands with Hallett. This is another thoroughly enjoyable story that has incredible twists and a beating heart beneath it all. It is a wild ride with larger than life characters but there is also an important throughline about the true crime industry. The framing device of this book is around a pub quiz but also around a potential documentary pitch for a mysterious death that forever changes the lives of those around it. It is deeply interested in the way true crime narratives can sensationalise and exploit tragic stories for the benefits of those profiting from it, often neglecting the real people involved and reducing them to stereotypes for entertainment value. Hallett impressively showcases this through the various emails and text messages that create this story—there is that relentless pursuit of fame and money at any cost. It is scathing and leaves a strong impression on the reader.

On a lighter note, Hallett’s love of quizzing shines through in this novel. I loved the excerpts of the different quizzes and the snippets of conversations from teams and quizmasters alike.

It fit a lot of ‘types’ you may see at a quiz and gently pokes fun. Like the community gossip of The Appeal, Hallett captures such a sense of character from just a few lines of text messages. It is incredibly arresting and speaks to the way we all communicate now, with the various relationships dynamics simmering just below. There is plenty of humour in this, a ribbing sense of satire that encourages you to laugh with rather than at. Within this is particularly where you can feel love for this competitive element that brings people together as it pits them against one another. As a pub quiz veteran myself, it brought back plenty of memories—both fond and nastier. That darker side definitely comes into play as tensions heighten (wonderfully reflected in the weekly pub quizzes and surrounding discussions) and other elements start to be revealed. This is such a brilliant book where you just have to allow Hallett to lead you through this maze.

The Killer Question is a fiendish book that will give you whiplash with its incredibly smart plotting and twists that catch you off guard. This is definitely not a pub quiz you’ll forget anytime soon.

Every week, The Case is Altered, the local village pub would host a quiz, ran by the friendly landlords Mal and Sue Eastwood. Competition between the regulars was fierce until a new team arrived, a group of outsiders who win every week and whose knowledge seems too good to be true. Now though, the pub stands deserted, boarded up with no sign of life. What happened to change the fortunes of the pub and what happened to Mal and Sue? Someone out there knows the truth…

Ever since reading the first of Janice Hallett’s books, I have become a firm fan and always look forward to reading the next one. The Killer Question follows the format of previous books, with the story gradually unfolding via WhatsApp messages, police reports and emails, drip feeding the information, allowing the reader to look for clues and deduce what has happened.

We are introduced to the story by the Eastwood’s nephew who is hoping to pitch a story about his uncle and aunt to a Netflix true crime creator. This piqued my interest right away, especially as we were not told what had happened to them until the end of the book. This definitely got my brain working as I tried to deduce from the evidence in the book where the story was leading.

The format lends itself really well to the crime fiction genre but I also enjoyed the subtle humour throughout the book as we are privy to conversations between the characters. I found myself becoming quite invested in the quiz too and eagerly anticipated the results to see if any of the regulars could topple the mysterious ‘Shadow Knights’, the team of suspicious outsiders.

I loved the twisty ending, especially as the evidence is all there to allow the reader to solve the crime. Janice Hallett is a genius and I am already looking forward to reading her next book.

3.5 stars.

Another clever and enjoyable story for Janice Hallett. I was hugely entertained by the pub quiz setting and in particular the chats between the publicans in their very different establishments. I was slightly disappointed to solve the mystery before it was revealed and then delighted to be surprised by the final twist. I did find the formatting a little more performative and less varied than in her previous ones, mostly limited in this volume to messages and transcripts. They were also less convincing as genuine communications, particularly the messages between Mal and Sue which sometimes left me wondering why they would be happening over text. Despite this, it was still a fun read.

Absolutely brilliant book once again from this writer. I love the way the story is told purely by email and text messages, as it really gives insight into the characters minds. The twists, oh the twists, come thick and fast leaving you breathless. The imagination of Janice Hallett is a truly magnificent thing and her books are truly in the ‘must read’ category for any crime fiction lovers. Would give ten stars if I could.

Having never read any books written by Janice Hallett before I was unaware of her preferred writing style of using a mixed media format. 'The Killer Question' was a fairly long book with a lot of characters to remember. The story itself was entertaining, has twists aplenty and has an ending I didn't foresee, Sadly for me I still can't make up my mind if the writing style is for me or not but I dare say others will enjoy it immensely. Thank you to the publisher, author and netgalley for an early copy.

I’ve read all of Janice Hallett’s books now and I think this one falls into the same category as a few of the others for me - it is really fun in concept, but a bit middling overall. I love the multi-media format, piecing together messages and documents so you slowly figure out what’s really going on. It makes her mysteries feel fresh and it's a really accessible way to get into the genre.

This time we're following a landlord couple who opened a pub in the middle of nowhere, ran a series of increasingly competitive pub quizzes, and then disappeared. What happened? And why were they so secretive about their background?

While the setup was intriguing, I found the various plotlines a little convoluted, and by the end I was wishing the big reveals had been given more time to sink in. A lot of important information gets delivered right at the end that I wish we found out more about.

However I’ll definitely read Hallett's future books. They’re playful, creative and a really fun way into crime and mystery fiction. This just wasn’t one of my favourites.

Hallett’s signature collection of transcripts, emails and text messages form a suspenseful novel built around a double core of cozy pub quizzes by country pub landlords and a police/criminals thriller. A quick read (wouldn’t try the audiobook) and entertaining, Hallett always manages to slip in characters that pull at the reader’s sympathies amongst the laughs and slight of hand. A bit less cosy than some of her books. Recommend, a treat.

I thoroughly enjoyed every bit of this book.

Just like the previous ones, the story is told through texts, emails, audio transcripts and case files.

There's multiple twists to this story, each revealed at different points - none of which I guessed!

The Killer Question is a hugely entertaining return to form for Janice Hallett, brimming with the wit, inventive structure, and easy readability that made The Appeal so addictive. After the overly tangled The Examiner, this feels sharper and more confident; a story that knows exactly what it is and delivers with style. The trivia-night setting is a delight, the shifting quiz categories and snippets of phone and email correspondence giving the mystery a breezy, fast-moving rhythm. At the heart of it all are Sue and Mal Eastwood, whose quiet rural pub hides secrets far juicier than the weekly scoreboards would suggest. Hallett deftly balances humour with intrigue, and the gradual unspooling of what happened - both in the past and during that fateful season of quiz nights - keeps you guessing while never losing its sense of fun. Smart, playful and immensely readable, this is proof that Hallett can still pull off a crowd-pleasing, page-turning puzzle with aplomb

I love Hallett’s writing style. Rather than being told in a more traditional format, she pulls the reader into the story by making you an investigator in the case. We read through messages between the main players, background reports and quiz sheets. I also particularly liked the idea of someone trying to create a true crime documentary about The Case and what went on and revealing bits of information at a time to keep the viewer (and us as readers) hooked.

There are always twists in the tale with Hallett and this one is no exception. I love trying to figure out what it’s going to be but I do also enjoy it when I’ve missed some and I get a surprise along the way.

There is a lot going on with this one but Hallett still manages to pull it all together and I felt she gave us a satisfying ending to the story.

I loved the quiz stuff. Me and my friends used to have a regular monthly catch up at our local quiz and whilst it was only ever about catching up and having a bit of fun you do get pulled in to the competitive side of it and start really wanting to do well, particularly against certain other teams, so I related to that a lot.

I absolutely blasted through this in about 24 hours because Hallett’s writing always has me gripped and because of the nature of her style the pages aren’t particularly condensed with writing so it’s very easy reading.

This is another hit for me. If you love “Only Murders in the Building” this would probably hit the spot for you.

This is my first Janice Hallett, but certainly not my last!

At first I was a bit sceptical when I discovered the story was entirely written in an epistolary format, but I was pleasantly surprised by the attention-grabbing story the author was able to tell through just emails, newspaper articles, transcripts of audio recordings, notes and text messages.

Sometimes it was a bit difficult to keep track of the many different side characters, though there were some quite distinct voices.

It’s a very fun book! I had a great time and the multiple plot twists kept surprising me. Which is all I can really ask of a mystery.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher who provided me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Sue and Mal Eastwood have taken early retirement and opened a rural pub called the Case is Altered, where they run a weekly pub quiz for a load of local regulars. They've always loved a good quiz and were part of a team themselves for years, so Mal even writes his own questions. The Plucky Losers almost always win until one week a group known as The Shadow Knights appear and get almost all of the questions correct, causing uproar amongst the regulars. Mal is determined to get to the bottom of it but can't seem to prove that they're cheating. On top of that, a body has also been found in the river nearby!

As always with Janice Hallett's books, the format is a little different, with the tale being relayed 5 years after the events of the final pub quiz, and is in form of texts, Whatsapps, emails and police recordings shared by the Eastwood's nephew to the creators of a true crime documentary for Netflix. In them we get to see a police investigation from a few years before that at first appears to be nothing to do with the pub, alongside the chats between the Eastwoods and the conversations between the quiz teams. I've read all of Janice's books and this one is another slow building story with lots of red herrings, information that you don't realise you've been told, and a conclusion that you won't fully see coming. It's possibly not as twisty as her previous book, The Examiner, and much more similar in feel to The Appeal in that it's a small town club where everyone knows everyone. I read it in just a day as the lack of chapters kept luring me back in!

She's only gone and done it again. Another blinding mystery from the Mistress of misdirection that had me hooked from start to finish. And I'll end my review there, as I'm not sure how else to express it.

Okay, so I lied. I have a bit more to say. If you are a long terms fan of Janice Hallett's writing then the format of this book may seem a touch familiar. The story is told through a series of transcripts and emails, a method that really does add pace to the story, as well as serving to keep the truth at bay until just the perfect moment. Or should I say truths in this case, as there is more than one surprising revelation within this book and if you say you saw them all coming, then I think spot someone who might be telling porky pies. Because the story is conversational in tone, rather than filled with uncessary exposition or detail, it makes 450 pages of book just fly by, and yet I feel like I knew everything I needed to know about the characters, the setting and the various story threads, all unveiled in a way that held me in thrall.

The premise of this latest mystery is a relatively simple one. Sort of. We have a guy, Dominic Eastwood, trying to pitch an idea for a true crime documentary to Netflix, based on the story of his own Aunt and Uncle, Sue and Mal Eastwood. Now, from the start, there is an inference of some kind of notoriety about this particular case but, as newcomers to this story, it is a secret we have yet to uncover. Over a series of emails, various transcripts and messages are shared with a production company, fed in such a way to keep the tension going, the hooks landing one by one in the same episodic way you might expect a binge worthy series to be filmed. As such, just as we get to a crucial moment in the story, we get a new email from Dominic to the Production assistant, creating a natural pause in the action. That's no bad thing as otherwise I'm not sure I'd have taken a break, taht one more chapter feel of this story amplified by the short sharp nature of the message between the various characters.

This is a story that feeds a cross tow timelines, one back in 2014 where the police are investigating the abduction of two young women, and one in 2019, and the story that Dominic refers to in his early communications. Sue and Mal are landlords of a country pub, The Case is Altered, haven for a series of committed pub quizzers, and scene of so very mysterious goings on. From allegations of cheating, to the unexpected discovery of a body not far from the pub, there is definitely something afoot and Janice Hallett, as always, excels in sucking us right into the heart of the mystery. Not just how the two threads link together - that is seemingly obvious with what we know as readers that the characters don't necessarily as, well, characters. It is also who might have wanted to do away with the murder victim in 2019. I mean, no one likes a (potential) quiz cheat, but would anyone really go that far for a very modest prize pot of £15-£20 a week?

Well, given the vast array of very realistic characters the author brings to life in this story, I'd say that anything is possible. From the very unique patrons of The Case, to the various Landlords of the pubs in Ye Old Goat's network, I think I may have met someone much like each and everyone of them over time. I love how the author has created such authenticity, highlighting not just the different personalities, but also the generational gap between the youngsters (fluent in text speak) and the older patrons (who, like me, might have needed an occasional prompt). Add in the real growing mystery that underpins both cases, and you have a top notch story with all the humour of The Appeal, just set in the world of the competitive pub quiz. It just works. Perfectly. And even when I thought I had a handle on what was happening, I didn't, and that subtle double cross and misdirection, and that pitch perfect twist in the tale at the end, just had me smiling throughout.

If you enjoy the author's books, especially, The Appeal, you are sure to love this one too. It's pacy, witty and ingenious, and absolutely reminds me why I never partake in pub quizzes anymore. Definitely recommended.

I love Janice Hallett's novels, they're always so different from anything else I read and I find them so absorbing and addictive. The Killer Question follows a man who is trying to get interest from a podcast regarding his Aunt Sue and Uncle Mal. We then get the information that he is sending to the producer and slowly the story unfolds. It seems Sue and Mal took over a pub and started running a quiz night for the locals but it quickly becomes very competitive and outsiders come to take part. We know from the start of the novel that the pub is now closed, and yet as you read it seems busy and popular so what happened? The novel introduces another storyline involving the police and that was riveting, trying to see how it connected to the current story and what was going on. I found this book so hard to put down, it was really intriguing and enjoyable. I recommend it!

I’ve been a bit up and down with Janice Hallett books. I thought the Appeal was phenomenal, hated the Twyford Code, and thought Alperton Angels was ok, but not my favourite.

This I loved. It was very silly, but intentionally so, and felt like a return to everything that was charming about the Appeal. The pub quiz group setting was a delight (and reminded me of one of my favourite Lewis episodes), while the WhatsApp groups print outs and police recordings worked very well as alternative media. I loved getting the weekly pub quiz rounds each time, and desperately wanted to see all the questions.

There were a LOT of gotcha twist moments, perhaps one too many, and the last section felt a bit rushed. But nonetheless, an enjoyable, cozy romp.

The front covers of Janice Hallet's bookshave seemed inescapable for the last couple of years. They've been on my 'muzt get around to reading them' list for ages. I wish I'd got there sooner.
A fun, clever read which often had me laughing out loud.
Great fun and more Janice Hallet summer reading ahead for me.

Many thanks to Viper, Serpent’s Tail and Profile publishers, as well as the author Janice Hallett, for sending me an ARC of this book.

I’m sorry to say that I had to knock one star off - taking it from 4 stars to 3 - after I finished reading the book itself. This is due to the author’s choice to use ChatGPT for very minor parts of the writing, as well as their audacity to then immediately say in the same sentence that they don’t give AI companies permission to use their book to train AI software (which I describe as ‘audacious’ because, well, you’ve chosen to make use of this service despite its language model being developed *by stealing authors’ work without their permission*).

Had the involvement of ChatGPT been stated when publicising this book on NetGalley, I would have chosen not to request this book. However, as I didn’t discover this until reaching the Acknowledgements at the end of the book, I still read it in its entirety and am therefore reviewing it as such. I felt it unfair to knock more than one star off (or to not review at all), though, given the author’s second choice to come clean about their use of language-model OpenAI, as well as the extremely limited way in which it was reportedly used, and their seeming reassurance this was an absolute one-off.

This is genuinely a very enjoyable novel, employing a clever & compelling narrative device of telling the story through text message chains, emails and transcripts of recorded conversations. The characters are surprisingly well-developed & enjoyable (though not all likeable), the mystery itself is very well-handled (a good balance of solvable without becoming too predictable), and all of it hinges on several premises that turn out to be much more interesting than at first glance. I really enjoyed this book at the time, despite its occasionally unbelievable twists, and would have flown through the second half of it anyway (even if I wasn’t down to the last 24hrs of my NetGalley access to it).

For those who find them helpful, I am now including a list of Content Warnings - but keep in mind that this list may include more than one MAJOR SPOILER so **STOP READING HERE TO AVOID SPOILERS!!**

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Content Warnings (including potentially MAJOR SPOILERS):

<spoiler>
- bereavement, including loss of partner, friend & parents
- mental health: depression & stress (both implied)
- police corruption
- sexual harassment
- violence, death/murder and vomit
</spoiler>

If you love a quiz and you love a mystery, this is the book for you. I loved the twists and turns and characterisation was as on point as ever. No one can capture the quietly simmering tensions of a community quite like Janice Hallett!

How do I love Janice’s writing? Let me count the ways… Did I expect Janice’s next book to be anything other than a winner? No, I did not. Set in and around a quiet English pub, who know that quizzes could cause such consternation. Landlords Mal and Sue run a weekly quiz – quite a renegade one, very original – and the local teams pitch up to try and take top spot. All is well until one team arrives and they know everything. Then a body is pulled from the river, and it’s clear something hasn’t been playing fair. There are so many rich, wonderful layers to this novel, written in Janice’s style of messages, emails and reported speech. It’s clever, it’s funny, and there will be moments of open mouthed shock. I can’t wait to read it again to savour.

She never misses. Another outstanding mixed media mystery from the Queen of her genre. The Killer Question is a smart, gripping mystery about a group of shadowy pub quizzers and a body which surfaces from a river. I’ll follow Hallett anywhere……