While a small-town amateur theatre group is trying to raise money for a young girl’s experimental cancer treatment, a murder is committed in their midst. Two law students are examining the evidence to determine if the person who was sent to prison was wrongfully accused.
Quote
“Her neediness borders on obsession, and where obsession is concerned, isn’t there a fine line between love and hate? Obsessive love – if it can be described as “love” at all – can change direction in a flash.”
Interesting Facts
When Janice Hallett started writing The Appeal, she didn’t know who the victim or the murderer would be. She figured out the story along the way and went back to change things at the beginning of the book to make sure the story was airtight.1
The first draft of The Appeal contained intense emails between Izzy and Sam. The emails were not dated, but the author realized that the dates and hours could help the narrative and even be clues to the reader. The book was also 20,000 words longer than the published novel.2
Janice Hallett writes on a desktop mac, but always keeps a pen and paper close by to jot down notes and ideas.3 She usually writes 3 to 4 hours in the morning. In the afternoon, she replies to emails and goes over what she has written in the morning.4
The author was a member of an amateur theatre group called Raglan Players in West London. She started when she was 14 and even met her partner there. Unfortunately, it folded in 2013.5
Cécile Sune was born in Lyon, France, and her obsession with books started when she was 14. Her grandparents had lent her Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell, and she spent part of the summer indoors reading. Needless to say, her tan didn't really improve that year! It was also around that time that Cécile fell in love with the English language. Several years later, in 1999, Cécile moved to Toronto, Canada, with her cat and 5 suitcases. Her love of reading greatly increased when she discovered that English books were much cheaper than French novels. In 2013, she decided to start a blog to share her passion. Cécile now lives in Ottawa, Canada, with her husband and their daughter, and works as a freelance translator (CS Revision).
Leila Hunter Standiford, a beautiful soap opera actress, is on vacation sailing in Mexico with her friend Gabe Alexander. They have just arrived in Puerto Felice when a boat is destroyed in a fire, and a body is found below. Luckily, the ship’s handsome owner, Ari Starns, wasn’t on board. When Leila offers to help him, she soon discovers that he turns out to be the man who could boost her acting career….
Summary When Robin receives a woman’s severed leg by courrier at work, four suspects emerge from detective Cormoran Strike’s past. As the police seems to focus on the wrong suspect, Robin decides to lead her own investigation. Quote “A vast unfocused rage rose in her, against men who considered displays of emotion a delicious open door; men who ogled your breasts under the pretense of scanning the wine shelves; men…
Ian Rankin was in Ottawa on Saturday 30 November 2013 to talk about his new book, Saints of the Shadow Bible. Earlier that day, he was having a drink in a pub when he started chatting with one of the customers there. The guy noticed that he was Scottish, and asked Rankin what he was doing for a living. When the author told him, the guy said he was actually…
