Janice Hallett’s sparkling debut “The Appeal” ended up at number 4 in my current Books Of The Year.  I rarely go so overboard for a crime novel but I so loved its quirkiness, its characterisation and its misdirections which had me making the wrong assumptions all over the place within a work which felt both fresh and classic.  At the time I did wonder if the author would be able to achieve this again with a second novel which had a similar unusual narrative style.  “The Twyford Code” featured potential secret messages from an Enid Blytonesque writer which gave it great heart and although I felt it lacked a little bit in readability compared to the previous work, the cleverness of misdirections led to a highly satisfactory reading experience and a four star rating.  But would she pull it off a third time?  I really hoped so.

“The Mysterious Case Of The Alperton Angels” consists of research material for a true crime novel which is located in a safe.  The author Amanda Bailey was commissioned to write a new slant on a case of eighteen years previous of a cult ritual suicide/murder which almost led to a baby being sacrificed.  At the same time her one-time colleague and rival Oliver Menzies is commissioned to explore the same case for another publishing company.  Here we get their e-mails, research, found materials including associated fiction and transcripts of interviews around the case.  This is darker territory than the previous novels and I do like dark but I became less convinced as the book progressed that the theme suited this format as well as in the previous books.

The first half I was loving but then it felt like it was getting bogged down with too much material and I could feel my enthusiasm waning and the author’s extrication from this did not feel as impressive as it was in “The Twyford Code”.  I wasn’t surprised to read that one of the acknowledged inspirations was Michelle McNamara’s “I’ll Be Gone In The Dark” a true account of how an American true crime writer became obsessed with her work and there were references to other UK crimes and real life figures which I actually felt a little unsettling on this occasion.

There is still humour and great relish in the writing but this is undeniably darker and I must admit to missing the effervescent feeling I got from “The Appeal”.

Janice Hallett is a clever crime writer and has been a real find for me and does deserve Richard Osman comparable sales with her cunning quirky take on British crime, but didn’t quite hit home with this book in the way I was hoping she would.  I’d be interested to see if she deviates from her format with her next book, I must admit to being a little nervous here about diminishing returns.

The Mysterious Case Of The Alperton Angels was published by Viper Books on 19^th January 2023.  Many thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for the advance review copy.