MYSTERY

The Examiner

by Janice Hallett
Atria. Sept. 2024. 352p. ISBN 9781668023426. $28.99. THRILLER
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Hallett’s (The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels) latest again utilizes an epistolary style, incorporating texts, message board postings, emails, and student essays to tell a gripping story. Readers enter the lives of six art students who are beginning a one-year master’s program. The program is led by Gela Nathaniel, who is facing the loss of the art program altogether if she can’t show that students in the program will make connections to real-world (i.e., commercial) entities. When the six students of disparate backgrounds start the program, they find that the biggest challenge they’ll face is not the coursework but the personality conflicts among them. As the infighting and competition gets worse, these conflicts lead to a toxic environment that could prove deadly as well.
VERDICT Where some suspense novels rely on one unreliable narrator to flesh out the mystery, Hallett builds intrigue with a cast of unreliable (though consistently intriguing) characters, which means the twists keep coming. Recommended for fans of academic mysteries and those who enjoy puzzle-within-a-puzzle mysteries such as Cara Hunter’s Murder in the Family and Anthony Horowitz’s Magpie Murders.
Reviewed by Jane Jorgenson , Aug 01, 2024
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