The Silent Appeal
Welcome back to the theatrical world of Lower Lockwood! Sarah-Jane and Kevin MacDonald are co-chairing the Fairway Players this season, taking on Agatha Christie’s The Hollow. But as always, the real drama is happening off-book. First, Nicky-Rose—Sarah-Jane’s sister—has mysteriously vanished from her life in Barbados, ditching her cruise ship business to move back into their mother's house.
Then there's the casting headache. The troupe is desperate for male actors until newcomer Fran Elroy-Jones brings in a married couple and a cousin. Still, nobody wants the dreaded role of Gerda, leaving the directors with no choice but to invite back an old, over-eager member just to get the play off the ground. Tensions inevitably snap. After a disastrous opening night, it's up to intrepid lawyers Femi and Charlotte to dissect the fallout and discover if the person taking the blame is actually the one at fault.
- Sarah-Jane - Cochair of the Fairway Players
- Kevin - Cochair of the Fairway Players
- Sammy - Sarah-Jane and Kevin’s daughter
- Harley - Sarah-Jane and Kevin’s son
- Nicky-Rose - Sarah-Jane’s sister, assistant director for The Hollow
- Stuart - Nicky-Rose’s ex-boyfriend
- Carol - Sarah-Jane and Nicky-Rose’s mother
- Trina - Nicky-Rose’s old business partner at TwinStar Ltd
- Femi - Lawyer
- Charlotte - Lawyer
- Roderick - Femi and Charlotte’s boss
- Fran - Works for a charity that supports former prisoners
- Josh - Vicar at St Barnabas Church
- Amelia - Lucas's wife
- Georgia - Lucas’s cousin
- Lucas - Amelia’s husband
- Issy (Isabel) - Works at Specsavers
- Mark - Karen's boyfriend
- Karen- Playing a maid in The Hollow
- Dustin - Police officer
- Ricardo - Drug dealer
- Nicky-Rose stole documents from Trina that implicate them in something when she left Barbados.
- Nicky-Rose claims that Trina forged her signature on loan documents and a power of attorney form.
- Nicky-Rose helps Kevin direct at rehearsals, and everyone loves her.
- She has been sneaking through a secret door into the church during breaks to see Father Josh, with whom she is having an affair.
- Nicky-Rose asks Trina for 500k in exchange for the documents she stole.
- Two months later: The Fairway Players are having a Sleep Out to raise money for Crisis, a charity that helps the homeless.
- While sleeping on the stage, a stage light falls from the rig onto Amelia’s leg.
- Georgia is pregnant by a married man.
- Barbados police are investigating the case of Tiffany Ramirez, who disappeared from a cruise ship last June.
- Nicky-Rose asks Issy to handle the exchange with Trina, then tips Dustin off, hoping to get Trina busted with the drugs she hid in the documents.
- Mark admits to Karen that he dropped the light on Amelia to kill her so that Karen could take over her part in the play.
- On opening night, Father Josh is found dead in the lane behind the church.
- Georgia isn’t really Lucas’s cousin, she’s his mistress, and it’s his baby. He was planning on leaving Amelia after the play was over.
- Nicky-Rose wasn’t having an affair with Kevin; she put Lucas’s number in her phone under Kevin’s name to hide that she was seeing Lucas.
- Nicky-Rose sneaks off after the play starts on opening night to catch a flight to Jakarta.
- Tiffany was dealing cocaine while working for TwinStar on the cruise ship she disappeared from.
- Fran confesses to murdering Josh by stabbing him with the mole trap prop and is sentenced to life in prison.
- Fran killed Josh after discovering he lied about having a sexless marriage when she learned his wife was pregnant, and she was also unknowingly high on LSD.
- Amelia slipped the LSD into Fran’s water bottle thinking that it was Nicky-Ross’s water bottle, because she found out Nicky-Rose was sleeping with Lucas.
- After finding out about the LSD, Fran appeals and is given a much lighter sentence.
- Trina used Nicky-Rose’s email address to lure Tiffany to a location to be dealt with because Ricardo knew she was dealing drugs and it was cutting into his business.
- Afterward, Nicky-Rose helped cover up Tiffany's disappearance and felt so guilty she checked herself into a psychiatric hospital.
- While Nicky-Rose was in hospital, Trina forged a power of attorney and sold Nicky-Rose's house to pay off company debt.
- Mark is charged with attempted endangerment and is sentenced to ten years in prison.
- Trina is in prison in Barbados.
- Tiffany is found alive in a jungle in the Dominican Republic, processing cocaine for a cartel after being abducted by a drug dealer, and is brought home.
It was wonderful to reunite with the Fairway Players in The Silent Appeal. I absolutely love Janice Hallett’s unique writing style, and jumping back into this familiar, mixed-media format was a treat. The fact that Sarah-Jane's sister, Nicky-Rose, appears out of the blue and becomes so important to the group added an exciting level of mystery and intrigue right from the start. Plus, the surprise return of a previous Fairway Player was a great twist - that was the moment I knew things were going to get wonderfully wacky!
However, I felt this installment wasn't quite as strong as her previous books. The correspondence and summaries sent from Femi and Charlotte to Roderick were very redundant, often bogging down the pacing. There is also a massive cast of characters to keep track of, and I found it difficult to remember everyone's roles at times, even with the handy character list at the beginning of the book. Surprisingly, the main murder ended up being overshadowed by the other events and interpersonal dramas unfolding at the same time.
I really enjoyed this book even though the ending felt a bit crammed with information. Hallett’s signature format is engaging, and seeing the theater troupe back in action was a lot of fun. If you love a good mystery, this book is well worth the read.
- Father Josh - Dead - Killed by Fran
- Mark - Alive - Serving ten years for attempt to endanger a life
- Trina - Alive - In prison in Barbados
- Sarah-Jane - Alive - Directing the next Fairway Players play
- Tiffany - Alive - Reunited with her family
- Fran - Alive - Serving time in prison for killing Father Josh
- Nicky-Rose - Alive - Living in Jakarta with Stuart
- Amelia - Alive - Living with her parents
- Georgia - Alive - Gave birth to a healthy baby girl
- Murder
- Infidelity
- Pregnancy
- Drugs
- Blackmail
Publisher: Atria Books
ISBN: 9781668083710
Publication Date: August 25, 2026
Note: Details are for the original edition. Other formats, editions, and audiobook versions may be available.
