The Fairway Players are preparing their Christmas panto, and it’s all a little frantic. Trying to organize anything during the end of the year is a little crazy, but Sarah-Jane is determined to put on a lovely panto that will raise enough money to repair the roof of the church hall damaged by water and bat guano. The Players have chosen Jack and the Beanstalk as their play, and Sarah-Jane wants to make it spectacular.

That means that the decades-old giant tree needs to be pulled out of storage and set up on their stage. When rumors emerge that it was made of asbestos, Sarah-Jane has a couple of brothers in the cast repair it and repaint it, so there is no chance of it opening and releasing asbestos dust. With the tree in place, she can focus on the cast and the experience for the audience, including the bags of sweets for the kids who will be there.

Sarah-Jane and her husband Kevin take on the bulk of the work for the play while co-chairs Celia and her husband quietly undermine them. But Sarah-Jane soldiers on, facing every obstacle with patience and grace. And then the night of the panto, everything goes crazy and old secrets come to light as a skeleton in a Santa suit slides out from the giant tree, a holiday surprise for all.

Author Janice Hallett revisits the universe she created for The Appeal, a murder mystery shared from an established attorney to younger ones, to test their ability to read through emails, police interviews, and newspaper articles and assimilate the information. They’d had to figure out the entirely of the mystery through these disparate emails and texts and then name the killer, and it was an amazing book to read. Now she’s back with a Christmas novella with a new mystery to solve.

The Christmas Appeal is a story filled with passive aggressiveness, gossip, rumor, and bullying. And I am here for all of it! It’s a story of a drama club in Lower Lockwood in England, and boy, do they bring the drama. Some is even on the stage. But most of it is backstage, with the finger pointing and the backstabbing. And all that long before the dead body shows up on the stage. I was a big fan of The Appeal, and I couldn’t wait to come back when I found out she brought us more Fairway Players drama. I loved The Christmas Appeal as well, and it will be a fun gift for drama fans.

The way the information is presented, like puzzle pieces needing to be put together means that you don’t have to read The Appeal to understand what is going on. You just have to keep reading until you have a feel for these characters. But I do think that anyone who reads the one book will get sucked in and want to read the other as well. Janice Hallett’s writing is that good.

Egalleys for The Christmas Appeal were provided by Atria Books through NetGalley, with many thanks.