Janice Hallett - The Killer Question

We are delighted to announce that Janice Hallett will be coming for an event with us to celebrate the release of her new book, The Killer Question,  in conversation with another brilliant author, Barbara Havelocke, author of Estella's Revenge! This event will be held at Queensbridge School. 

Janice and Barbara will talk for around 45 minutes followed by audience questions and a book signing.

Janice Hallett is a British author, screenwriter and an award-winning journalist, best known for her phenomenally successful debut thriller The Appeal.

Before her breakout entry into the realms of crime fiction, Janice Hallett worked as a journalist, magazine editor and speech writer for the Cabinet Office and Home Office, as well as writing for the stage and screen. Her first feature film Retreat (co-written and directed by Carl Tibbetts) came out in 2011, and she won the award for Best New Screenplay at the 2014 British Independent Film Festival.

In 2021, Hallett published her chart-topping debut thriller The Appeal. Composed of emails, texts, police transcripts and other documents, this unique interactive murder mystery filled with amateur sleuths and thespians was selected as Waterstones Thriller of the Month for July 2021 to phenomenal success. Hallett’s second novel The Twyford Code (2022) revolves around a secret code spotted in a famous children’s author’s work by an English teacher who subsequently disappears, and the former pupil who starts to investigate her fate decades later.

The Killer Question: 

Get ready for the sudden-death round...

Mal and Sue Eastwood were once the kindly landlords of a local village pub, The Case is Altered. They ran a weekly pub quiz and were well liked by their customers and colleagues alike, always happy to lend a helping hand. But now The Case stands empty, its windows boarded up. What could have happened to Mal and Sue?

Did The Case close because it was failing? Was it because of the body pulled from the nearby river? Or perhaps it had something to do with the quiz? It had always been a quiet affair, five teams of locals battling it out for a small prize pot. Until one day a mysterious new team of outsiders arrived, and started winning every round...

Only by sifting through the quiz sheets, the WhatsApps, and Mal and Sue's hidden past may the truth be revealed. Someone's not playing fair, so get the drinks in and see if you can get a perfect score.

Barbara Copperthwaite is an international bestselling author of psychological thrillers, whose books have topped Amazon and Kobo, as well as appearing on the USA Today chart. In an electrifying change of genre, she is also now writing as Barbara Havelocke, bringing her skills at building dark, tense stories, to historical fiction. Her writing career started in journalism. For over twenty years Barbara worked for national magazines and newspapers, talking to the real victims of crime - and also those who have carried those crimes out. Her fiction reflects this: she creates realistic, complex characters and enjoys putting them in through the wringer. When not writing feverishly at her home in Kings Heath, Birmingham, Barbara is often found walking her two dogs, Scamp and Buddy, or taking wildlife photographs which she then uses as inspiration for drawings.

This event will take place at Queensbridge School. 

See you there,

Catherine & Claire