Sleuthing: A Guest Post by Janice Hallett
The author of our former Monthly Pick, The Appeal, returns with a thrilling murder mystery centered on one deadly trivia night. Read on for an exclusive essay from Janice Hallett on writing The Killer Question.
Hardcover $30.00
The Killer Question: A Novel
The Killer Question: A Novel
In Stock Online
Hardcover $30.00
Janice Hallett, “the new queen of crime” (Electric Literature), returns with a fresh, edge-of-your-seat mystery that takes place at a pub’s weekly trivia night, revealed through quiz categories, phone messages, and email correspondence.
Janice Hallett, “the new queen of crime” (Electric Literature), returns with a fresh, edge-of-your-seat mystery that takes place at a pub’s weekly trivia night, revealed through quiz categories, phone messages, and email correspondence.
I first had the idea to set a murder mystery in the world of bar trivia when my pub quiz team decided to try the quiz at a venue further afield than we would normally venture. Surrounded by unfamiliar teams and under the watchful eye of a question-master we didn’t know, the usual quiet suspicion reserved for strangers hovered over us, but it turned out the cringe had only just begun. As this quiz unfolded, we found ourselves in the lead from round one, and by the end, won by a country mile. They say winning isn’t everything, but it can be everything to do with how people feel about you…
The six of us walked out through the bar, carrying our first prizes of a small chocolate bar each, to the sound of our own footsteps, and the occasional disgruntled mutter. We’d won the war, but lost the battle for popularity. Needless to say, it was the first and last time we quizzed there.
That palpable resentment inspired me to start making plans for The Killer Question. In this twisty, turning whodunit, a mysterious new team, The Shadow Knights, led by a character known only as The General, arrive at a weekly quiz night that’s vital to an otherwise failing rural bar called The Case is Altered. This enigmatic team walks away with the win, and often top marks, every single week, thereby throwing the quiz community into disarray. Not only that, but they drive Mal, the landlord and quiz master, to distraction. How can any team be so spectacularly unchallenged by his carefully crafted questions? Are they really such brilliant quizzers, or are they simply brilliant cheats?
As the other teams talk strategy to try and beat The Shadow Knights, Mal and his wife, Sue, set about trying to uncover the secret of their seemingly unbeatable track record. Then a body is pulled from the nearby river and everything changes.
We arrive at The Case is Altered five years after these events. It lies derelict and abandoned, while Sue and Mal’s nephew desperately tries to interest Netflix in a true crime documentary about what happened to them. Because there’s a lot more to this case than anyone at the trivia night realised. Before taking over the pub, Sue and Mal were police officers, involved in a secret operation that went catastrophically wrong. Did something – or someone – from their past finally catch up with them?
Writing this novel, I could explore the world of pub quizzing: the passion quizzers and quiz masters feel for their hobby, the healthy (and unhealthy) competitiveness, the joy of learning new things, of spending time with friends, making new ones and, crucially, enjoying a few hours free from the tyranny of the phone screen. All this happens when you join a quiz team – and it’s all in The Killer Question, alongside a puzzling murder mystery that’s almost a quiz in itself… Happy sleuthing!
About the Author: Janice Hallett is a former magazine editor, award-winning journalist, and government communications writer. She wrote articles and speeches for, among others, the Cabinet Office, Home Office, and Department for International Development. Her enthusiasm for travel has taken her around the world several times, from Madagascar to the Galapagos, Guatemala to Zimbabwe, Japan, Russia, and South Korea. A playwright and screenwriter, she penned the feminist Shakespearean stage comedy NetherBard and cowrote the feature film Retreat. She lives in London and is the author of The Examiner, The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels, The Appeal, The Christmas Appeal, and The Twyford Code.