The Killer Question
A Novel
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- ¥1,900
発行者による作品情報
INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER
Named a Most Anticipated Book of Fall by The New York Times, LitHub, BookBub, Goodreads, and many more!
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.
Sue and Mal Eastwood run an isolated rural pub called The Case is Altered where a weekly trivia game has revived its flagging fortunes—that is, until a body is found in the nearby river. Soon after, a mysterious new team arrives and shakes up the diverse field of regulars by scoring top marks in every round...every week.
Meanwhile, Sue and Mal have a secret of their own. Before arriving here, they were caught up in a secret police operation which meant they had to leave town—and whatever happened back then seems to have finally caught up with them.
Five years later, the pub lies derelict, and their nephew Dominic is determined to make a documentary about their story. What happened at this unassuming pub? And can a single question really kill?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Hallett (The Examiner) continues to stretch the limits of the epistolary mystery in this playful tale of murder at a weekly trivia night. The Case Is Altered is a struggling pub on a British back road that relies on its quiz crowd to keep the lights on. When a new team shows up and trounces the regulars, accusations of cheating escalate until somebody's found dead in a nearby river. This being a Hallett novel, much of the story comes together through trivia categories, WhatsApp messages, police interviews, and emails. The focus is on Dominic Eastwood, nephew of The Case Is Altered's owners, who is pitching a true crime documentary to Netflix about an earlier tragedy at the pub. Those familiar with Hallett's brand of puzzle-solving will have a ball piecing together the meticulously placed clues. Some choices—like the decision to list the pub's trivia categories but not any questions or answers—feel like pulled punches, but for the most part, Hallett is at the top of her game. It's a wickedly satisfying ride.
