Join us for the book club that exclusively reads female authors. The book selection for April is The Appeal by Janice Hallett. It will available to pick up at the Gates Public Library at the end of the March Discussion. It is also available as an e-book through Overdrive.

In 2014 Joanna Walsh, author and journalist, founded #ReadWomen to promote and support books written by women. Any genre. Any length. Any kind. We hope to keep up the momentum.

Summary of the book from Simon & Schuster website:

The Fairway Players, a local theatre group, is in the midst of rehearsals when tragedy strikes the family of director Martin Hayward and his wife Helen, the play’s star. Their young granddaughter has been diagnosed with a rare form of cancer, and with an experimental treatment costing a tremendous sum, their castmates rally to raise the money to give her a chance at survival.

But not everybody is convinced of the experimental treatment’s efficacy—nor of the good intentions of those involved. As tension grows within the community, things come to a shocking head at the explosive dress rehearsal. The next day, a dead body is found, and soon, an arrest is made. In the run-up to the trial, two young lawyers sift through the material—emails, messages, letters—with a growing suspicion that the killer may be hiding in plain sight. The evidence is all there, between the lines, waiting to be uncovered.

A wholly modern and gripping take on the epistolary novel, The Appeal is a “daring…clever, and funny” (The Times, London) debut for fans of Richard Osman and Lucy Foley.