The Examiner
Ratings16
Average rating3.8
Told in emails, text messages, and essays, this innovative page-turner follows a group of students in an art master’s program that goes dangerously awry, from the internationally bestselling “new queen of crime” (Electric Literature) Janice Hallett.
University professor Gela Nathaniel must make her new master’s program in multimedia art succeed. If it doesn’t, then Royal Hastings University will cut her funding and she’ll be out of the job she loves. The six students in this inaugural course will be key to that success…but how well has she selected the team?
The students include a talented young sculptor who is determined to graduate with top grades, a former gallery owner with limited artistic skills, a single mother more interested in a paycheck than homework, a people pleaser who struggles with technology, a marketing executive suffering from burnout, and a successful artist who seems rather overqualified for the program.
At the end of the academic year, when the examiner arrives to grade the students’ final project, he finds himself asking what happened. Because if someone in that course isn’t in mortal danger, then they are already dead. But who, and why?
He wants us to read through the students’ coursework, texts, message boards, and final essays to see if we can find the answers. Only one thing is certain: nothing about this course has been left to chance, and each of these students has their own very different agenda.
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On the plus side, reading a mystery set in British academia distracted me from current events in the US. On the negative side, everything else. Granted, I'm the farthest thing from an expert on the genre, but knowing what crime I am supposed to solve seems like a minimum requirement, and I remained in the dark for more than half of the story. Getting most of the answers in an info dump of previously unseen correspondence between the critical parties felt a tad too convenient. YMMV if you are a better sleuth than I am; it's very possible that the clues were there all along, but I was too oblivious to notice them. I had sworn off Janice Hallett after [b:The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels 61157639 The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels Janice Hallett https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1663000500l/61157639.SY75.jpg 95686980], but epistolary novels have been my catnip ever since [b:Up the Down Staircase 160320 Up the Down Staircase Bel Kaufman https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348028242l/160320.SY75.jpg 154741], back in what is now kindly known as the “mid-century” era. This time I mean it!
I like a lot of aspects of this book, especially the scrutiny of group dynamics and the myriad ways they can run afoul or lead people down usually unfathomable paths. I wonder how many more mysteries Hallett can write in this e-palimpsest style.
What sorcery is this? How is it possible to turn a whole host of WhatsApp group messages and college intranet group chats into a twisty mystery, where nothing is as it seems? Once again, I have survived that particular rabbit hole.
The Examiner is the story of six students on a newly formed art course. Five of them are mature (I use the word mature in the loosest possible way) students, the sixth barely out of her teens. The most mismatched, volatile group you are ever likely to encounter.
Then, one of the group goes missing, but the others appear to be covering it up. One thing's for sure, all is not as it appears to be on this particular art course.
As with all of Hallett's books, nothing is straightforward in The Examiner. Just when I thought I had it sussed, the other shoe dropped, and then another, and another. 👞
None of the characters are particularly likeable, but even that made the whole experience enjoyable.
If you're looking for a riveting, fun read, go get yourself a copy of The Examiner. You'll be glad you did.
