Book Recommendation: The Examiner by Janice Hallett

Posted On November 16, 2025

Hi Readers! Another mood reading sojourn encapsulated me to pick up The Examiner by Janice Hallett. I made the mistake of starting the book on a Monday. I had loved Hallet’s previous book also of a similar genre of epistolary mystery fiction. So, I should have known better than to start it on a week day. I was immediately hooked to it and couldn’t put it down. Read it halfway throughout the week and then finally finished it on Saturday. Here it goes…

~~GOODREADS DESCRIPTION~~

Told in emails, text messages, and essays, this innovative pause-resister follows a group of students in an art master’s program that goes dangerously awry.

Gela Nathaniel, head of Royal Hastings University’s new Multimedia Art course, must find six students from all walks of life across the United Kingdom for her new master’s program before the university cuts her funding. The students are nothing but trouble from day one.

There’s Jem, a talented sculptor recently graduated from her university program and eager to make her mark as an artist at any cost. Jonathan, who has little experience in art practice aside from running his family’s gallery. Patrick runs an art supply store, but can barely operate his phone, much less design software. Ludya is a single mother and graphic designer more interested in a paycheck than homework. Cameron is a marketing executive in search of a hobby or a career change. And Alyson, already a successful artist, seems to be overqualified. Finally, there is the examiner, the man hired to grade students’ final works—an art installation for a local cloud-based solutions company that may have an ulterior agenda—and who, in sifting through final essays, texts, and message boards, warns that someone is in danger…or already dead. And nothing about this course has been left up to chance.

With her trademark “unique and exhilarating” (Megan Collins, author of The Family Plot) voice, Janice Hallett weaves a fresh and mind-bending mystery that will keep you guessing until the very end.

~~THOUGHTS~~

The Examiner is the story of six students; Jem, Patrick, Jonathan, Alyson, Ludya & Cameron, taking an MA course led by tutor Gela Nathaniel focusing on improving their artistic skills to make them employable in the real world. In a typical epistolary fashion, we see the one year of academia unfold in the form of emails, chats, WhatsApp groups, essay submissions and the like. The students are all diverse, ranging from the ages 21 to 59, some professional artists, one designer, few with no art background but a lot of interest, and one who had just completed BA. We see them bonding and bitching throughout the school year.

But, only after a third of the book is completed, do we understand that it wasn’t about academia and art at all. What unfolds is a disappearance of a student, underground climate activists, undercover PI agent and the twisted unravelling of what happened on the trip to Somerset when 5 of the 6 students went to retrieve objects for an art installation.

When it came to the first half, meaning all about art, in the form of soundscapes, clay, sketches, resin, photography, installations and more was something I loved immensely. As an art admirer, I enjoyed reading about the process and how little things come to be of so much import to create something beautiful. And as a team lead, I loved how Gela structured the program. All the assignments were so thought-provoking and aligned with corporate readiness. I was torn between pursuing an art degree myself and designing an art course for someone else, when I actually know minimally about both. Such was the grasp the book had on me.

The characters were all difficult to read since it was in the form of texts, but one stood out, and of course it was Jem Badhuri. She didn’t take shit from anyone, called people out and was borderline annoying for a greater purpose. Patrick Bright was of course the kindest and most accommodating person in the group. Jonathan Danners was a good group leader. Ludya Parak was brash but realistic. Alyson Lang was somewhat of a professional artist, though mediocre. Lastly, Cameron Wesley was always prioritizing work over art, even though he chose the course to improve his mental health. This was one of those books where it was hard to like even a single character, and yet you ended up loving the book.

The mystery itself was not as traumatizing as I would’ve liked it to be, but all the secrets were haunting and made for a good shock factor. I also enjoyed how the theme of teamwork was showed just like in a real dog-eat-dog corporate world. I also liked the theme of mass commercialization. Art, literature, crafts – the courses don’t sell, so the angle of commercializing from these is brought in, which though very real, is such a shame. Lastly, the way we understand the real happenings and how they unravel in the last 130+ pages was written perfectly. I can’t wait to read more of Janice Hallett’s works. I have rated The Examiner by Janice Hallett at 5/5 stars!

Here’s another book by Janice Hallett which I loved: The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels:

Epistolary Book Recommendation: The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels

Until next time,