Oooh, I can’t wait to start this book, I love love love love Hallett’s work! Ridiculously, I bought this book a while ago but have so enjoyed the anticipation of reading it that it’s only now I have actually opened it, tee hee!
Oooh, I can’t wait to start this book, I love love love love Hallett’s work! Ridiculously, I bought this book a while ago but have so enjoyed the anticipation of reading it that it’s only now I have actually opened it, tee hee!
The book begins with a message from The Examiner to the ‘dear reader’ asking for our help in deciphering what went on during a Masters degree course, and saying that they fear that one of the students from the course is dead. On 30th May 2024, the final day of the course, Ben Sketcher, the external examiner, messages the examiners Tilda and Karen introducing himself and saying that he has gone through all the coursework and essays and reports as well as the contents of the university’s internal messaging system Doodle, and he thinks there is something ‘odd…something awful may have happened and if it did then everyone else is covering it up’. Ooooh, what a great start! And I love that the reader is being addressed personally, being appealed to by The Examiner to provide help! Well, yes, I accept the appeal, I am determined to help and can’t wait to get started! It all sounds very very intriguing! I can tell I am going to be looking everywhere for possible clues and jotting down everything that could possibly be of some importance or relevance later, so I imagine it will be slow-going reading this book, but heartily enjoyable!
The course is a Multimedia Art MA at Royal Hastings University of London, the tutor is Gela (Angela) Nathaniel who has taught at the university for many years, and Hannah O’Donnell is the administrator. The first entry on Doodle is dated 21st September 2023, a few days before the beginning of the course. The students are Jem (Jemiaha) Badhuri, Jonathan Danners, Patrick Bright, Ludya Parak, Alyson Lang, and Cameron Wesley. Hmmm, obviously I’m already trying to analyse what I can learn of the students’ characters from these first comments, Jem seems the most leader-like/domineering person with her starting off message threads but she also seems friendly with her responding quite eagerly to others’ comments, Alyson seems quite forthright and assertive with her being keen to gain what she feels are her rights (to have a set of keys so she can access the university on any day and at any hour she wants) and persuasive with her encouraging the others to join her (suggesting they all go together to the administrator to complain) and potentially quick to anger with her use of emotive language to make her point (‘pissed off…unacceptable’), and Cameron seems either aloof or fiercely independent with him not being interested in conversing with the others on this message board (and is this just on the message board, or interacting with them in general, I wonder?). I feel I’ve gained less insights into the other three who didn’t stand out as much as the three above. And, interesting that the university’s Doodle messaging service that the students are encouraged to use, also has a diary facility where the students can ‘keep a private record of your thoughts each day’ but it is stated that after midnight that day’s entry is locked and cannot then be amended, so I sense the fact that these messages can’t be altered will be important and revealing, I can imagine that some students may want to alter what they said in order to seem like a better person or because they could seem culpable, but they can’t!
Jem emails Gela to say she and Patrick suspect that Alyson is stealing art supplies from the studio and that they have made a note (with the price) of all that has gone missing. Gela responds to Jem (after Jem has chased her asking for an update) saying that no-one has been stealing from the storeroom as their group is not the only one using the stores, which prompts Jem to tell Patrick that Gela is covering up for Alyson because they need to have the course be a success and Alyson is their ‘golden girl’ as she is already a successful artist. Hmmm, Jem seems to be out to get Alyson, the suspicion of her stealing seems to be driven mostly by Jem whilst Patrick seems reluctant to be part of it. I wonder if Jem is jealous of Alyson’s success combined with her low self-esteem of her own talents. But I wonder how far she will go in trying to hurt Alyson, and if Alyson will discover that Jem is trying to damage her. I’m not really feeling like I know the students well yet but I’m not liking Jem’s jealousy and back-stabbing, and her enthusiasm and positivity seems a bit overdone too. I’m unsure about Ludya and if she is taking advantage of Gela by asking her for extensions and if her personal problems are genuine or exaggerated. I do quite like Patrick’s peace-making style though and the way he tries to boost people’s confidence if they’re struggling. Jonathan seems to be in the background still (or at least I’m not picking much up about him). And it’s interesting to see that already the students are separating into smaller private groups on Doodle and bitching about the others, although looking at it again this actually seems to be led by Jem, although Jem’s efforts to bitch and gather information are being snubbed by some of the others so I wonder if that will frustrate her and push her to try harder to get what she wants? And I can’t help wondering already who may be the one to die…?! Alyson seems the most outspoken one so does she end up getting people’s backs up and upsetting people so someone judges she should be dealt with, or does her experience of being an artist make the others jealous? Or is it Jem who is killed because she stirs up trouble and spies on people and tells tales on them?
Cameron’s phone alarm goes off during class, as the rule is that all the phones are put into a basket at the start of class. Cameron tells Gela that his phone has clients’ and corporations’ sensitive data and plans on it, so he suspects someone was trying to access that. The students present their first assignment, but Alyson sets fire to Jonathan’s and destroys it, saying that she finds constructive criticism annoying. Hmmm, well that sounds quite a dramatic incident and to be honest I’m not really quite sure why she did what she did. Did the poor quality of his work annoy her as she felt he wasn’t taking it seriously? It sounds like there was a group discussion of each piece, so was it his defence of his piece that annoyed her and him perhaps not accepting that his work was poor quality so therefore she was offended that he didn’t seem to value her view? Did she feel insulted for some reason and so then lashed out, but I can’t see why she would feel insulted as the criticism wasn’t of her work, or was there some criticism implied towards her that the reader hasn’t been made aware of? She had earlier seemed quite a forthright and assertive person but this seems to also make her seem quite volatile! And the summary of each student’s work by Gela after the first assignment was quite interesting for the insight into their character and reasons for doing the course, as well as their level of dedication and skill. Jem scored quite highly for her work, she is in her early 20s and is very keen and confident and has high expectations. Patrick got an average score, he is in his mid-50s and struggles with technology but he owns an art-supplies shop so has experience in the field of art although no formal education in it. Jonathan scored very low as he chose a simple design which failed to work as he’d hoped, he is in his early 30s with little experience of art since his A-Levels though he has inherited his family’s art gallery. Alyson scored very highly with a combination of fresh and modern techniques, she is currently working as an artist. Ludya got an average score for her work which was last-minute and used items which were quickly to hand, she is currently working as a freelance graphic designer but has family commitments with two young sons which affects her time and attendance on the course. Cameron got an average score, but is confident with using technology and explaining his work, he is taking this course to help him relax as he has a high-pressure job in financial marketing but he has little art experience. And of course there is the incident of someone trying to look at Cameron’s phone! I wonder who that was and why. I’m thinking it’s possibly something that Jem would do, though I can’t think why she would be interested in doing such a thing. But Cameron sounds like quite an important business man, so it could be that he’s right and someone in the class is trying to access and sell business secrets, and then perhaps the murder is to do with that?
Ludya messages the others asking to use someone else’s log-in for the program which they need to use on the course, as she wants to save money by not purchasing the program herself. Jem is quick to sound her disapproval of Ludya’s idea, but Cameron offers to help her. Jem also reports that she arrived early at the studio that morning and heard someone in the stockroom corridor but they didn’t show themselves when she called hello. Jem at first thought it was Alyson as she often arrives there early but Jem then realised it wasn’t her as there is always a lingering smell of cigarette smoke around Alyson and she also always calls out hello in return, although when Jem mentions this incident to Alyson she says it was her in the studio but Jem is certain it wasn’t. Jem is then instructed by Hannah to not go alone early to the studio and to instead wait in the university canteen. Hmmm, another odd and potentially significant occurrence which we don’t immediately have an answer to (like someone trying to look at Cameron’s phone), who was in the stockroom corridor and why did Alyson and Hannah cover for that person, and also why is Alyson seemingly complicit with the course leaders? And I was interested in the revealing insights into the characteristics of the students when Ludya asked for someone’s password for the program, particularly that Jem is clearly a rule follower whilst Cameron is far more relaxed about the rule following, and also that Patrick’s main aim seems to be to keep the peace and not side with or disapprove of either.
Jem’s approach in the second assignment (which is a written exercise of an email pitch to sell themselves to a prospective employer) is to promote herself by listing the failings of the others, including mentioning Alyson stealing art materials. Alyson’s portfolio disappears from the studio, though it is later found and returned. Gela asks Alyson privately ‘if an outsider were to come across it, would that be a huge problem?’, to which Alyson answers that it probably would and that it contained work, and Gela advises her to ‘carry on as normal’. Oooh, so is there something more to this, is Alyson doing some kind of work which needs to be concealed for some reason and which Gela knows about? And I even wonder if Alyson is doing some kind of undercover work at the university and just posing as a student to get access to whatever she is investigating. But what would she be trying to discover/uncover? Is it anything to do with Cameron’s business, after his phone was looked at? And what a nightmare Jem is with promoting herself by listing the failures of others, she comes over as very immaturely boastful and with inadequate social skills and experience but is certainly able to cause damage and divisions! And I didn’t like how she shifted blame onto Patrick for the allegation of Alyson stealing. And also Alyson was allowed to miss out this written exercise as she says she has anxiety about writing and yet she was given a B which was based on her previous work and this was the second highest grade of the group so I can imagine this will annoy a few people, particularly Jem. I also wonder if Alyson was allowed to contribute to the group discussions judging the others’ written pieces, as it would seem unfair for her to judge others when she hadn’t taken part herself but I really am beginning to wonder about the power she seems to have and if the tutor and other staff are pandering to her for some reason.
The others notice that Alyson and Jonathan seem very close. A technician also reports to Gela that he overheard Alyson speaking with someone early one morning in the studio, and that this person left swiftly but the technician knows they weren’t part of the course or the department, and that this person must have been there for some time as there were also lots of empty wine bottles left behind. Jonathan reports to Gela that Jem has paid Ludya to produce part of the next assignment for her as Jem has no experience or knowledge with that technology. Oh, I’m surprised that Jem would cheat like that! I’m also surprised at Gela, as she tackled Ludya about this rather than tackling Jem, and she graded Jem highly for the assignment (though she knew it was Ludya’s work), and she also had a dig at Jonathan saying he’d do better if he concentrated on his own work rather than on other people’s work so therefore seeming to punish him for reporting this or implying he was wrong about it when she knows that he was right as Ludya had admitted it to her. Also Ludya seemed to imply that she knows Gela won’t say anything about this, which makes me think that Ludya perhaps knows of something that Gela is doing which she wouldn’t want to come out, and that this is perhaps to do with money. And the technician’s report that someone was at the studio is very interesting, I wonder if this ties in with when Jem heard someone leaving early one morning. So what is Alyson doing with this person? And also another potentially interesting insight (again provided by Jem, whose nosiness and gossiping seems to be the reader’s main source of insights, nightmare though she is!) that Alyson and Jonathan may be far friendlier than people thought and that they have concealed this for some reason, which is a surprise as it was Jonathan’s work which Alyson set fire to so that then makes me wonder (if they are actually close) if she realised his effort was poor and that he was therefore at risk of failing to complete the course so she destroyed his work so that he could be given a chance to resubmit it and get a higher grade as, again, her setting fire to someone’s work did seem very surprising, but it would make more sense if there was actually something more behind it. But why would it be important to her that he completes the course, unless she is undercover and her investigation is something to do with Jonathan? And if they do know each other well, or have got to know each other well during the course, then why are they concealing this from the others (although I guess they can have private lives)?
Ahead of the next assignment, where the students all have to work together to pitch to a real company, it all descends into nastiness and most leave the Doodle group. Alyson has a dig at Jem for accusing her of stealing, Jem has a dig at Ludya for not being able to manage her time, Ludya then announces to the others that she did Jem’s assignment for her, and Jem accuses Jonathan and Alyson of having an affair. Cameron seems to be becoming less and less involved with the course, and he tells Hannah that ‘Gela knows why I’m not as productive as the others’. Hmmm, what does this mean, why is he less productive? And also when he and Gela are messaging privately (and why is Gela doing this, surely there should be no preferential treatment between her and the students?) he ends the message with ‘kiss-kiss’ which she then repeats back, so is there more to their relationship? But she always seems to judge his work harshly, although perhaps this is to avoid people’s suspicions? And the bitchy exchange between them all on the Doodle group was explosive, and I can’t really see how they can successfully work together now after that! I also feel slightly concerned that Gela and Jonathan and Alyson and Ludya now have a private messaging group as surely, again, the tutor shouldn’t be friendlier with some particular students, surely she should treat them all equally? And within this private messaging group, I note that Gela asks Alyson to be more discreet with her relationship with Jonathan as she says it adds an unnecessary layer of risk, which implies to me that there is already another risk in the first place and this relationship is adding to it, so therefore what is the first risk? And Alyson says that if people are gossiping about their relationship then it means that ‘they’re not noticing anything else’, which again seems to imply there is something secret happening (the first risk) which Alyson is involved with and which Gela knows about.
There is an argument at the group meeting to discuss the team’s pitch to the company RD8, and Jem throws a piece of clay at Ludya hitting her on the forehead. Then later in the actual pitch to RD8, Jem ignores the plan which the team had agreed on and instead suggests directly to RD8 an angle which better suits her skills and interests and which RD8 prefers over the team’s main pitch so the team are now having to follow Jem’s pitch. It is also decided that the students will go to RD8’s museum in Somerset in order to collect spare equipment from there which they can use in their presentation. Omg, was this just deviousness on Jem’s part, or was it just a genuinely good idea which the team discounted because of who was suggesting it so in her frustration she forged ahead herself and hijacked the pitch? And after the tantrums on the Doodle group chat and my concerns that they’d all find it difficult to then work together, well, that seems to have been the case! And I’m relieved it was finally stated that Jem threw clay at Ludya, as initially Patrick had asked Gela if he should leave the incident out of the meeting minutes and she agreed to this and the students weren’t discussing it in the Doodle group, which was frustrating me hugely and my mind was going crazy with what may have happened and to whom!
The fellow examiners, who Ben has asked to search the documents for clues, are questioning quite what they are supposed to be seeing. Hmmm, I have to agree, as so far it is fascinating with the bitchiness but it doesn’t feel like anything dangerous is happening. I’m looking everywhere for suspicious things and jotting down plenty of possibilities (probably far too many possibilities!) but there doesn’t really seem anything firm, and in fact I’m not sure if anything which I’m jotting down would really be catching my attention if I wasn’t feeling I had to be on the lookout for something. Ben has mentioned a few times that he suspects someone has disappeared and that the others on the course have covered this up, but I can’t see any hint yet of who is likely to disappear and how or why. But this is why I adore this author’s books, I love searching for clues within seemingly innocuous information, I find I am looking at the smallest little detail wondering if it has something to tell me, knowing there are clues hidden but unsure whilst I’m reading the book just how the storyline will go so which themes are important and which are red herrings, I just love it all! I’ve even been studying the candidate numbers included on the students’ final project essays, looking for inconsistencies or any possible significance to the numbers (going on my knowledge of her wonderful Twyford Code book where there were clues in the most innocent-looking places!). But I wonder if something will happen with this trip to Somerset on 17th January 2024 (and somehow I feel it might be important to note the date of this trip, and perhaps some other dates that then come up, in order to try and tie things together), as every student is going apart from Jem who is staying at the university to work with Gela (at Gela’s request and arrangement, and is there a reason for Jem’s exclusion from the trip?).
Jem annoys the others who have gone to Somerset by deliberately booking one big family room for all five of them. Patrick tells Jem that there was a falling out between Ludya and Jonathan at the RD8 museum, and adds that Alyson looked shaken afterwards. On their return to the university, Jem discovers an old radio which Jonathan and Ludya had secretly brought back with them from the RD8 museum and had tucked at the back of the university studio storeroom. Gela messages Cameron asking him about the argument/scuffle at the museum but he says it wasn’t relevant and he’s not going to tell tales, and Gela says ‘it’s your job to tell tales’. Oooh, what does this mean, is Cameron on the course for some other reason and if so did Gela employ him for that reason? I’m wondering too now if the ‘kiss-kiss’ they frequently add to their messages is actually a code, a reference to this special job/mission he is doing for Gela, rather than an affectionate term indicating they are in a relationship. And why did Jonathan and Ludya steal the radio and then hide it in the storeroom? And if they wanted to hide it, then why choose to put it in the storeroom where it could be (and was) discovered? And was it this radio that Jonathan and Ludya (and possibly Alyson, if she was involved too) were arguing about at the museum? And the museum itself sounds quite a strange place, so is there more to this place than first appears? Patrick thought it was quite spooky and that it didn’t look like anyone visited there, and Jonathan remembers that they drove through opened steel gates to enter the place so he deduces that this means that their arrival had been watched as the gates had already been opened for them. The company was something to do with the war, wasn’t it, so is there something secretive in that? It all sounds very mysterious and quite sinister. And is it being implied that someone disappeared on this visit? But I can’t see any hint of anyone unaccounted for.
The technician emails Gela on 19th January saying that the students have left a mess of ash and melted plastic in the studio, and in the bin he’s found the expensive fabric bought for the presentation to RD8 which is covered with either brown paint or dried blood. Gela messages Alyson and Jonathan asking them what happened with the fabric, and Jonathan replies by saying that they will meet her in the carpark before class and explain. Gela later tells the rest of the students that the fabric has been vandalised but she doesn’t know when or why and that she is getting it repaired. The dry cleaner tells her that there is mud and vomit and blood on the fabric. Cameron messages Gela saying that he is going to have to pull out of the course and that he knows Gela can arrange this for him, making it sound like the trip to Somerset made him realise that he didn’t want to continue with the course. He adds that he won’t now always be able to respond as there is too much going on. Gela tells the others that Cameron is sick but that he is a very private person so doesn’t want to share the details of this with them. She also makes it sound to Hannah like her career at the university depends on this course succeeding. Hmmm, this makes me wonder just how far Gela may be prepared to go in order to ensure the course continues. But more importantly, eeek, was the body of whoever has (possibly) disappeared wrapped in that fabric, with it being just two days after the trip to Somerset?! I was so frustrated that we didn’t learn Jonathan’s explanation for this as he spoke to Gela about it rather than messaging her, grrr, that was mean! But this seems to imply that Jonathan is playing quite a big part in all this, I hadn’t really given him much attention before as he seemed one of the more minor characters, and also it seems that Gela is concealing whatever Jonathan told her regarding the fabric. I guess he may not have told her the truth (whatever that is) but clearly the story she told the others of it being vandalised is false. And Cameron has left the course and the reason seems to be linked to the mysterious trip to Somerset, what on earth happened there, was there actually a different reason for them going than just to collect implements for their exhibition, or did something shocking happen there?
Jem shares that she thinks Alyson may have disappeared as she hasn’t been at the university for days, but Jonathan answers that Alyson has been there and Jem had just missed her. The students are asked to work on their final project essays, and Gela advises they also use the Doodle diary to record their thoughts during the process so they can refer back to these diary entries when they are compiling their final project essay, assuring them that the diary entries are private and no-one else can read them. Oooh, I’m very excited about the using of the Doodle diary, this is a genius idea of the author’s as I can imagine the diary entries will be quite revealing, particularly as the students have been assured that no-one else will be able to read them! And so far the students’ notes for their final essays give interesting insights (or intriguing hints) of things that may have happened. Jem says in her essay ‘if anything happened that shouldn’t have, if something went wrong, and if every last one of us seems to hold a different opinion about what that was…’, eeeek, what does this mean, and how can people’s opinions be different about what went wrong, and indeed what was it that happened and went wrong? Ludya says in her essay ‘if I told you the truth, you wouldn’t believe it’, oooh, what does that refer to? And Patrick says in his essay that it seemed to him that Jonathan and Alyson staged the drama of her setting fire to Jonathan’s model. Jem also writes in her essay that ‘something came back with them (from Somerset) and haunted us all from that moment on’, and she also says ‘it’ began when they arrived on the course in September and it could still be going on, and she then seems to wonder if she will be able to submit her exam paper ‘safely’, eeek, what can this mean? Ludya also writes in her essay that when they went to Somerset ‘shit got real’. And of course, there’s the puzzle of Jem thinking Alyson has disappeared but Jonathan saying that Jem is mistaken, this seems very odd, Alyson is either there or not, so either Jem is confused about this (but how could she be?) or Jonathan is lying for some reason (but why?). Omg, I am really gripped by this, it’s just sounding so mysterious with such intriguing hints, I find I’m thinking about the story even when I’m not reading it!
Jem and Patrick get the radio working and play it for the others, presuming all that will be heard will be the white noise they’d heard whilst tinkering with it but they are keen to show off their skills in making the old radio work. However, a voice comes out of the radio saying that he is trapped and that he doesn’t know where he is but that he is alone and he asks for help to be sent. Everyone is stunned, and Patrick plays with the dials to try and get that frequency again but there are no markings on the radio to help him find it. They turn the radio on at the same time the following evening and hear the same voice but not saying exactly the same words as it says this time that he is trapped and floating in the dark and to please help. Jonathan says they aren’t to listen to the radio again as it is distracting them from their coursework, but on his Doodle diary entry he adds quotes from Nikola Tesla who in 1918 reported that she heard voices every night from people from another planet in a language she couldn’t understand, and he also quotes from Thomas Edison in 1920 who reported that he was working on apparatus to communicate with people who ‘have left this earth’. Alyson says she’s looked further into the voice from the radio and she thinks it was from a ‘numbers station’ which is a radio broadcast for spies which isn’t used any more, so this must just be an old recorded voice. Jonathan agrees with her, saying it’s probably an old government radio that they can use in an emergency as it uses old radio waves if newer technology fails for some reason so some old recordings are kept on there so they can every so often check the channel is working. Jem then states that Alyson wasn’t there on those evenings they listened to the radio so she hadn’t heard the voice, but Alyson says she was there, as do Jonathan and Patrick. Hmmm, it’s all getting weird with this voice from the radio, I’m not sure at all what is going on here! I was firstly wondering if it was just a trick that the others were playing on Jem, or a trick that someone (Gela, Cameron perhaps?) was playing on all of the students. But then I wondered if it was a genuine message as I remembered that RD8 did work in the war, so I began thinking it could be something from that time, though if it was a genuine person pleading for help during the war then why would it be playing now, unless the students have just accidentally logged onto that old frequency because they are using an old radio, but then that would imply the message is constantly playing or is a recording, arrrggh, I’m going round in circles! But then it got even stranger with Jonathan seeming to think that the voice is from another planet/people not on earth, so does he mean an alien or does he mean a dead person? Either just seems too far-fetched surely, the story can’t be going along that route, can it?! I kind of feel that this author wouldn’t introduce supernatural or science-fiction elements into her stories, would she? It has to be someone just trying to wind up/scare the students. And I noted that later Jonathan said ‘all their messages say the unit shouldn’t work at all’, so who are they with ‘their’ messages, is this RD8? Did RD8 give the radio to Jonathan and Ludya for some reason but Ludya wasn’t happy about it and this is why she and Jonathan fell out at the museum? And I noted that Patrick’s messages to Jonathan refer to the need to ‘come clean’, so does Patrick just mean Jonathan should come clean about taking the radio from the museum, or is it to come clean about something else? Though even if it is to come clean about taking the radio from the museum, this then implies that Patrick knows far more about what went on at the museum than he’s let on. And I also noted that Ludya urged Jonathan to ‘get rid of it’ but did she mean get rid of the radio or get rid of something else, and if something else then is this a body, is it Alyson’s body or Alyson’s husband’s body (so Alyson and Jonathan can continue their affair)?! Omg, my mind is spinning with all this! And was it significant that Jem and Patrick didn’t invite Gela to also listen to the radio? But perhaps that was just because they felt she would disapprove of the radio having been taken from the museum in the first place. And it seemed like Hannah overheard the voice on the radio too, or at least she told Ben that she had heard it as she was outside the door to the studio, but it’s interesting that she didn’t tell the students that she’d heard it, why not? And leaving the mystery of the radio briefly (if that’s possible!), again Jem is saying that Alyson hasn’t been around and the others are insisting that she has! I’m back to wondering if Jem is just confused (although she hasn’t shown any hint of confusion before) or if she is trying to create some mystery for the examiners who will read her words (though why do this, apart from just potential attention-seeking)? Or is Alyson really missing and the others are covering this up?! Ludya was supposed to be working at home with Alyson, so if Alyson has disappeared then Ludya is taking part in the cover up too. But why would they all collude on this?
Cameron messages Gela saying the boss wants the radio back and she (Gela) must ensure that this happens. Gela then tells the students she’s been told that the radio has woodworm so it therefore needs to be removed. Cameron later confirms to Gela that he now has the radio, but adds he can’t keep messaging her as it’s too risky. Patrick tells the others that the radio doesn’t have woodworm and that he saw the radio outside the main doors of the university wrapped in a carrier bag with a card with two lipstick kisses on it, and he wonders why Gela is lying and what else she’s lying about. Patrick is using epoxy resin for the latest assignment, and presents each student and Gela with a scorpion encased in epoxy resin. Jem messages Alyson on 5th March saying she’s not seen her recently and hopes there’s nothing wrong, and Alyson replies saying she is busy with a big commission so can’t come in as often but that there is nothing wrong. Hmmm, I remember for one of the assignments Jem took various photos of Alyson’s desk which seemed an odd choice of photo (although this unusual choice wasn’t commented on by Gela when she marked it) so I wonder if Jem did this in order to show that the desk contents hadn’t altered over time so to then prove that Alyson hadn’t been into the university as the others had maintained she had? And I noted that the technician had also reported to Gela that Alyson hadn’t been in, but then would he not have seen her if she’d come in at night (which she has done in the past and the others are still maintaining that she is doing)? And Alyson offered ideas on the group Doodle message board on 19th March and she is making items for the tunnel (although Jem maintains someone else is making these, as they just appear there without her seeing Alyson drop them off). I guess I am struggling to imagine that any of the group would want to do away with Alyson! Jem is the only one who previously seemed to have an issue with Alyson (being competitively jealous of her) and yet it’s Jem who is now alleging that something has happened to her. Perhaps Alyson has chosen to stay away for some reason, maybe she has split up with Jonathan so it would be awkward to be around him at the university but they don’t want this news to be known, or maybe she’s got a great job so no longer has time to attend the course but Gela doesn’t want her to officially leave because the reduced number of students could affect the likelihood of the course being continued next year. But then these scenarios mean that all the others (Gela too) are complicit in covering it up, and why would they do that? If Alyson was in any danger or being held against her will (by her husband, for example) then why would she post normal messages about work on the Doodle message board, as she could surely instead at least hint that she needs help if she was in danger. But then why would Jem make this all up? I’m tempted though to think Jem is making it up for some reason as nothing else makes sense (although the option of Jem making it up also makes little sense!). And why is Ben so fixated on someone disappearing too? Of course I am presuming the disappeared person is Alyson because this is what Jem repeatedly harks on about, but I guess it could be Cameron who has disappeared and the Alyson thing is just a smokescreen to deflect our attention from this. And on the subject of Cameron, with his mention of the boss wanting the radio back, does this mean that he works for RD8? And there seems to be quite a lot of mention of this epoxy resin which Patrick is learning how to use so I can’t help wondering if this is relevant for some reason (remembering Hallett’s other books when nothing is irrelevant!), is something crucial/suspicious going to be suspended in epoxy resin perhaps? Patrick says (in his final project essay) that ‘anything’ can be sealed inside the resin as long as the item is dry, so is this leading up to something untoward then being sealed inside it, eeek?! And Patrick made seven resin paperweights with scorpions inside, five of these scorpions were at rest, one was poised with its sting ready to strike, and one was dead, so I feel that who he gave these to is extremely relevant (particularly, obviously, the one about to strike and the one dead) and that there was a message he was giving to particular people with these scorpions and if this indicates who the disappeared/dead person is (or will be) and who the perpetrator is. Grrr, I wish we’d known who got which scorpions! And I was also puzzling who the seven people were who he gave the scorpions to and if this hinted to someone missing if they didn’t get a scorpion, but I guess if Patrick also made one for himself then that would be the six students plus Gela as the seventh person, although I did note that Gela said she’d give Cameron’s to him so Cameron clearly wasn’t there at the time, although he had said he was leaving the course so I guess his absence makes sense. Omg, it feels like so much has happened in the last few sections, although I still feel nowhere nearer to understanding things!
Hannah clarifies to Ben that Cameron owns a firm of private investigators who specialise in financial fraud and corporate security and industrial disputes, and adds that Gela had told her that she didn’t want the other students to know this. Hannah also tells Ben that she had wondered if Jonathan and Alyson’s affair started before the course, and Ben says he wonders if Alyson’s husband employed Cameron to spy on his wife and that Gela knew this and that the ‘kiss-kiss’ was a code relating to Cameron’s investigation of this affair for Alyson’s husband. Ooooh, I remember that in Cameron’s final project essay he said that he had decided to take the job himself rather than leaving it to one of the others in his firm, so this means that he is at the university as a private investigator! But employed by who and to investigate what exactly (or has Ben guessed correctly and Cameron is employed by Alyson’s husband to spy on Alyson and Jonathan?)? With Cameron’s firm specialising in financial fraud and corporate security and industrial disputes, then which of these subjects is he investigating at the university? And did Gela not want the students to know about Cameron being a private investigator because they’d get paranoid or because he was secretly investigating one of them? Also (whilst on the subject of Cameron) I noted that Jonathan had said that the radio isn’t what ‘they’ told Cameron it was, so is the ‘they’ RD8, and if so then when did RD8 tell Cameron what the radio was, was it at the museum and they perhaps asked him to encourage the group to take the radio for some reason, or was it after the radio had been taken by the group and they told him to get it back from them? Either way, Cameron seems to have shared this information about the radio with the others.
Gela asks both Cameron and Alyson to come into the university on 25th April because RD8 are visiting then to see progress of the presentation. Cameron forwards to Jonathan a conversation he’s had with Mae from RD8 where Mae refers to ‘kiss-kiss’ and is eager for it to be returned and Cameron tells her he hasn’t had time to return it but that it is safe. Jem is suspicious of Jonathan and if he is part of Alyson’s disappearance, so she goes to his family’s art gallery and is told by a member of staff there that it is Jonathan’s dad who runs the gallery, and that Jonathan is rarely there at the gallery and has a job in ecology and is married and that his mother and sister died two years ago and that he has already done a degree in art. Hmmm, so Jonathan had told the others that his mum and sister died 10 years ago (not two years ago) and that their death and the illness of his father had prevented him from going to university to study art (but now it seems that he’s actually already done an art degree), so why the lies? Is he just keeping parts of his life private from the students, or from his family, or is it not the real Jonathan on the course?! And I noted that Patrick told Jem that Alyson is working on a big new commission but that this is confidential, so did Alyson get this new commission while they were in Somerset and if so then is her employer RD8, and why is the commission so confidential or is it just to preserve the illusion for Gela’s future course that the present course still has its full quota of students? But this new commission for Alyson (as well as Gela asking Alyson to come into the university when RD8 will visit) seems to show that Alyson is alive and well! And whilst on the subject of the course, what is it about these diversity forms that Hannah keeps nagging Gela to get the students to complete but which Gela keeps delaying doing, why are these forms so important and why does Gela seem to be avoiding them, would their completion give Hannah (and also the reader) some information that Gela doesn’t want revealed? And argghh, it seems like the radio is called ‘kiss-kiss’, going by Mae’s demand that Cameron returns it to her! So does this mean that Gela is involved with all this as she has used the ‘kiss-kiss’ code with Cameron? And I presume Cameron has let Jonathan keep the radio rather than returning it to RD8 hence why Cameron forwarded Mae’s message over to Jonathan, but why did he do this?
It is now 30th May and the date of the RD8 event and the group’s presentation. Ben is conversing with the other examiners whilst he is waiting outside the RD8 premises for the event to begin, he tells them that he wants to see if all the students are there or if one is missing, and that he may have to stop the event and even perhaps call the police. Omg, so I feel even more confused now Ben and the examiners are at 30th May, whilst the transcripts we are reading from the students have only reached 30th April! But now I’ve reached about halfway through the book, I think I’m going to read back through my notes and jot down my main queries/mysteries so far in order to try and get things a little straighter in my head before going on further. So my queries so far are –
Arggh, there are far more questions than I’d first thought! And I’m sure there will be more questions to add, before we get any answers! Right, I will dive into the book again…
Jonathan tells Gela not to talk to him as if he is one of her students. Jonathan also writes in his Doodle diary that he thinks the radio is a way to contact the dead, created after the First World War to give comfort and reassurance to the bereaved after so many lives had been lost in the war but that the results might instead have been ‘horrifying’ so the whole thing was then covered up and the radio was meant to have been destroyed, but he wonders if the creators of it couldn’t actually destroy something they’d laboured over for so long, so they secretly kept it and it was then found by RD8 who then kept it secretly. Eeek, really? Is this likely to be the way that Hallett would have written a story? I don’t see her as doing something supernatural really. Plus isn’t it a coincidence that of all the radios at the museum, the students stole this particular one which has the ability to contact the dead, or did one of them (or Gela) know of its existence and so was determined to take it? But also why would RD8 have something so secret on display which could be taken? And I noted that Gela told Cameron that Mae has now asked her to ensure that the old radio (and which she refers to as ‘kiss-kiss’!!) is returned as it is new technology which RD8 doesn’t want falling into the wrong hands, so the radio is definitely what is being referred to as ‘kiss-kiss’ but has Gela been involved with the radio from when she first began using the kiss-kiss code with Cameron, and was she tasked with doing something regarding it and then got Cameron involved in it too, or was Cameron involved first and then got Gela involved? And it seems that what the radio actually does (if in fact it is capable of contacting the dead!) has not been shared with Gela. And when Jonathan told Gela not to speak to him as if he was a student, what is he if he’s not a student?
Patrick goes round to Jonathan’s house to listen to the radio voice, and Alyson is there. Jonathan has listened to the radio voice every evening and has written down every message. He says he hopes to communicate with the voice and asks Patrick to work on the radio again to enable him to do this, even though Patrick is very reluctant and suggests they just dump the radio or take it back to RD8. Jem believes Alyson has not been seen since the trip to Somerset four months ago and that Jonathan is logging into her Doodle account, so she goes to Alyson’s studio in Guildford to try and find out more and she speaks to Alyson Lang but this isn’t the woman on the course, this woman at the studio is the real Alyson and the woman on the course is actually Alyson’s sister Suzie who is married to Jonathan. Omg, so why all this pretence, my mind is spinning now! Surely Suzie could have attended the course as herself married to Jonathan, so why did they choose not to do that, was this because they knew it needed Alyson’s name and experience to get onto the course? And who knows about this, does the real Alyson even know and was she producing Suzie’s work? Was this why ‘Alyson’ didn’t do the writing assignment, did she realise her handwriting would give her away? Has Gela known all along? Did the others find out in Somerset, did Jonathan perhaps accidentally call her by her real name and this revealed it? And what does this mean regarding the possible disappearance of Suzie (as I guess I must now call her)? Obviously she’s not disappeared as Patrick has seen her (as Alyson, unless Patrick knows she is Suzie) at Jonathan’s house. And intriguingly, Jonathan mentioned that it was all Jem’s fault for booking one room for them in Somerset, which makes me wonder what exactly he is referring to, is it to do with the radio and were they fiddling with the radio there in the hotel and that’s when they first heard the voice? But then surely Patrick would’ve tried to dissuade Jem from later getting the radio to work. And omg, the idea of Jonathan trying to speak back to the voice alarms me, eeek, as I can’t imagine that going well. But I still can’t believe this really is a dead person talking to them through the radio, it really doesn’t seem to be what Hallett would do. Or perhaps the whole thing is a psychological study watching how people deal with something like this, I could see that as being more likely. And I noted that Gela told Jonathan and Alyson (Suzie!) and Ludya that she has kept up her part of the deal, so what was this deal and what did it involve? And also it sounds like Gela did Cameron’s final assignment for him, which seems odd but perhaps this was just because Gela is desperate to have the course finish with the same amount of students it started with, in order to get agreement that the course can continue next year.
Alyson (the real Alyson at the studio) tells Jem that Suzie seems to have disappeared as she hasn’t answered her calls for months, Alyson says she has had messages from Suzie but they don’t read like they’re her messages, and Suzie and Jonathan have moved out of their flat and Jonathan told her not to contact them any more as they are working on ‘something that could change the world’. Alyson also mentions the climate-change group called AetherGen and says that she thinks Suzie is under the new leader’s spell. Meanwhile, Jonathan reports that the voice from the radio has now stopped since he tried to tweak the circuits in order to communicate back to it, and he has tried everything to get the voice back but can’t. When Jem challenges Jonathan about the lies he has told, he admits to her that he is a climate scientist. As part of his final project essay, Patrick has written that he wished he’d not gone to Somerset and that if Jem hadn’t forced them all to share a room ‘chances are we’d all be alive at least’. It is revealed to the examiners that Jem is blind. What?! Jem is blind?! How come this hasn’t come up before, I’m thinking back now to all the instances where her being blind would surely have affected things, when she went to Jonathan’s gallery and to Alyson’s studio where I had presumed she was looking around, when she threw the clay at Ludya and was on target, when she seemed to scorn having to potentially adapt the RD8 presentation for visually impaired people, her finding the radio in the store cupboard, when she took photos of Alyson’s desk (how did she do this, I wonder?), etc. And none of the other students have mentioned this! And why has this been introduced, is there going to be a situation where her lack of seeing affects things? And I feel heartened that the other examiners are as surprised as me about this, so there can’t have been that many clues throughout the story that I’d missed. And I’m also wondering if the radio is the ‘something that could change the world’ (which Jonathan said to Alyson they were working on) with its possible ability to hear the words of the dead. Eeek, I’ve just had the horrible thought of if Suzie has chosen to die in order to try communicating through the radio as a dead person to prove it works, she wouldn’t do that, surely…?!! And I note Gela does know it was Suzie rather than Alyson on the course, so this must have been the deal they were referring to. But I’m still puzzled why they did this switch of Suzie as Alyson, and why Gela agreed to it. And I even wonder why Jonathan is continuing with the course and the presentation to RD8, considering everything that is going on and how obsessed he is with this radio voice, it makes me wonder if he is planning to do something dramatic at the presentation, especially with him being a climate scientist and this seeming to link back to the AetherGen group. And I then began wondering if the AetherGen name could mean anything relevant to the story and I see on Wikipedia that ‘aether’ is the Fifth Element, ‘material that fills the region of the universe beyond the terrestrial sphere’ and also that ‘in the late 19th century, physicists postulated that aether permeated space, providing a medium through which light could travel in a vacuum, but evidence for the presence of such a medium was not found’. So is this aether where AetherGen and Jonathan think dead people are, eeek?!! And I have to applaud Jem for her detecting, she really is determined to find out answers and clearly doesn’t let her blindness prevent her from doing things. I wonder if this was the reason why the diversity forms not being completed were brought into the story, as I guess this would have revealed Jem’s blindness to the reader, though I still don’t really see why Gela was delaying getting these completed as they could have been completed at the start of the course (and the details not given to the reader) and then Jem’s blindness still revealed to the examiners (and the reader) at this point in the book, so perhaps Gela’s stalling with these forms is for another reason. And coming back to Patrick’s statement that they’d all still be alive if Jem hadn’t forced them to all share a room, does seem to confirm that someone is dead, but who?!
It is now 30th May and the students and Gela are at the RD8 building for the presentation. Gela tells Jem that Alyson is there and Jem then messages this fact to Ben, though Jem says that Alyson’s voice ‘has changed’. When Jem mentions that the external examiner is outside the RD8 building, Jonathan and Patrick are panicked about this, Jonathan telling Patrick ‘whatever you do, make sure he stays out there’ and Patrick agrees that ‘if we get it past him, we’re in the clear’. Patrick goes outside to Ben and tells him that he should read some files before he enters the RD8 premises and then forwards these files over to him, though Ben tells the other examiners that Patrick ‘looks like a ghost and is shaking like a leaf’. Patrick also gives Ben a resin paperweight with a human finger inside, and Ben tells the examiners that the fingerprint is clear enough for him to use this to get through the security and into the building. In the meantime, Gela realises there is something inside the clay head which Jem had created as part of the presentation, and when she looks inside she is very shocked and immediately taken ill. Omg, where do I begin?! Firstly the finger in the resin paperweight, ick, ick, ick! But I felt sure there would be more to do with this resin,, so is this it (though obviously it is fairly gruesome and why am I wishing for more, tee hee?!)! And I guess this is why Patrick has been so distressed and why he was referring to someone being dead, because he has their finger. Surely it must be Cameron who’s dead! And then what on earth is inside the clay head that has so revolted Gela? Surely surely it’s not Cameron’s dead body in there?! But this would seem to fit with Gela’s shocked reaction, eeek! And what are the files that Patrick has given to Ben to read, and does this mean that everything eventually is going to be explained (please!), and is Patrick doing this with Jonathan’s agreement or is he going against Jonathan’s wishes by giving these files to Ben?! And back to Jem saying that Alyson is there in the building but her voice ‘has changed’, I’m presuming she means Suzie but I’m wondering if it’s not actually Suzie and this is why Jem’s blindness has been introduced as she’d be unable to see the woman pretending to be Suzie but Jem would be super sensitive to sounds. And, as an aside, Gela’s view that Jem’s blindness means she doesn’t see body language or facial expressions or people’s reactions to what she says is a really good point for perhaps explaining why Jem can seem quite abrasive and challenging to others.
The files sent to Ben are from before the course began (from May 2023) and are emails and messages. They begin with Gela convincing Patrick to join the course, and then convincing him to continue with the course when he admits he’s not enjoying it, and her threatening him with HMRC for unpaid taxes if he drops out of the course. There are also messages showing that Ludya and Jonathan and Suzie were paying Gela to allow them to be on the course as they wanted to ‘locate the unit and get the evidence we need’ and they were concerned about the other three students on the course discovering what they were up to but Gela reassured them that they need not worry about Jem and Patrick and Cameron. There are also messages showing that Alyson knew that Suzie was pretending to be her and that the plan was that Alyson would do the work for Suzie and would therefore get the degree certificate in her own name which she can then display in her gallery as her own qualification. The messages also reveal that Suzie was stealing equipment from the university stores in order to give these to Alyson, and that it was Suzie who looked at Cameron’s phone and she then set fire to Jonathan’s model in order to cause a diversion from the alarm that sounded on Cameron’s phone, and that Jonathan and Suzie were then concerned about why Cameron had so much security on his phone and were asking Gela if he was actually who he said he was, and the person who Jem saw (or rather smelt, as this person smelt of alcohol) at the studio early in the morning was someone that Suzie had invited there to give her information about codes relating to a room at the RD8’s museum which has ‘a data breach in its access code’. The messages also reveal that when Suzie accidentally left her portfolio in the studio overnight, Gela took it and gave it to Cameron for him to photograph because it contained the printouts of the codes and binary variations they had collected to use at the museum. Ok, I need to deal with all these reveals before I can read on further! So taking things in order, this unit that Ludya and Jonathan and Suzie want to locate, is this the radio and the evidence they want is that it can receive messages from dead people? And did Gela set up the RD8 connection purely at Ludya and Jonathan and Suzie’s request so they could steal the radio? And I’m guessing Cameron is just on the course in order to investigate and stop the others from doing what they are aiming to do, and that he is employed by RD8 to do this and this work is Operation Kiss-kiss. And there’s the twist that Gela seems to be working for both sides, as she is helping Ludya and Jonathan and Suzie to be on the course so they can achieve their aim, but she is also helping Cameron in his investigation of them by giving him their findings, phew, she is quite the busy person with also trying to run a course and worry about its success! And then the codes that Suzie received which relate to the room with the data breach in its code, I was guessing that this was the room at the museum with the old radio in which they take, but there’s also a kind of hint that it wasn’t actually the radio that they went there for, so I’m now wondering if they needed to access that particular room for some reason and then just took what was in the room (the radio) on the spur of the moment perhaps with no idea of what the radio could do, as they just seemed so surprised and disconcerted at what the radio does which doesn’t fit with them knowing this beforehand. Also regarding these files, there seem to be ones that don’t involve Patrick and that he wouldn’t have had access to, such as emails and messages to and from Gela, and Ben seems to think these have been sent to him by Gela and that Patrick or Jem had given Gela his number, but why would Patrick or Jem urge Gela to share things which seem to implicate her and why would Gela do this? Or is she still reeling from whatever is in the clay head and is now determined to have no loyalty to Ludya and Jonathan and Suzie? Or are these emails and messages not sent from Gela but someone else has accessed her emails and messages somehow and sent them to Ben? Phew, so still quite a few questions (!), but thankfully I feel a lot of my questions/queries that I listed at the halfway point of the book have now been answered and hopefully the rest will be answered as I continue to read the files given to Ben. And there is a fair bit of the book left so I feel fairly certain that Hallett will still spring some shocks and twists!
Ben continues reading the files of messages, which show that Jonathan then took Gela to their ‘safe house’ so they could discuss the final project presentation to RD8 but he told her that she couldn’t bring her phone or tablet or smartwatch. The messages then reveal that Gela told Cameron where she was going and he gave her a chip which they wouldn’t be able to detect and he also explained to Gela that sometimes it is better not to stop these people but to let them do what they plan to do so you can learn about their power and capabilities and then stop them from doing something bigger. The messages also show that taking the radio was a sudden impulse of Suzie’s, and Ludya and Jonathan’s argument at the museum was in order to provide a distraction so Suzie could do this. The files now include police logs of Whatsapp conversations between Jonathan and Ludya and Patrick dated 17th January 2024, where they were talking about a body being wrapped in the tunnel fabric and a phone with high tech on it which they also had to deal with. There is also information about Patrick actually being someone called Sean who came to England illegally having unintentionally got involved in bringing over heroin with his friend, and his friend then killing himself as their boat was about to arrive in England where the police were waiting in the port. Oh god, I was beginning to fear that it was Cameron who was dead and that he was killed by Jonathan and Suzie and Ludya in order to prevent him stopping what they were doing (and really, at this point who else can it be who is dead?), and that does seem to be the case with Ludya and Jonathan talking about the phone with high tech on it which they realise they have to deal with (when they are wrapping the body in the tunnel fabric), it can only be Cameron’s phone and Cameron’s body, eeek! And I’m not sure if this information about Patrick really being someone called Sean is relevant really, or if it’s just included to add to the mysteries and reveals and perhaps to show that no-one on the course is quite who the reader thought they were, even the two seemingly innocent people (Jem and Patrick) with Jem really being blind and Patrick not really being called Patrick. And I do wonder what on earth RD8 are doing anyway for AetherGen to be out to get them (presumably Jonathan and Suzie and Ludya work for AetherGen)?! And who are the baddies and the heroes really, is it RD8 who are the baddies doing something dodgy and AetherGen are the heroes trying to stop them, or is it AetherGen who are the baddies just wanting to cause trouble and disrupt a successful profitable company so RD8 are justifiably trying to stop them? And regarding Cameron’s explanation to Gela that sometimes it’s better to let people do what they aim to do so you can then learn about their bigger aims, is this waiting and watching his own opinion and purpose or is this what RD8 have instructed him to do? And where have these police logs come from, how has Patrick (or someone else) got these in order to forward over to Ben? But reading these messages means we’re going back through all the events again but from a different angle, which is fascinating (and of course is great in providing answers) but it kind of feels like a second book and that everything I’d thought before whilst reading the first book (to continue with my two book analogy) was just wasted!
The files continue from the hotel room in Somerset on 17th January, and show that Jonathan had looked on Cameron’s phone and found out that he was a private investigator and that Gela was helping him, and then Patrick came out of the bathroom and saw (as he thought) Cameron attacking Ludya so he intervened and struck Cameron resulting in his death. Meanwhile, back at the presentation on 30th May 2024, Gela tells Jem that Cameron is dead and that she’s not to look inside the clay head. Omg, Cameron’s body is in that clay head, isn’t it, eeek! And omg, omg, it was Patrick who killed Cameron!! I didn’t see that coming, I was just presuming it would have been one of the others trying to stop Cameron from stopping them damaging RD8. Oh no, I feel so gutted for Patrick as he clearly didn’t intend to kill Cameron and yet I imagine the others are pleased that Cameron is dead as he can’t then stop them doing what they plan to do, so Patrick has unintentionally benefitted the others by doing this and is now allied with them and yet is presumably not aware of what they are really doing and that they’re not really students. And I worry what they could make him do by holding over him the fact he has killed someone and he owes them as they’ve helped him to conceal this. And also from January onwards, they knew that Gela was lying to them! I imagine Gela was really in quite a lot of danger without her realising this, although clearly they had plenty of chances to hurt her and didn’t do so, so maybe they aren’t killers and aren’t the baddies. But I guess when Gela left the radio outside the university for Cameron to return it to RD8, it was actually Jonathan who collected the radio and he had messaged Gela using Cameron’s phone! Though, again I wonder why they left the radio in the storeroom of the university in the first place rather than just taking it home with them, as this seems again to imply that they had no idea of what the radio could do (ie, contact dead people, if indeed this is what it does which I’m still uncomfortable with assuming) and therefore it wasn’t knowledge of the radio’s purpose/ability that led them to take it from the museum.
The files continue with another part of Patrick’s final project essay where he writes that Jonathan had explained to him that Cameron wasn’t attacking Ludya in the hotel room but was arguing with her because she wouldn’t give him the radio so Cameron then tried to grab the radio off her. Patrick also writes that Suzie was having to sit at the house with Cameron’s body in the freezer as they needed his face for his phone to recognise so the phone wouldn’t automatically call the police, that he (Patrick) and Jonathan also took turns doing this in order to give Suzie a break. He then states in his essay that they all became convinced that the voice on the radio was Cameron’s voice, that it was his consciousness trapped between life and death, and either that this happens to everyone who dies or perhaps was only happening with Cameron because he was killed unexpectedly or because his body was being kept from decomposing. Patrick continues in his essay that Jonathan had realised from looking at the messages on Cameron’s phone that RD8 had planted a decoy at the museum for the AetherGen members to photograph, and were then planning to discredit AetherGen completely when they went public with the photos, however Suzie had taken a wrong turn in the museum and so took the radio thinking this was the toxic ‘atmospheric defence tech’ they were looking for, and that Cameron had been immediately contacted by RD8 when they were all in the hotel room and instructed to get the radio back and so then tried forcibly to take it from Ludya, and that later they realised Suzie’s mistake and that the radio wasn’t what they’d intended to take but they then knew that the radio was clearly very important in some way to RD8 so were determined to find out why, and then heard the voice coming from it and realised that the radio was potentially far bigger and more important than the atmospheric defence tech, and that they could sell it. Patrick continues that he suggested that Cameron’s eye be put into resin so they could then use this in order to keep Cameron’s phone working, and that he decided to also put Cameron’s hands in resin too in case they needed his fingerprints for some reason, and that they then placed Cameron’s body in a cove where the tide would take it away. Patrick also writes that he and Ludya are planning between themselves to finish all this by putting the resins and Cameron’s phone and the radio inside the clay head which will then go into the incinerator at RD8. Hmmm, I guess what happened in the hotel room now makes a bit more sense as I didn’t really feel it was likely that Cameron would have been attacking Ludya and obviously he wasn’t, he was just trying to get the radio off her, but poor Patrick must feel even worse now for Cameron dying, though it does seem very impulsive of Patrick to act like that, I’m surprised he didn’t wait for a moment to assess the situation first. And ick, ick, ick, having to sit with Cameron’s body and show his face to the phone, ick, ick, ick, they have all clearly been punished by their own actions anyway (if they are the baddies in this and need to be punished). Though part of me thinks that this plot twist with Cameron’s phone needing to be looked at by him every five minutes seems a bit overly complicated (or is this actually a possible security feature in posh modern phones and I just don’t own such a phone?!), but I guess it provides the very memorable and inventive plot twist of them having to keep his body! And I’ve just remembered that Patrick mentioned to Jem that he’d had to buy a new freezer, ick, this was obviously for the storage of Cameron’s body! And wow, the voice on the radio being Cameron’s was a huge surprise! But part of me is still resisting believing that a dead person can speak and the radio can channel this voice, but it does occur to me that one of the things the voice said was something like ‘did you kill me’, which is obviously what happened to Cameron, so could it actually be him…? And I’m not sure what this toxic atmospheric defence tech is that AetherGen wanted to photograph and expose and what it does that is so terrible, has this been explained earlier in the book and I’ve missed it, or is it something I should just know about? And oh god, Cameron’s eye and hands being put into resin, and the unavoidable fact now in my mind that these had to be removed from Cameron’s body, ick, I just knew this focus on resin was for a sinister reason and it seems I was right! And actually (though I really don’t want to think any further about this!) is it his eye or his whole head in the resin? I thought it was just the eye at first, but now I’m tempted to think it was his whole head after Gela’s reaction when she looked inside the clay head, as I am presuming she recognised that it was Cameron and she probably wouldn’t have recognised this from just an eye alone.
Patrick’s essay continues that Jonathan had explained to him that ‘Alyson’ was really Suzie and was his wife, and also that his mum and sister died only two years ago but that he’d said they had died ten years ago because he didn’t want people to suspect that it was their deaths which were driving his actions now, and he explained that his mum used to work for RD8 on an ‘active deterrent technology’ which is a Dead Hand system meaning that a weapon is primed to fire off automatically to ‘the other side’ unless a human presses a button to stop it (so if we have been attacked and there is no human to press the button, then the weapon is fired) and that this weapon has now been developed further and is an invisible chemical bomb which RD8 developed and which ‘charges the atmosphere with positive ions’ so the enemy’s countryside is polluted and its people die from cancer, but that Jonathan’s mother and his unborn sister were contaminated by this technology when his mother was researching it and before it was realised how dangerous it was and they both consequently died, so he is determined to avenge them and punish RD8. Oh, so this invisible chemical bomb must be what was meant by ‘toxic tech…atmospheric defence tech’, and is what makes RD8 ‘environmental terrorists’, as Ludya called them. But omg, is this all real, is there really a button needing to be pressed every day in the real world otherwise a devastating invisible chemical bomb would be fired off?! Though this sounds a little like Cameron’s phone, with it needing to regularly see Cameron’s eye otherwise the police are automatically called. And I see that was the end of the files, and we’re now back to the presentation.
Jonathan and Suzie and Ludya watch the external examiner enter the building but they recognise Ben as being someone else, not an external examiner, and they leave immediately. Jem explains to Ben that the voice played by the radio is Cameron’s voice but that she’d asked him earlier in the year when they were in the studio together to say random phrases that could be used as part of the presentation and she then adjusted the circuit board on the radio so his phrases would be played randomly at the same time each evening, and that she did this because she felt that the others hadn’t listened to her voice throughout the course so wanted to punish them for this by making them feel alarmed and puzzled by this voice from the radio. Ben then explains to Jem that the Dead Hand invisible chemical bomb technology is actually housed inside the old radio which Suzie stole, so when Jem adjusted the circuit board to add the voice recording of Cameron she unintentionally disconnected the original circuit so therefore disabled the Dead Hand technology and prevented the bomb from being activated when it wasn’t pressed daily. He then says he intends to sell the Dead Hand radio back to RD8, which would then ensure that AetherGen has funds to continue their fight against ‘the destruction of this planet’. Ben pushes the clay head infront of him as he walks with Jem, telling her that she has earned a Distinction, and he leaves her outside the incinerator building while he goes inside, explaining that he will put the clay head and the resins into the incinerator. Gela then messages Jem telling her to stay where she is and she will come and find her, and adds that Jonathan and Suzie and Ludya have all left. Patrick messages Gela saying he is hiding inside the incinerator building in order to prevent Ben from stealing the Dead Hand technology and that he will kill Ben if necessary, saying he has killed before, not just Cameron which was an accident but also that he killed his friend by throwing him overboard in order to create a distraction. Wow, wow, wow, there is a lot to unpick and reel from here! So to take things in turn again, omg, Ben isn’t an external examiner then! That was a shock, I hadn’t suspected that for one moment! And it seems he is the AetherGen leader, as he refers to Jonathan and Ludya and Suzie as his ‘sleeper unit’ and talks about selling the radio to provide funding to AetherGen. And I have to say that I am extremely relieved that the radio doesn’t play dead people’s voices as I was definitely uncomfortable with that and it didn’t really seem to be following the usual theme of Hallett’s books. But it seems just a tad coincidental that it was Cameron’s voice Jem used and he was the one who died! And so Jonathan and Suzie and Ludya have escaped, but I’m a bit concerned about Ludya as she can’t just disappear (as Jonathan and Suzie perhaps could do) as she has kids, and also if she is arrested for her involvement in Cameron’s death then what will happen to her kids? I know she was involved in the covering up of his death but she didn’t choose to be, she was just suddenly in too deep to be able to get out. And then of course (deep breath!) Patrick is going to try and stop Ben, eeek! Omg, I wonder if he will kill Ben, and if so will he destroy the Dead Hand radio or use it for his own benefit, or will Ben kill Patrick?! And I guess this shows that Patrick can indeed be impulsive (as I had earlier doubted), as he had impulsively killed his friend. And the fact that he did kill his friend was a shock, I really hadn’t imagined that Patrick (Sean, I guess I should call him) would do such a thing! I was firstly tempted to think that he has since been faking his nice caring personality all the way through this book, but then I wonder instead if he has kind of become the alter-ego of ‘Patrick’ now with a nice caring personality, that he’s shaken off ‘Sean’ his manipulative and murdering alter-ego, and has settled down to a quiet life running an art shop and being a nice person, that he thinks of his friend often and regrets his actions in killing him and living a good kind life is perhaps a kind of repayment to his friend. Or perhaps I’m just being foolishly kind! But I do like Patrick and am reluctant to think of him as a bad person. And I guess if Patrick (I can’t help but refer to him as Patrick, rather than Sean, so I’m just going to continue calling him that) is willing to sacrifice himself in order to stop Ben from taking the Dead Hand radio, then again is this as a repayment to his friend and to Cameron? Or is he being Sean and doesn’t intend to sacrifice himself at all and will almost enjoy killing Ben and then gain money himself from selling the Dead Hand radio?! And I guess RD8 agreed to be part of the university course because they wanted to give access to the students (AetherGen) and allow them to try and photograph the invisible chemical bomb technology (though were planning to foil them by providing a decoy instead of the real thing, and then discredit the group), but is it also a little coincidental that Gela was being paid by the students (AetherGen) to get RD8 involved with the course as they wanted to have access to the RD8 building in order to photograph the technology? So which came first, and if it was Gela firstly asking RD8 to be involved in the course so AetherGen could photograph the tech, then how did RD8 realise that the students were AetherGen and plan to plant a decoy for them to photograph instead and employ Cameron to spy on them? And I’m still a bit surprised that RD8 would allow the students (knowing they are AetherGen) to come to the very building where they have this supremely important bit of technology that could effectively destroy the world?! Couldn’t they have sent them to another RD8 building and put the decoy there, or moved the Dead Hand radio to somewhere else on the day of their visit? Why allow anyone anywhere near the Dead Hand radio at all?
Philippa Moreton messages the examiners on 31st May 2024 stating she is the external examiner and needs access to the university documents but that she keeps getting a message that retrieval has already been completed. The examiners realise that they’ve not heard from Ben again and he has left their messaging group, and Philippa confirms to them that no-one on her team has heard of Ben Sketcher. The examiners ask Gela for an update and she explains that AetherGen were posing as students on the course and Ben was their leader, they’d planned to gather evidence of RD8’s defence technology but the company were aware of this so foiled them. She says that the AetherGen students created a model in resin of a severed head with a mobile phone strapped to it in order to make a statement about human dependence on technology, which RD8’s corporate guests applauded when Jem pulled it out of the clay head. Gela privately notes that Patrick stopped responding to her messages after the event. She also privately notes that Ludya kicked Jonathan and Suzie out of her car after they escaped from the event and she then drove to a police station and handed over her laptop and phone. The examiners tell Gela that the course is approved for next year. Philippa then writes to the reader saying that she had handed all the documents from the course over to the police, who then didn’t contact Philippa again but she saw a small article in the news that two members of AetherGen had been sentenced to ten years for ‘trespass, cyber-fraud, and criminal damage’ and the third member had been given a suspended sentence as she had provided the information leading to the conviction of the other two, that all had pleaded guilty so there was no trial, and AetherGen had now dissolved after their leader had disappeared. But she adds that ‘officially nothing unusual happened’ on the course and she presumes that there will be no more investigation into Cameron’s disappearance or into Patrick and Ben’s whereabouts as this would reveal the secret defence technology at RD8. Hmmm, so I guess the defence technology that AetherGen were trying to photograph was the invisible chemical bomb as they didn’t seem aware that the radio was a Dead Hand system, and this makes me presume that they still don’t know of the radio’s real function and still believe it contacts dead people as they won’t have heard Ben’s explanation. But it still seems a huge coincidence that they happened to take the radio from the museum which was connected to the invisible chemical bomb (and connected so importantly that it was the effective trigger!). And I guess Gela just said that about the severed head being just a clever model as a statement about technology in order to conceal the fact that it was Cameron’s head and he is dead, she does realise he is dead and it was his head, doesn’t she? And surely it can’t be concealed forever that Cameron is dead, he has a son and an ex-wife and staff who can’t be fooled indefinitely. And what exactly happened between Patrick and Ben, are we not to know?! Did Patrick survive and has now gone back to Ireland after incinerating the Dead Hand radio, or did Ben survive and has now sold the Dead Hand radio to RD8 for a huge sum? And oooh, how sneaky of the author having it as actually Philippa who wrote to the reader at the beginning of the book, not Ben, I was fooled by that and presumed it was Ben but I’ve now looked back at the start of the book and realise the message wasn’t signed from Ben, I had just (no doubt as Hallett intended!) presumed it was Ben, oooh, Hallett is good at what she does!
Mae from RD8 messages Gela saying that both Patrick and Cameron had signed into the premises on the evening of the event, so she asks Gela to get Cameron to contact them and to get Patrick to return his ID badge. Gela replies saying RD8 knew about the AetherGen group being on the course, as RD8 had paid her to accept Cameron onto the course so he could watch them. She says that RD8 know that Cameron is dead, and that Patrick originally thought that Ben would call the police and therefore end the nightmare of Cameron’s death if he revealed to him what had happened which is why he let Ben into the building using Cameron’s finger, and adds that she presumes Patrick died in the incinerator building as she saw him enter and then took Jem over to her dad and didn’t look back but he hasn’t returned to his shop and now Mae’s confirmation that Patrick hadn’t signed out of the building confirms this, and adds that she wonders how RD8 will cover up these deaths. Gela also says that she blames RD8 for all of this, as if they hadn’t wanted to humiliate AetherGen by planting a decoy for them, then the group would have never got near to the Dead Hand radio and unknowingly come close to destroying the world, and that it was only due to Jem wanting to punish the group for not listening to her and unsuspectingly altering the circuit board of the Dead Hand radio that the world was saved. She adds that the group never realised what the radio truly did and just believed it was the ‘long-lost SpiritFinder’. Gela adds that when the police ask her what happened she will tell them everything, but that she knows full well that nothing will be done about it as the existence of the secret technology must be concealed. Well, I’m quite grateful that Gela seems to be explaining everything and tying up the loose ends, perhaps I won’t be left with the huge amounts of questions I usually have when I reach the end of a Hallett book due to her teasing ambiguity (although I do enjoy mulling things over and looking back in the book trying to puzzle things out!). And I was intrigued by the ‘long-lost SpiritFinder’ that Gela mentioned as I thought for a moment that Gela was saying this was real and there is some technology which can actually contact the dead, but I guess she means people speculating that what was secretly created after the First World War was actually successful and that this fact and the technology to do it was concealed from the public, which I can see would be a very tempting conspiracy theory to some (but surely it is only a conspiracy theory…?!).
In June 2024, Cameron’s ex-wife messages Gela letting her know that she’s been informed of Cameron’s death in a covert mission of which she wasn’t given details. Gela remembers that Cameron was an ex-army man so therefore his wife probably wouldn’t have been completely surprised to be told he had gone back to this life and died in the course of it. In September 2024, Jem gets a message from a withheld number and the person calls her ‘young Jem’. She immediately asks if this is Patrick, to which the person doesn’t answer. Jem tells him that the police want to speak to him, and he says that perhaps one day they will but that at the moment the priority is to keep RD8’s secrets, and he adds that ‘everything’ went into the incinerator. Jem says that fragments of human bone were discovered in the incinerator when it cooled down, but he says he has no idea who that could have been. Jem adds that she still has the scorpion paperweight and he says that he still has his paperweight, which is the one with the sting ready to strike, and that the paperweight is kept on top of ‘an old radio’, which he ‘listens to at the same time every day’ and that the voice from the radio and the paperweight scorpion ensures he never forgets. The person adds that he is now content painting and sketching, and then wishes her good luck but adds that he can’t stay in touch and asks her not to tell anyone about this conversation. Omg, so is this really Patrick? I am so tempted to believe it is (and I’m aware I’ve thought of the person as a ‘he’ throughout the messaging but that their gender isn’t actually stated), but I’m also wondering if it’s Ben messaging Jem and it’s Patrick’s bones in the incinerator. I’ve looked back at Ben’s conversations with Jem wondering if he called her ‘young Jem’ and he didn’t, it was only Patrick who called her that I believe, though then again I guess Ben read through all the Whatsapp messages between Jem and Patrick so would know that this was often what Patrick called her so could just copy this. I even wildly wondered (suspecting Hallett of huge twists!) if this person could be Cameron and he’s not really dead and I also looked back in the book to see if Cameron called her ‘young Jem’ and can’t find any examples of this because he and Jem seemed to rarely speak together, but how could Cameron not be dead when Patrick and Ludya and Jonathan and Suzie all said he was killed and why would they tell such a lie which incriminates them and which caused such huge (and horrible!) complications in their lives? No, Cameron must be dead. This person is obviously involved with the course though as they talk about ‘our MA’, but I guess Ben (in his pretended role of external examiner) would also call it ‘our’ course, but did Ben tell Jem that he wasn’t actually an external examiner? Jem addresses this person as ‘Patrick’ and the person doesn’t correct her assumption so either it is him or someone who wants to be thought of as him, and why would someone want to give Jem the idea that Patrick is alive if he isn’t (apart from Ben, I guess, as if Ben is presumed dead and Patrick alive then it would ensure that no-one would look for Ben)? I am guessing they can’t test the fragments of bone found in the incinerator in order to determine identity, would it all have been so effectively destroyed that this wasn’t possible (although I’m used to forensics teams on TV always finding answers)? And there’s the scorpion paperweight which means the person was connected with the course, and again I’m sooo frustrated that we didn’t know who got which paperweight, but I guess Patrick had the one which shows the scorpion about to sting/kill and this would fit because he killed Cameron (but again, Ben would know about the paperweights from reading the messages between the students on the course and could have guessed that Patrick had given this one to himself, arrggh!). And eeek, the person mentions that he has an old radio which he listens to at the same time every day which must mean the Dead Hand radio and so this wasn’t destroyed in the incinerator! And I think this must mean that the person is Patrick, as I am fairly sure he didn’t know that the radio couldn’t actually contact dead people, and the tone of regret and punishment regarding this would seem to fit with Patrick’s situation as the killer of Cameron and him regretting this and feeling he needed to punish himself, whereas Ben knew that the radio didn’t contact dead people, plus he knew what the radio actually did (stops the invisible chemical bomb from detonating) and he intended to sell it for profit so he would therefore have sold it rather than sitting there every evening listening to it. And I noted that Jem went quiet when the radio was mentioned and didn’t say that the voice on there was done by her, but why would she not share this information, was she ashamed of what she had done and how she had scared the others, or did she feel that Patrick needed the comfort of regret and repentance from listening to what he believed was Cameron’s voice from the dead? And I suddenly wondered how Patrick had got out of the RD8 premises without signing out, but I think Mae said to Gela that Cameron had signed out so obviously this was Cameron’s finger used to sign out just like it was his finger used to sign Ben in, but I guess by Patrick using Cameron’s finger rather than the ID badge he was given then conceals who it actually was who signed out (so could it have actually been Ben, arrgh?!). Did Ben hold onto Cameron’s finger after he’d got into the building, or did Patrick take it back from him after he’d given it to Ben to sign in? And this also then means that the resin finger wasn’t incinerated (as well as the radio which wasn’t incinerated), so in the end it was just the resin of Cameron’s head (and Ben or Patrick’s body) that went into the incinerator then? So where is Cameron’s finger now, does Patrick still have it, and if so does it sit with his paperweight of the scorpion to remind him of what he did (I did wonder if it was this finger paperweight that Patrick was referring to when he said the paperweight was on top of the radio, but he did mention the scorpion paperweight)? And I did wonder why Patrick contacted Jem in the first place, potentially risking being searched for if people know he’s alive (as surely his experience of Jem is that she can’t keep a secret), but I guess it was just because he was always caring towards her so wanted to check she was ok (plus it’s a wonderful little twist at the end of the book and probably designed to make the reader speculate if it is Patrick or not, as I have done!).
And that’s the end of the book, wow, what a book, another wonderful wonderful read from this incredible author, she has such an imagination! There were such twists and surprises, particularly that the author made us believe for soooo long (or at least I believed!) that it was Alyson who had disappeared or been killed, but this huge red herring diverted my attention perfectly and so effectively away from the fact that Cameron not being there was actually what I should have been suspicious about, this was very clever! And Jem being blind was a huge twist (and made me flick back through the book looking for instances of this), as well as Ben not being an external examiner, and that the voice on the radio was done by Jem rather than it being contact with a dead person (and I was relieved by that too). And there’s the usual hint of uncertainty at the end of the book (making me again flick back through the book looking for clues) with me wondering if it was Patrick or Ben who survived, she really is such a genius writer!
There were also some things which puzzled or bothered me though, and which still puzzle and bother me now I’ve finished the book. Firstly, was Jem being blind actually necessary? I can see that it enabled the others to pretend to Jem that Alyson/Suzie had been at the university and that Jem had just missed her, but Jem didn’t really accept this anyway as her sense of smell alerted her to the fact that there wasn’t the usual cigarette smoke smell she associated with Alyson/Suzie’s presence. So was there anything else in the story which Jem’s blindness altered or played a huge factor in? Was it a factor that she couldn’t see that it was Cameron’s head inside the resin (inside the clay head at the presentation)? And if so then does that mean that Jem is unaware that Cameron is dead and that Patrick killed him, did no-one actually tell her this, is that another plot twist (as obviously this then alters my assumption that she concealed from Patrick that she had created the voice on the radio because she was letting him have the comfort of regret and reassurance from killing him, arrrgggh, I’m going in circles here!)? I also wondered if the storyline of Patrick killing his friend was necessary (although is this just me not wanting to be forced to see a side of Patrick that doesn’t paint him as a nice man, tee hee?!), though I guess its inclusion makes it more believable that Patrick could act impulsively and violently when he kills Cameron because he had done this before with his friend. I also wondered a little why the book ended with the advert for next year’s course, as that seemed a bit strange to end the book in that way, but perhaps it’s just to show that the course is continuing and the happenings of last year’s course have indeed been covered up, I can’t think of anything mysterious or sinister that this could otherwise be leading me to think (or have I missed something?). I am slightly bothered by the massive coincidence that Jem asked Cameron (of all the students) to record a voice for the presentation, and also that he recorded words which implied he was trapped and had been killed (when he could have said anything at all for Jem) and which then fitted so well with him later being dead (and that it was him of all of them who was killed), and that Jem chose the old radio to play his voice through (which happened to be such an important bit of equipment and allowed her to basically save the world). Undeniably, it is a great imaginative storyline and I was fully gripped by it, but I do feel there are several huge coincidences within it. There is also the coincidence of Jem booking one big room for them all at Somerset, as if she hadn’t done that then Cameron wouldn’t have been killed. And I am a little puzzled why Ben Sketcher pretended to be an external examiner and also why he contacted the examiners saying he was suspicious that someone on the course was dead and that this had been covered up. I can see that him pretending to be an external examiner allowed him to access all the course documents, but what benefit was this to him as he had already placed Jonathan and Suzie and Ludya onto the course in order to access RD8’s premises and try to get photos of the defence technology so they could presumably have kept him updated with progress, he didn’t need to see the course documents for this update. And it can’t have been so he could find information about where the Dead Hand radio was as he didn’t know this existed until he got the files from Patrick (otherwise he would have told Jonathan and Suzie and Ludya to steal it when they were at the museum, and besides they didn’t realise what it was so would have had no reason to conceal its whereabouts from him even if he did realise what they had), although this then also leads me to wonder how Ben guessed that the radio was a Dead Hand system, was he able to access messages between RD8 and Cameron that the reader didn’t see and which detailed the real purpose of the radio? Oh god, I’m wondering again if I’m missing something! I guess I’m just puzzled why Ben couldn’t have just turned up at the RD8 presentation as himself (the leader of AetherGen) and asked Jonathan or Suzie or Ludya to let him in, as him being the supposed external examiner didn’t help him get in, did it? And then Phillippa Moreton’s (the real external examiner) request to the reader for their help in studying the documents and looking for clues could still have happened at the start of the book anyway. Obviously it was a great plot twist when it was revealed Ben wasn’t the external examiner but that’s perhaps the only real purpose I can see (but perhaps I missed something here)? And to my other question of even if Ben had gained in some way from seeing the course documents, why did he care if someone from the course was missing or dead, and care enough to draw the examiners’ attention to everything that had gone on, as it was surely in his best interest to cover this up so he could hope to get away with his part in it and get away with the Dead Hand radio? I guess if it was Suzie who was dead then he may have cared as she was his employee, but it wasn’t Suzie who was dead, was it? But leaving Ben behind (as I’ve obsessed about him for long enough!), I also wondered why the word ‘kiss-kiss’ was chosen to be a codeword and by whom, as I can’t see any relevance for these words at all (apart from the beautiful red herring of a possible romantic relationship between Cameron and Gela). If the codewords were created by Mae in order to refer to her plan to plant a decoy for AetherGen and Cameron’s secret undercover mission on the course, then I can’t see any connection between that and the words ‘kiss-kiss’, and equally if Gela or Cameron created the codewords in order to refer to his secret undercover mission on the course (but then if they created the words, then why would Mae also be using them?) again I see no relation between this and the actual words. Wouldn’t the words ‘hush-hush’ be more relevant as that implies secrets so would work for both Mae’s and Gela’s communications with Cameron, or indeed just some words that meant nothing at all? I can see that none of them would want to use words that hinted at their secret goings-on in case anyone saw their messages, but it wasn’t as if anyone saw their messages (apart from the reader) so ‘kiss-kiss’ wasn’t needed in order to fool anyone else into thinking they were romantically involved rather than referring to Cameron’s secret mission.
But this is all me probably just being unwilling to put the book down and let it go, and thoroughly enjoying still looking for clues and problems to entertain myself with! I honestly adore Hallett’s writing and can’t get enough of it, hands-down she is one of my favourite authors and everything she does is just fantastic! I still have her book The Christmas Appeal to read so am looking forward to that (again, I have saved it to spread out the anticipation of her books!), and I see that she has a book coming out in June 2025 for children called A Box Full of Murders so I am very excited about that (the fact it’s for children definitely won’t stop me reading it!), and her next novel is out in September 2025 called The Killer Question and looks to be based around a pub quiz, eeek I cannot wait for that book! In the meantime, I will happily re-read and re-read her books again and again, The Twyford Code being my absolute favourite, but this mystery book being set in a university also reminded me of Josephine Tey’s Miss Pym Disposes which I am always happy to re-read too.
