Embedded codes and clues are spread throughout Janice Hallett’s latest puzzler, The Twyford Code. The novel is comprised of a series of voice recordings (often erroneously transcribed) by a man seeking to relate his story to his parole officer. After attempting unsuccessfully to reunite with his estranged son after his eleven years of imprisonment, Steven Smith is compelled to explore his past and solve a personal mystery. He recalls a field trip from his youth that resulted in the mysterious disappearance of his teacher. Steven hunts down his fellow classmates to obtain a more complete picture of that day and enlists their help in locating the missing woman. Steven suspects that the chain of events may be linked to an old children’s book containing cryptic notes about a lost treasure. Accounting his constantly evolving theories and discoveries about his lost teacher’s fate, Smith diverges into confessions of his past crimes and reveals how he became convicted. The Twyford Code rewards the perseverant and those willing to re-examine earlier chapters to fully appreciate the novel’s intent. The casual reader may become easily overwhelmed, and at times the clues are so clever as to appear random. Hallett uses the unusual narrative form to misdirect the reader in a meticulously calculated way. Grammatical mistakes in the transcripts and the narrator’s abrupt switches between two intersecting timelines create an interrupted flow that slows the pace. This results in a virtual mandate for deeper scrutiny of the plot and acceptance of uncertainty about some unexplained quirks. Fans of The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle (Stuart Turton) and The Cartographers (Peng Shepherd) would be most likely to successfully untangle and enjoy Hallett’s new knotty mystery.

Thanks to the author, Viper and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an unbiased review.

Wow! Very different book that kept me quessing and trying to figure out right to the last words!
Told as a transcript from phone recordings, Steven is recently released from prison and is trying to find out what happened to his missing middle school teacher from decades ago. Stolen gold bullion, former classmates, clues in novels and of course nefarious men all figure in the recordings to Maxine..his parole officer.

A great read with lots of twists, characters that make you wonder.

Thank you to netgalley for the ARC!

After loving The Appeal, I knew Janice Hallet’s next novel would top my most anticipated reads list. The plots of her novels draw me in, but the presentation is what absolutely hooks me every time.
In The Twyford Code we are reading 200 audio files recovered off a phone belonging to a missing person. They have been transcribed by a transcription software called DecipherIt. DecipherIt provides a key to dictate when deep breaths are taken (in or out), pauses (and their lengths), as well as varies other ways to describe the nuances heard, but maybe not easily read, in speech. This isn't a perfect transcription. There are quirky mistakes made like the phrase "must have" being incorrectly written as "mustard" throughout the files. In the audio we are following an ex con who is on the straight and narrow. With a lot of free time on his hands, and his newly acquired ability to read, he begins to think back on a children’s novel he found, and how his English teacher became obsessed with it. So much so that they took a potentially unauthorized school trip, a trip the teacher did not come back from. This leads him down a wild path. Filled with hidden codes, conspiracies, and people willing to do anything to hide the truth.
Steven was very likable and someone I could root for. I thought the story was fun, but when we would get his backstory it always felt like a huge pause in action. I understood the importance in the end, but I still felt like if most of that was cut out I would have enjoyed this more. The first half had me hooked, but the last didn't inspire as much enthusiasm. I enjoy figuring out clues or endings on my own and it felt like everything had to be explained in the end.. which I suppose was good because I had no idea what was happening.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher Atria Books for an advanced copy of this puzzling thriller that is uniquely told.

Books can be a gateway to far away places, new thoughts, new ideas, a comfort and a joy. Books open a person up to adventures, romance, and understanding of what they have experienced. Books can even be dangerous, as we are seeing in the people who wish to ban books for the ideas they contain. A book could be the solution for a crime that was never solved, and a mystery that has haunted a character for years. The Twyford Code by Janice Hallett is a classic mystery story, a bit of experimental literature, a tad of bildungsroman, loaded with puzzles, codes, secrets and lies.

Steven Smith finds a copy of a book that he brings to his remedial reading teacher, filled with notes and scratch marks on each page. His teacher tells his that the author Edith Twyford was believed to have filled all her books with codes and puzzles, and that a great secret could be revealed. However on a class trip the teacher disappears, leaving young Smith even more lost and confused than his childhood was making him. Many years later Smith is released from a long term in prison, for a crime he might or might not be guilty of, though he is plenty guilty of other things. Smith's time in prison was helpful in that he finally learned how to read, Smith decides to try and figure out why his life went wrong and starts to ask questions of people, including people from his past and his old gang. Slowly he starts to see that plenty of people are lying to him about a lot of things, and maybe that children's book is of importance even now.

A very clever book with a lot of good ideas in both story and how the tale is presented. Readers can tell a lot of thought went into parts just from the details the author injects to make the story seem real and possible. The book is told by Smith through notes told to an Iphone that he receives from another character, I won't ruin who. This makes for a clever way of revealing facts, lies, and mistakes, and allows clues to be presented to the reader, that Smith is oblivious of. The story starts slowly, but soon starts galloping along, but makes sense, and more importantly holds together well, which is rare in certain books.

A book that is a lot more than it seems. This could be a sleeper that takes awhile to build word of mouth, but could take off. The story is different, the plot and characters are all interesting and everything holds up well to the end. Recommended for thriller readers, people who like puzzles and people who like puzzling mysteries.

What a strange, twisty little gem of a book. A cross between The Inheritance Games and The Lincoln Highway. Sort of.

It’s written in epistolary style, only instead of letters or documents the story is presented as a series of recordings. These messages are recorded by a father for his adult son, the son whose existence he was not aware of until a short time ago.

The father has been released from prison recently, and, although guilty of many things, he is innocent of the crime for which he was imprisoned. While avoiding his old gang, from whom he may or may not have stolen a fortune, the father decides to leave his life story on an old iPhone for his son.

The father also seeks to discover the truth about the day years ago when a beloved teacher disappeared while on a school outing with his small class.

He is convinced that the clues to solve the mystery and discover the truth are to be found in a children’s book he found. That same teacher read the book to the class and they were all mesmerized.

The book, written by someone named Edith Twyford, contains some kind of code hidden amidst its narrative. And it turns out that the clues in the Twyford books will also lead to the solution of a mystery larger than just the disappearance of a schoolteacher.

The book is a largely composed of transcripts of audio files. It takes a little while to get used to the format and to the peculiarities of the transcriptions, which frequently substitute homonyms for the words really spoken. For instance, the transcript reads “mustard” when it actually should read “must of” or “must have”. And the speakers are simply listed as Person 1, Person 2, Person 3 and so on, leaving the reader to determine who is saying what. This is not as hard as it seems.

This book contains riddles and puzzles, anagrams and acrostics. There is a WWII spy subplot and even a hidden treasure. It is both frustrating and intriguing to try and figure out what is going on throughout the book. The ending, although it does not wrap everything up in a nice bow, fits the story.

Overall, I found this book to be original, clever, and interesting. Just stick with it until you’re accustomed to the format and the language. ⭐️⭐️⭐️ I look forward to reading the author’s other books, the well-reviewed “The Appeal” and the upcoming “The Mysterious Case of the Alberton Angels”.

My thanks to the author, Janice Hallett, the publisher, Simon and Schuster, and to NetGalley for providing me a copy of this book. #thetwyfordcode #netgalley

Janice Hallett has painstakingly crafted a labyrinthine mystery centering around an ex-con who is trying to connect with a son he's never met and several old friends from his primary school days. Smithy has his son's old iPhone, and uses it like a dictating machine to narrate his story, and we are presented solely with the transcripts of the audio files.

Smithy focuses on a mysterious disappearance of his English teacher, Miss Isles, who had vanished shortly after taking her class to the abandoned home of a now-passe children's author, Edith Twyford, when he was in school. Both Smithy and Miss Isles believe the Twyford books contain a code to secret treasures, and Smithy races all over trying to find it.

We hear the story of Smithy's sad young life and his rise in a gang intertwined with his attempts to figure out the code. And what happens when the folks who know the code deter followers from being nosy.

Meticulous. Funny. Engaging. Wordplay. Puzzles. Family. Atonement. Grief. Heist.

Janice Hallett does not disappoint! After reading and loving her first novel, The Appeal, I could not wait to read The Twyford Code!

In The Twyford Code, we experience the mystery and adventure through a series of transcripts. With that said, I would not recommend it in audiobook format, as many times what the character says is transcribed as a similar sounding word to the actual word. Which can honestly result in a few chuckles as you’re reading it!

The search for clues to the code very much reminded me of the movie National Treasure (which I also loved)! So if you are a fan of National Treasure or other movies/books along those lines, I definitely recommend this book.

Some of the twists I saw coming, but others I definitely did not! Janice Hallett has firmly placed herself in my list of top mystery writers and I’m definitely looking forward to her next novel!

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for my honest review!

I read The Twyford Code over the course of one evening and stayed up until 3am to write this review because I just couldn't wait to start talking about it. Is there any higher praise from a bookworm?

This is a fantastic and intriguing modern twist on an epistolary novel. The format might be difficult for some, as it is comprised of a series of audio file transcripts which include errors, i.e. "Miss Isles" is written as "missiles" and "mustard" is in place of "must've". This is not an instance where the unique format is the highlight of the novel, however, as the narrator's previous experience with illiteracy is crucial to his characterization and motivation.

The main narration is by Smithy, a London excon in his fifties, who attempts to solve the missing person case of a beloved childhood teacher by cracking the "Twyford Code" hidden in a children's book series. Smithy addresses the voice notes to his parole officer as he interviews old classmates and tells pieces of the story of his difficult upbringing which led to him joining a crime syndicate as a teenager.

The ideal audience for this book are those who enjoy creative writing formats, plot twists, unreliable narrators, puzzle lovers, clever literary references, themes of family and belonging, and mystery novels that go far beyond the classic and sometimes stilted "whodunit" framework. I am not particularly interested in riddles and puzzles, but the world that Hallett created is so complex and intriguing I enjoyed the process of reading the book and scouring the pages for clues myself.

I would not have enjoyed experiencing this as an audiobook because of the complex narrative framework, but others might disagree based on personal preference. Some might feel that the late plot twist makes the conclusion too abrupt, but I enjoyed the pacing and felt that the author respects the readers' intelligence and does not dumb anything down, thus making it less enjoyable.

In the acknowledgements, the author discusses literacy in UK prisons, and charities that aim to support prison libraries and literacy education. I thought Hallett did an excellent job of portraying her main character as intelligent and passionate about learning despite his difficult road to literacy. She could have easily been condescending, but in my opinion she created a dynamic and sympathetic character you can't help but root for as he searches for answers about his past and seeks to carve out a different sort of life for himself after getting out of prison.

I was absolutely enthralled by this book, and would place it in the top five books I've read this year. I had never heard of the author, but am immediately adding Hallett's first novel, The Appeal, to my absurdly long list of books to read and will keep an eye out for her future works.

The ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I enjoyed this read but I found myself raising an eyebrow at the "uncrackable" code. I appreciated the plot twist toward the end, which made the stilted writing in the book make more sense, but the story felt overstuffed to me. There were some great lines resulting from transcription errors.

I enjoyed the format of this book - told through transcripts. For this reason, I would recommend purchasing a copy of the physical book rather than an audiobook format. I made that mistake with Janice's last book, The Appeal, and has to re-read a physical copy to understand what was going on. Our main character is a man named Steven who was convicted of murder and just recently released. He is now trying to solve the disappearance of high school teacher. The book was a bit slow, but the end was a nice sendoff and the creativity of the format of this book really made it special.

I do think fans of her first novel will be equally satisfied with this novel.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC (...albeit of a book already out for a while, but whatever).

I think this author just isn’t for me although I liked her previous book better than this one. Yes it was clever in the end but it wasn’t worth it for me to get there. It was far too wordy and convoluted and the whole path to get to a conclusion just wasn’t good.

The style of this book, presented as a transcript, takes some getting used to but your patience is rewarded with a truly unique reading experience. Codes within codes and twists following twists keep readers engaged and turning pages. A great selection for a traditional mystery fan who is looking for an unfamiliar take on the genre.

Steven Smith spent a good amount of his life behind bars. He is out now, hopefully for good and decides to go back to a mystery that has haunted him since he was a child.
Steven is determined to find out what happened to his former teacher and the story unfolds through audio exerpts by him and the other people who were involved. It all started when he found a book written by Edith Twyford and one of his teachers,Miss Iles shares the fact that it is believed that Edith inserted code into her novels. Steven is determined to uncover the truth, about the code and what happened to his former teacher. When his son gives him an old iPhone, he records what he remembers from the past and what he learns now. It’s put together quite cleverly and I never guessed how this would end. I enjoyed the story ,not quite as much as The Appeal, but the two stories really were totally different.

I enjoyed this new novel by Janice Hallett. I thought it was a creative mystery. I think I would like to pick up a hard copy of the book, reading it through electronic I think made it a little more difficult to follow, just due to the format. This is the second book by Hallett that I liked, would definitely continue to read more by this author!

While it took me a while to get into, once I was in the story I was hooked!! The unique way of story telling through transcriptions kept my attention. I love puzzles and the constant twists and turns the author gave kept me hooked until the end, which I did not see coming.

Steve Smith is just released from prison after serving an 11 year sentence for murder. The book is told through a series of audio records to his parole officer. Steve tells the story of his life (as you learn he was illiterate until prison, hence the audio recordings) and his determination to not return to a life of crime. He has become almost obsessed with solving the mysterious disappearance of his high school English teacher and getting former friends back together to finally solve the mystery.

Told in a unique way that made it unputdownable, I will be adding Janice Hallet on my TBR list moving forward.

The Twyford Code tells the story of Steven Smith, a man recently released from prison, trying to decipher a code supposedly hidden in a children's book series. There are mysteries within mysteries here, and just when I thought I was putting it all together, a new bit of information would turn the entire thing on its head.

This was such a unique way to present and solve a mystery - I haven't read anything like this before, and I really enjoyed it. I thought it would be a 3-star read for most of the story, but the last 15% or so had me on the edge of my seat, and the big payoff at the end had me bump it up to 4 stars.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC (...albeit of a book already out for a while, but whatever).

3.5 stars, rounded down
I was a big fan of Hallett’s The Appeal. This book, not so much. For starters, it was very strange. There were large swaths when I just felt confused. You know that feeling that things just aren’t making sense but you can’t put your finger on why not? That was me. Another reviewer made a point about seeing this book through to the end. I heartily second that.
I thought the style of the book was excellent, using audio recordings which are phonetically sounded out. For example, “must have” comes out as mustard.
Steve Smith was recently released from prison. Back when he was in school, forty years earlier, he was in remedial reading. He found a children’s book and brought it to class. His teacher was convinced the book had a code. She takes the kids out on a field trip to the author’s hometown and disappears. Now, Steve is trying to crack the code. He gets back in touch with the other students in the class.
To say the plot is complicated is an understatement. The group is ever shifting - classmates refusing to stay involved, possible bad guys on their tails and doing harm, computer chat rooms, a new friend brought in. There are multiple versions of the Twyford books through the years with different codes/acrostics to decipher. The codes may or may not have something to do with spying during WWII or a large treasure. In addition to all the recordings to his parole officer about the search, Steve also reminisces about his time as a criminal working for the Harrison gang.
The ending did help to improve my feelings about this book. Hallett truly came up with a very clever resolution to the story which I greatly enjoyed. And there were some very interesting facts in the Author’s Note.
My thanks to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster for an advance copy of this book.

Interesting book, but the format of this novel made it a difficult read. The plot was very intriguing but the execution was not what I hoped it would be. Thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for the copy.

The follow up to The Appeal is presented in a similar but different storytelling form - we are now reading the written transcripts from an old iPhone with some awkward phonetic spellings that made me smile and some repetitive passages that might me agitated halfway through. The story is magical and the characters equally so and halfway through I could not stop reading what I assumed was true but more as a fable. Or was it just a fabrication. Couldn’t decide. Twists and turns made me go back to the beginning and read several of the 200 transcripts again as I realized I was missing some important details. As the remainder of the book moved forward I realized how much I was taking for granted and how much I did not know at at the end and I realized I needed to read it again. Very smart writing, brilliant clues I missed, characters I truly trusted, and a man called Smithy I want to have a beer or two with one day. Loved it.

I really enjoyed The Appeal by Janice Hallett and the inventive way she tells a story! Her newest book is a delight for mystery fans!

The story is told through a collection of 200 transcribed sound files which contain codes and clues readers must sort out. The mystery is well-constructed, and the characters are interesting. I cannot wait to recommend this fun, unique book to mystery readers!