I’ve really enjoyed “The Appeal”, however this one was difficult to get into, the format didn’t make it easy to follow who’s voices we’re reading and to me it was confusing. I am still confused by the ending as well…

What a clever and intriguing book!

Steven Smith has been in prison for a good number of years and on his release, sets out to unravel the mystery of a strange book and a missing teacher from his school days. His story is told using voice recordings on an old iPhone 4 and through this we learn more about his past and hear about (and from) his friends and acquaintances. We are drawn into the mysterious Twyford Code and, with Smithy, try to decipher its perplexing clues.

It is a very different and original format and requires a little concentration along the way to keep hold of the characters and clues, but my goodness it is so clever and the ending will have you wanting to immediately read it again!

Loved the twists and turns and all of the characters had great personalities and quirks. Also enjoyed the reference to some of the books of my youth such as Lord of the Flies and Masquerade (which I spent many hours trying to decode with my friends in the 80s!)

Thoroughly recommend it as an original, spellbinding, entertaining and intriguing read. Thank you to NetGalley, Janice Hallett and Viper for a free ARC of the book in exchange for an honest review.

Other Parents is a compelling, intriguing study into various characters living in an English town called West Burntridgr. They’re people with very different backgrounds but the majority of them either attend or send their children to the same school, and they all have their secrets…

The characters in Other Parents really make this book. Sarah Stovell has created convincing people who you want to read more of. They’re well developed and interesting. Reading about their thoughts and feelings kept me turning the pages eagerly.

The book isn’t action-packed or fast moving but it is intriguing, and as we slowly learn more about each person we have more of an idea why certain people are behaving the way they are. We observe the gossipy, tense relationships between parents at the local school and the pressure on parents to act a certain way.

Lots of important issues are touched upon in this novel, and to me it felt like they are dealt with sensitively. It never felt over dramatic but there were both humorous and emotional parts to the story.

I really enjoyed this absorbing book and would highly recommend it!

Written in the format of transcribed audio recordings it didn’t take me long to adjust to reading but it could be confusing at times when it was unclear who voices 1 or 2 were. The reconstruction of a troubled childhood and unusual events are revealed and the central mystery is the messages sent through the work of Edith Twyman, a thinly disguised Enid Blyton. The narrative is fragmented and unclear in places. I almost gave up on it. There was also no real conclusion and I’ve no idea if it was the fantasy of a desperate man or if it was a truthful reconstruction. I didn’t really enjoy it.
I read a prepublication copy via Netgalley and Viper

This has got to be the strangest book I’ve ever read. In fact a couple of times I nearly gave up on it. The style of writing was not to my taste and remembering to read it phonetically got really confusing at times. But I persevered and I’m glad I did. I think I’ve sorted the ending out but I may have got it totally wrong. Was it all just made up voices? Did these things really happen? Where is the gold? Was there ever any gold? Strange definitely

Well that was a bit sneaky and very clever! I really didn’t like her first book and dreaded reading this but I ended up enjoying it a lot. Hallett doesn’t want to tell her stories in the traditional way - the first one was told through a series WhatsApp messages and didn’t work for me, but this story is told as transcripts of recorded voice messages and it works much better.

This is the story of Steven Smith, a child who had a troubled upbringing. He found a book on the bus one morning with annotations and comments on the margins and shows it to his remedial English (RE) teacher Miss Isles. The book is is a children’s story set during or just after WWII, a bit like the Famous Five. Miss Isles reads it to the class despite telling them book is now banned because of its outdated views on sexism, racism and the like. Miss Isles seems to think there is a secret code buried in the book and takes her five RE students on a field trip to Bournemouth where Edith Twyford used to live. Miss Isles disappears on this trip and Steve can’t bring himself to remember what happened.

In 2019, after an 11 year stint in prison, he contacts his son that he never knew about before and sets about discovering what happened to Miss Isles and maybe cracking the Twyford code. His son doesn’t want to know the old con just yet but gives him an old iPhone for when he does. This is what Steve uses to record his story. And what a story it is - covering his teen years and times in between to the present where he is in his mid-fifties.

His search for Miss Isles sees him reconnecting with the other 4 members of his RE class, befriending a young librarian, Lucy, who becomes invested in his quest and potentially painting a target on his back from the criminal gang he worked for until his latest stint in prison. He follows the clues and tries to crack the code which is figuratively and literally constantly changing shape.

This story is constantly shape shifting as every time something is re-visited there is more to it. You get to really relate to Steve, he’s not a bad bloke, he just had a difficult start in life. He’s quite a loveable old chap really. There are twists here you won’t see coming. The ending is slightly ambiguous but perfect for the book. Steve may have dropped out of school early and he may not be very literate but he is nevertheless pretty darn smart and when you finally realise what he has done you feel like applauding him. I seriously recommend this book to all mystery lovers, it’s very cleverly done. Many thanks to Netgalley and Viper Books for the much appreciated arc which I reviewed voluntarily and honestly.

About the book:

Steven Smith has been obsessing over a 40-year-old mystery. Miss Isles, his remedial English teacher, went missing while they were on a class trip she had organised. Days before her disappearance, Miss Isles was convinced that a book written by Edith Twyford (that Steven had found on a bus) contained puzzles and hidden codes. Steven is now on a mission to learn what happened to his former teacher. He fills in the blanks in his memory and is determined to find out what happened to her with the help of his former classmates and the school librarian.

My thoughts:
I found the format a little hard to get used to initially. Especially when it came to figuring out what's going on in the initial chapters. But once I got into the flow of it, I enjoyed the mystery and found it to be uniquely told. I'm going to have to keep an eye out for more books by this author.

Janice Hallett's previous book 'the Appeal' was such a huge hit, and was definitely one of my fav books of 2021, so i was super excited to read an early review copy of Hallett's next book. I purposely didn't look up a synopsis of this book before reading, as I wanted to go in with an open mind.

After reading the Appeal, the style of this book came as no surprise. I thought that Hallett would do something different with the narrative and style of the Twyford code. I must admit that it took a little while to get used to this style at first. However, it became easier the more it went on. It also didn't feel all that necessary either. I think it didn't need to be told through 'audio files'

Overal, I really didn't enjoy this book. I hate comparing books, but after absolutely loving Janice Hallett's 'the Appeal' I just feel really disappointed by this. It was a lot slower in pace, and I wasn't as gripped with this book at all. I just couldn't connect to the characters, and it all got a bit monotonous and repetitive.

I hope Hallett's next novel is more on par with the Appeal - just going to forget this one.

Janice Hallet is the queen of the alternative format and I absolutely loved the uniqueness of The Appeal revealing its story in letters and emails. I was extremely excited to read her second book.
The Twyford Code once again employs an original narrative device - tape recordings of conversations and memos. We don’t know initially who these belong to or who has got them but they are being reviewed to build a picture. The picture revealed appears to be the story of Smithy and some school friends who went on a school trip with one teacher who never returned - the school friends, now adults, are seeking to piece together what happened.
This is without doubt extremely clever, highly imaginative and inventive. I was fascinated by the idea of an author - a little Enid Blyton like - embedding codes into her novels and at some stages her books became more fascinating than the one I was reading - how bizarre is that! Smithy is a character full of pathos and one of life’s eternal victims. I was desperate to find out what had happened to Miss Isles or ‘Missiles’.
This is a book of smoke and mirrors, twists and turns, puzzling puzzles and twisty twists, code after code..if you like that kind of thing you are in for a treat. Unfortunately around 40% in I got lost, desperately lost and I never really understood what was going on after that point. I think also for me this was in part due to the format - the recording device started to irritate me and added to the fog as to what was actually happen and to whom.
I think that this will really appeal to the reader who loves a bit of sleuthing and puzzling, reading between the lines and being spun around…but for some this may be too confusing. I think that the recording format might just work much better in an audiobook format.

Thank you very much to Netgalley and Viper books for my digital copy of this very inventive book.

I devoured The Appeal as it was so addictive and really wasn’t expecting the author to repeat the performance, however I’m so glad I was proven wrong. The Twyford Code is superb and brilliantly unique. The story is produced as transcribed audio files that were recovered from a scrubbed mobile phone. An ex-con sets out to take record his life story whilst investigating what happened to his school teacher who mysteriously disappeared one day whilst they were on a school trip following the reading of a book with alleged hidden messages. As soon as I finished it I was tempted to turn back to the start for a re-read to see what I’d missed or what more I could absorb. Another astounding book from a must-read talented new author. I can’t wait to read whatever she writes next.

Packed with audacious twists and red herrings, this is such a clever book and a different and fresh approach to a mystery novel.
The story centres around a hidden message within the book Six on Goldtop Hill by childrens author Edith Twyman, a thinly disguised Enid Blyton.
The narrator tells his story via recorded messages on an iPhone to his probation officer; due to his dyslexia, and the software that transforms the voice messages to text doesn’t always accurately translate, providing phonetic replacements. For example, the teacher who’s edition of the book the narrator discovers on a bus and returns to her is called missiles.. Miss Iles.
Miss Iles disappeared on an unauthorised school trip to Edith Twyman’s home and the narrator is determined to find out what happened. We also gradually learn about his past and why he was in prison.
The code, the gradual revelations and unreliable narration all add up to an intriguing and gripping read.

An unusual read. The story is excellent, really well constructed. However, it written as though it has been dictated onto an iPhone 4 and during conversations you read voice 1, voice 2 etc. I found this really disconcerting and more than once had to reread parts to stop myself loosing the thread of the story. As a result it took me a lot longer to read than it should have. I have since had a look at other readers views and I appear to be in the minority here so don’t let me put you off reading it.

Briefly, when he was a child Steven Smith found a book written by Edith Twyford and gave it to Miss Isles, his teacher. Then, on a school trip to Bournemouth Miss Isles disappeared. Steven later become involved with a criminal gang and ends up in prison. On his release he finds out that he has a son and the newfound feelings he has for his son seem to spur him on to do what he does next; search for his missing teacher and try to discover the secrets of the Twyford Code.

I read this on kindle and maybe it would have been easier to follow in a paper format. The story itself is brilliantly written and is very clever. The characters are well portrayed and I couldn’t help but get behind Steven who was a product of his upbringing and I felt sad for how his life had been. You should read this and decide for yourself. For me it’s a 4 for the story but 3 for the layout so 3.5⭐️

I was excited to be approved for a review copy of this book as the author’s previous book was a five star read for me. I didn’t enjoy this one anywhere near as much as the last. For me, it read too slowly and I found it a struggle to keep picking it up. There were some good twists and the style of the book (the main character recorded his thoughts on an iPhone) was clever. I will look out for the next one by the author and hope I enjoy it as much as the first.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the advanced copy.

Three and a half stars.

Steven Smith gets out of prison after spending eleven years inside for armed robbery and murder. Determined to go straight after a lifetime working for a London gang he tries to reconnect with his son, a maths professor at Brunel University without success. Dyslexic and practically illiterate, he uses an old iPhone his son gave him to record a sort of diary and also interviews with other people. These audio files have been retrieved and transcribed by a computer which sometimes mistakes Steven's London accent so that the words 'must have' is transcribed as 'mustard'.

Steven's criminal life began forty years earlier, he found an old children's book on a bus and took it with him to school, hoping he could sell it and buy some fish and chips. His Remedial English teacher Miss Iles catches him with the book and reads it aloud to the class. The book's author Edith Twyford was an Enid Blytonesque character, her books were beloved of children but loathed by academics as being elitist, racist, sexist, xenophobic and pretty much every other label you care to mention. One day Miss Iles took the Remedial English class on a school trip to visit Edith Twyford's home, Steven's memories of that day are foggy, what happened to Miss Iles? How did five schoolchildren get home? After that day Steven never returned to school and fell in with the notorious Harrison family.

The reader goes on a journey with Steven, through reading the audio files, to discover what really happened that day with Miss Iles with the help of the four other children who were in his Remedial English class. Along the way he discovers that there is a persistent rumour/urban myth surrounding Edith Twyford and her husband that they were variously: German spies sending coded messages in her books to Nazi Germany; English spies sending coded messages to allies; thieves who stole billions in British gold bullion which was supposed to have been shipped to Canada for safe-keeping during WW2; people trying to stop the theft of the gold bullion.

I don't know how I feel about this book. Part of me feels like I've been Keyser Söze'd (from the film The Usual Suspects) because there are so many stories within stories, stories which turn out not to be true, gotcha moments etc. The trouble with this sort of book/film is that once it ends the (this) reader is left suspecting that if they dissected the book carefully it would all fall apart and/or it was all a waste of time.

It was clever, but not for example in the same way as The Eighth Detective which was twisty and turny and made my head hurt but had a structure to it.

Overall, I enjoyed reading it, but I think I would have preferred the less complicated story.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

The Twyford Code by Janice Hallett

First off I loved this authors first book ‘The Appeal’ and like that book I devoured this book and I thoroughly enjoyed it, and like, The Appeal, this book I fear will be Marmite. Loved or hated in equal measure.

Steven Smith is released from a long stretch in prison and while he was there he was finally taught to read, this prompts memories in him from 40 years before and the mysterious disappearance of his teacher, Miss Isles after her reading a book that had Steven found.. I am not going to say more about the plot as it is tightly coiled mystery that me describing will only give it away!

The book is written from the transcripts that steven records on his estranged sons phone, it takes some getting used to as some words are spelt as they are heard.. so must of becomes mustard etc and this happens a lot.. and I think this is another reason it will be disliked but it was do able even if I had to read some parts a few times.

The book relies on memories and the fact that everyone sees/remembers things differently and that the memory lies, it manipulates and it forgets to protect.

The characters: hmm can’t say that I partially liked any of them really.. one thing.. they are all unreliable narrators.. you are never sure who is right and who is wrong and this is a brilliant trick that the author has used in The Appeal and some people will hate it and others will love it (I love it – I am naive enough to believe and not question so the revel is always a shock)

The story was tightly weaved and I loved it, there is a feeling of horror, of foreboding that is always there underneath, the knowledge that something bad is going to happen.

I cannot wait for Ms Halletts next book. I cant wait to see what and where she goes next.



#TheTwyfordCode #NetGalley #Contempary #England #Mystery

I really wanted to love this book. I like the authors previous book but struggled with this one. The premise is interesting and pulls you into the story and I understood the idea of having pulled the dialogue from retrieved deleted phone messages. That was different and I could have managed the 'missile's and 'mustard' but there were other parts where I had to keep rereading to understand what was actually being said and not just the audio spellchecker best guess. This lead to a very disjointed reading experience and (for me) spoilt the flow of the book.

First of all. Just wow! There’s some content warning/potential spoilers (don’t worry - they’re not the FULL spoilers 😉), check out at the end for more info.

This time round you’re following an ex con, who can’t let go of his past when, as a kid no one really cares about and likewise he about school, the only teacher he remotely cared about disappeared mysteriously on a school trip. And there’s also the mysterious (hidden) code written into a series of childrens books. The format of choice for this is transcripts (by computer software) of some audio files, as you follow the story of The Twyford Code.

I really don’t know how Hallett plucks these alternative format/ideas out of her head, but this was another genius read. Very, very clever! It should be said that there is a lot (a lot!) going on in this read, and the transcription of audio files format requires your attention. There’s multiple stories to unravel as you have Steve’s investigation into the Code, his past endeavours that lead him to spend time in prison and his past. He’s more an anti-hero as his past is revealed - but you do feel sorry for him (well I did anyway!)

I really loved this one - Hallett is firm becoming one of my favourite authors and really pulls me into the crime genre (not one usually a go to read for me). I also loved how this was a (non romantic) love letter. Can’t wait for book 3!

Thanks to NetGalley, the team at Viper Books and the author for the opportunity to read this review copy.
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⚠️Content warning/potential spoilers: there’s references to murder, domestic abuse, gang violence ⚠️

Let me get this out here first: I loved Janice Hallett's debut novel, 'The Appeal'. Everything about it was fantastic, from the modern epistolary style to the brilliantly relatable setting of a small-town amateur dramatics society. The characters were immediately recognisable types and the plot was unpredictable in all the best ways. Cosy, witty and so clever - I absolutely gulped it down and put 'The Twyford Code' at the top of my most anticipated books of 2022.

Thanks to NetGalley and Viper for my advance copy of this book, to be released in January 2022.

This book uses transcripts of messages recorded by the main protagonist, Steven Smith. He is a man with a shady past who is working to solve a mystery that has haunted him since his schooldays when his teacher, Miss Iles, disappeared on a school trip. The key to uncovering the truth seems to lie with his remedial English class and a children's novel by now-disgraced writer Edith Twyford that holds a code. As Steven visits the people and places from his past, it becomes obvious that the Twyford Code is bigger than he could have imagined...

There was so much about this book that I loved, particularly the clever plotting. As with 'The Appeal', the significance of seemingly irrelevant details only become obvious in retrospect - I think this woud be a book better read in physical copy so that the reader can flick backwards easily to revisit clues (this is tricky in the Kindle version). I found the story compelling and loved the various twists and turns along the way - I literally had no clue where the story was going, even as it neared the end.

I also loved the fact that the mystery centres on a writer and the clues hidden in her novels - a kind of Enid Blyton figure whose books have now been abandoned by the new generation as being outdated and containing some very dubious racial and gender ideas. As a life-long bookworm who was raised on Blyton's books,. there was something very relatable and vivid in this idea.

However, I'd say that the transcript format was harder to read than the emails and voicemails of 'The Appeal'. I think this is partially due to the nature of transcripts themselves with errors in transcription - Miss Iles becomes 'missiles', etc. - which took a while to adjust to, although I accept that this is very well done. Also, the fact that most of the novel is told in one voice was less varied and engaging for me - especially as Steven is a highly unreliable narrator with only a tiny portion of the story available to him.

So does this book match up to 'The Appeal'?

The answer is - for me - not quite. There is so much to love about 'The Twyford Code' and I found it compelling and fascinating. However, I think I found it more far-fetched than Hallett's original book and harder to relax into - it definitely is a challenge to keep up with the plot twists and revelations and I did find myself lost a couple of times. I'd still recommend it highly - get a paper copy, clear the diary and lose yourself in a very clever story!

Thank you so much for approving my request to read The Twyford Code before publication date!
As a reader and lover of The Appeal, I was so excited to read this.
After another brilliantly written, twisty,
unique book by Janice Hallett, she’s easily an auto buy author of mine now!

The format, in true Janice style, is so clever, intriguing and easy to read if you want to speed to the conclusion.
Never would have seen the ending coming.
I got so engrossed in The Twyford Code I forgot there was an actual story line and LOADS of other stuff going on!

On a personal note, I read this book while struggling with LOTS of long night feeds, middle of the night anxiety attacks, and a sickness bug, and it really helped me get through them, giving my brain and imagination something so much more interesting and engrossing to focus on, rather than how tired/rubbish I felt.. so for that, I thank you enormously.

A unique mystery read!
The format of the story is different as it is mainly consists of audio file recordings onto an iPhone , which initially takes some getting use to.
Steve Smith has been released from prison and begins to reminisce about his school days and also his life. He reunites with his son who he had very little contact with , his son is not keen on restarting a relationship but gives his dad a phone so he can text him.
Smith then begins to record files about his early school life and how he found a book The Twyford code , and he begins to believe that this code exists and wants to solve it.
He gets in touch with old school friends and sets off to try and solve the code.
Once I got used to the format I found the story very engaging and it kept me reading into the night, the writing is both clever and intriguing and I loved the ending.
Highly recommended and looking forward to more from the author.

Thanks to NetGalley and Viper Books.