Original and compelling - is the phrase that best sums up 'The Twyford Code' for me.
I've never come across a book quite like this one - and I mean that in a positive manner.
The story is told via a series transcripts from audio files and email exchanges. The files have been created by Steven Smith. Steven has recently been released from prison and he now taking the opportunity to investigate a decades old mystery - what really happened to Ms Isles and is there treasure hidden in London?
Steven recalls how he first discovered the murky world of 'The Twyford Code' and the books written by Edith Twyford. He is also seeking answers to lost memories from his childhood when a beloved teacher disappeared.
Reaching out to his old friends, Steven documents his investigations and the pressures that he is facing.
Cunningly told, there are many red herrings and also subtle hints to the truth throughout the novel but I managed to mis-read all of these and was completely caught out by the twists. I loved this book and gobbled it up in one day,
Now, I will say that I struggled at the start to settle into reading the book due to the language used in the audiofiles - ismply because there are constant references to 'missiles' which means Ms Isles and this is due (as Steven tells us) to the audio app not catching his words correctly. After a few pages through, I had become familiar with the .style and settled into an exciting read.

I loved The Appeal. The email structure was clever. I can see the author has chosen a different format from the fictional norm again. Unfortunately this didn't work for me and I often lost track of the plot and characters. This is entirely to do with me and not the author. Just not a book for me this time but undisputably well written.

Having read and enjoyed The Appeal, I was very excited to read this. And in some ways it did not disappoint.
It does take some time to get used to the narrative style in this.
I was somewhat expecting something along these lines, after reading The Appeal but I found the voice mails and voice recordings slightly more difficult to engage with than the other narrative styles employed previously.
It almost puts you at a distance, which makes it harder to engage with the story and characters.
However, once I got into it, it makes a lot of sense why they were used.
The story itself is an interesting one that kept my attention the whole way through. And there were some genuine twists that I did not see coming.
I didn't quite enjoy it as much as The Appeal but is definitely well worth a read.
I can't wait to see what Janice Hallett does next and I will certainly be checking that out when it is released.
Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Forty years ago, Steven Smith found a book. There were strange markings in it, and itvws written by disgraced author Edith Twyford. Steven took it to his English teacher Miss Iles, who's convinced it contains a secret code.

Miss Iles disappeared on a school trip...

Now out of prison, Steven wants to find out what happened to her, and crack the Twyford code....

Janice Hallett does it again! I really enjoyed The Appeal so jumped at this. I ended up reading it instead of transcribing my research transcripts…! The use of the transcript form refreshes the epistolary genre and will appeal to everyone who loves leaving themselves voice notes. I really enjoyed this aspect and the focus on literacy, specifically learning literacy later in life. Highly recommended!

It’s a well known fact that Second Book Syndrome is a real issue in the writing world, and it’s always a bit of a gamble picking up a second book by an author, especially when you’ve loved their first. However, Janic Hallett has pulled a stunner out of the bag again, and the very fishy tale I ended up reading really was clever.

As we make our way through Steven’s story, his determination to solve the mystery really shines through, as does his desire to do right by his son, having been absent from his life for so long. As well as hearing about the mystery, we get pieces of Steven’s life throughout, which ends up being just as engaging as as the Code hunt.

We have a classic morally grey protagonist and unreliable narrator which makes for a fantastic story. There’s inconsistences as we go along, and you question whether they’re mistakes being made as a human being, or delibrate errors of a con man going maybe not as straight as he claims. I loved this so much; the uncertainty of it all allows for multiple layers of mystery, and it’s just brilliant.

In so many ways, this book is about a murder mystery. But running alongside that, it’s a story about redemption, about looking forward and not back, about connecting with those in your life that matter in ways that people might not understand. At points it was a full blow mystery, and at others an emotional journey. All of this combines to make a wonderful book, and I’m sure it’s going to cause as much of a splash as The Appeal.

Loved Janice Hallett’s first book The Appeal and I loved this one too.it’s format is unique told through voice recordings recorded on an Apple iPhone 4, by Steven Smith or Smithy as he was known. Smithy spent 11 years in prison, he lost everything, a wife, a son he didn’t initially know he had. Once he is released he is determined he will never go back. His main objective of the recordings if to give them to his son, who is a professor and has done well.

Smithie didn’t have the best upbringing, his mum walked out when he was a child, then his dad left, leaving it for Colin his older brother to look after and raise him. Smithy couldn’t read so was in a remedial English group with Donna, Paul, Michelle, and Nate. One day Smithy had found a book by Edith Twyford the stories she wrote were similar to Enid Blytons famous five. When Smithy was in class with this book the teacher Miss Isles took it off of him. But what was her interest in it? She did read the book to the class, but wouldn’t return it to Smithy. One day she decided to take the class on a day trip out they went to Bournemouth and visited the house where Edith Twyford had lived. But on that day Miss Isles disappeared. Her disappearance has haunted Smithy for years. Now he is out of prison he is determined to find out what happened to her with the help of his 4 other classmates.

The recording is about Smithie’s growing up, how he got involved in a notorious family the Harrison’s, as well as trying to solve Miss Isles’s disappearance, the recording isn’t for Smithy himself it’s for his son, who had given him the iPhone 4 in the first place but had also said he wanted nothing to do with his dad. But as they start to look into things Edith Twyford’s books seem to play an important role, with lots of clue’s hidden within the stories.

This is a cleverly written entertaining read, as you try to follow the clues that Smithy uncover’s and interpret’s but how reliable is he on the whole story? Is there more to the book he found or not? A unique way of telling the story as well as giving the reader lots of clues, but can you solve the clues? Do you have an analytical brain? I loved the ending, this is a book full of clues, some red herrings, a few twists and turns that this genre normally brings along.

I definitely look forward to see what Janice Hallett writes next. I like her uniqueness. Thank you to #netgalley and #Viper for my ARC of this all opinions and words are my own and not influenced in any way.

Many thanks to NetGalley for approving me for a copy of this book.

Having devoured The Appeal, I was excited to read Janice Hallett's next book. Her style of storytelling really appeals to my curious (okay nosy!) nature and I really felt like I was being let into a secret reading these recovered transcripts of Steven's journey.

Recently out of prison, after 11 years, and reunited with his son, Steven is a man on a quest for finding where to place himself in the world and so when the opportunity for an actual quest presents itself to him, how could he resist? I love the characters portrayed in the transcripts, no one is insignificant and if you want to solve this puzzle before Steven (good luck!) then you'll want to keep your eyes peeled.

The pace of the book is slick and although it can be confusing at times with the back and forth nature of the transcripts recorded, it is worth just reading on and trusting that you'll be rewarded at the end. For fans of mysteries that are not following the same tired plotlines, please read this. The Twyford Code delivers a rich and exciting story that leaves you completely satisfied without a patronising neat bow at the end.

Janice Hallett has set the bar really high with both this and The Appeal, I can't wait to see what she writes next!

I read The Appeal in the summer and really enjoyed it, so jumped at the chance to read The Twyford Code . And it is so good!

The book is based around a series of transcripts of audio files recorded by Steven, a man who has recently been released from prison. As a child he has an inspirational teacher, Miss Isles, who disappeared, a moment that, when he reflects on his childhood, changed his life.

Determined to find out what happened to her on a class trip to Bournemouth he revisits his childhood friends and begins to investigate what happened all those years ago.

Central to her disappearance is a mysterious code, believed to be hidden in the children’s books of Enid Blyton style writer, Edith Twyford. Steven sets out to find out if the code exists and where it leads. He enlists his former friends and local librarian, Lucy, to help him crack the code that he hope will lead to Miss Isles.

As he records the details of his investigation he recounts details of his neglected and difficult childhood, his relationship with his parents and the crimes that led to his imprisonment.

Thus book is so enthralling I literally could not put it down. Steven’s story is heartbreaking and fascinating and the mystery surrounding Miss Isles is completely compelling.

The story is multi-layered and builds to one of the most satisfying and brilliant conclusions I have read all year.

The secret codes are interesting and clever. There’s clues throughout to keep the reader guessing and plenty of red herrings and twists along the way. This is a compelling and original mystery and I absolutely loved reading it.

Thank you to Viper Books and Netgalley for my gifted advanced copy of The Twyford Code.

Once again Janice Hallett has told a story in a unique fashion, this time through transcripts of voice recordings on a mobile phone. These have been left by ex-con Steve who is trying to unravel the Twyford Code hidden in a series of children's books written by Edith Twyford, while also trying to discover what happened to Miss Isles, his teacher, who disappeared during a school trip to Bournemouth many years ago.

I must admit I preferred Janice Hallett's first book, The Appeal, and the way it was told through text messages and emails which were easy to follow, rather than this mystery of unravelling the Twyford Code and Steve's backstory of his life as part of a crime family. I found the transcripts difficult at times (perhaps due to formatting?) which led me out of the story, which was a shame.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Serpents Tail/Viper/Profile Books.

The Twyford Code by Janice Hallet is utterly bonkers and fantastically brilliant. I loved it.

An old iPhone has a series of short voice recordings and the mystery needs to be solved. Left by Steve, an ex-con, they follow his attempts to unravel the Twyford Code - much like the Da Vinci Code but hidden in books from a wartime children’s author which have an uncanny resemblance to Enid Blyton. Assisted by a great cast of characters (notably Lucy the librarian) and told wholly one snippets of recordings (save for a few letters and notes), Steve and his friends are hot on the trail of a wartime mystery. Twisted into the dialogue we also learn how Steve ended up in prison, which is just as exciting.

The Twyford Code is original (even more so than The Appeal) and hugely refreshing. The style takes a little to get into but is well worth it. Hugely recommended.

Thanks to Serpent’s Tail, Viper and Netgalley for an ARC.

A little gem in the mystery genre !

First of all, let me tell you about the format of the book: these are automatic transcripts of recorded voice messages on an old Iphone 4, meaning that you will regularly need to read phonetically to catch the original meaning. That irked me a little at first, but I got used to it very quickly. The writer also sometimes forgot that she was writing voice recordings and the text is beautiful prose instead of spoken word, but I cannot complain about that. It is a very original and refreshing format.

Then the content: the part about the Twyford code almost reads like a children's book, like in which the codes are hidden. It's a treasure hunt for adults and it is satisfyingly intriguing. It got me reading sentences again to try to decipher possible hidden acrostics - and you will too.
But at the very core, it is the story of Steven, a man who came from a broken home, got into crime and only found out he had a son after a long stint in prison. And it is the love for his son, whom he has only seen once, that drives him to do everything he does. It is a story about unconditional love and friendship, about memories and the consequences of once's choices.

It's a riveting pageturner, one that kept me up late at night and that I truly recommend to anyone who wants to read something very original and out of the ordinary.

A sincere thanks to NetGalley, the publisher Profile Books Ltd and the author for the privilege of reading such a great ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Hallett has absolutely smashed it with this unique and mysterious novel.

Told through voice note transcriptions, we are introduced to Steven "Little Smithy" Smith who forty years ago found a children's book on a green bus. What follows is a four decade old mystery as Smithy takes us back to his old friends, to new locations and tries to get to the bottom of what happened. Woven throughout is also the story of Smithy's time with a notorious London gang that landed him in prison and how he came to be where he is today.

The voice note transcription adds a brilliant layer as numerous words are misinterpreted and really engages the reader from the very beginning.

I loved Janice Hallett's first book, The Appeal, but The Twyford Code is even better - a dazzlingly clever, multi-layered page turner which managed to bring an unexpected tear to my eye at the end.

It's best not to say too much, but I loved the original way the story is told: in the form of voice notes recorded on his phone (sorry, his son's phone) by recently released ex-convict Steven Smith, transcribed - with the inevitable errors - by an automatic software. Although Steve learned to read and write in prison, literacy, he tells us, isn't his strong point, hence the telling of his story via recordings. And it's quite a story. We learn both about his past, how he ended up where he is, and - not unconnectedly - an adventure he embarks on in the present, to do with secret codes hidden in the work of a once-popular, but now generally reviled, Enid Blyton-esque children's author, Edith Twyford. (She shares not only her vowels with Enid - her most famous series concerns the "Super Six".) There's some kind of connection between Twyford's work and a troubling event from Steve's childhood which he has never managed to quite remember or get his head around.

It's an incredibly intriguing and absorbing read and Steven Smith is a very engaging narrator. The decision to tell the story through audio files works superbly, transcription quirks and all ("missiles", "young guns"). I love a story which engages both my brain and my heart - this did both, and I enjoyed it tremendously.

I received a free review copy from the publisher in exchange for my honest unedited feedback .

This is a puzzle in every sense of the word. It's filled with complex clues, ideas, red herrings and mysteries. The book is presented as a series of audio files, these are transcribed by an automated service and a key is provided at the beginning of the book which outlines what textual quirks mean what in relation to the transcription technology. It tells the story of Steve, who is out of prison where he served a term for murder and is now attempting to go straight. He allows himself to be pulled back in time to the mystery of what happened to him and his friends during the last summer he attended school. Steve claims he found a book on a bus which he showed to his remedial studies teacher. She read the book to them and claimed that the book contained a secret code. She takes the class on a day trip to where the author of the book lives and Steve has no memory of what happened to her after that. The story of the book and the teacher and Steve's life in the criminal underworld all twist and coalesce in this series of conversations, interviews and memories which Steve is unravelling to gift to his estranged son. This is rather like The Usual Suspect meets Agatha Christie. It will keep you guessing to the very end.

"I neither know nor think I know,” said Socrates. “Especially,” he added, probably, “in comparison to Janice Hallett. You ever read one of those books? Bloody hell.”

Yes, sensation seekers, Hallett has done it again. Fresh off The Appeal, a book that many (including myself) have on their Best Of 2021 lists, newly minted Hallett devotees are now treated to The Twyford Code, a book that it’s almost impossible to talk about without also ruining it.

Our hero this time is Steven Smith, a middle-aged ex-con recently released from prison. Steve is accidentally pulled into a conspiracy theory centered on a book he once found as a child. This book was, Steve believes, the catalyst for the disappearance of his English teacher Miss Isles. But his peers from that class remember things differently. So what happened on the impromptu school trip they took? Where is Miss Isles? And just what do the Famous Five-esque children’s books of Edith Twyford have to do with it?

At the same time as Steve is chasing down the so-called Twyford Code, he reconnects with old friends and ruminates on his own complex, tragic life story - that of a sanguine, medium-time gangster of the old school who now seems unable to master the modern world. He’s a genial, slightly odd but very charismatic narrator, and it’s a delight to spend time with him. In a film adaptation, Steve would be played by Ray Winstone.

This being a Hallett joint, though, means we are treated to an exquisite framing device. The Twyford Code is almost entirely transcripts of Steve’s voice notes or recorded conversations. The recordings were made for the mysterious parole officer Maxine, and there are strange mistakes inserted by the software running the transcription - “must’ve” becoming “mustard”, for example. These transcripts have, in their turn, been emailed by a police officer to a maths professor, in the hope the latter can help in a missing person case.

There were a couple of times while reading The Twyford Code that I noticed a word or phrase that stuck out, and I thought perhaps Hallett wasn’t taking as much care as she had in The Appeal. But oh, I was a fool! There are no accidents; forget everything you think you know. Hallett is an author you can absolutely trust to deliver a compelling mystery with a satisfying ending, and you won’t even be mad you didn’t see it coming. On the contrary: you giggle with delight.

It might feel like you’ve been handed a tangled ball of string, with knots of internet conspiracy theorists, career criminals, World War spies, codes, dyslexia, and dodgy voice recognition software. But The Twyford Code is only a tangle from one point of view. From another, it’s a gorgeous, intricate tapestry, each thread accounted for and carefully placed. Such layers upon delicious layers! In the world of the mysterious literary onion, Hallett is winning the vegetable tent’s grand prize at every village fête. She’s delivered another absolute joy here.

Steven Smith is using a second hand phone to record his thoughts and meetings with old class mates as he tries to recall the events surrounding a school trip to Bournemouth in the 1980s.
This is an imaginative and original idea, the whole book being written as the transcripts of the voice recordings. The puzzle itself was cleverly done with plenty of surprises.
For me the use of the transcripts throughout was rather off-putting. I felt that the characters were removed from the reader and it was difficult to establish a bond. It seemed rather contrived because as a reader I felt that I was being deliberately manipulated and held at a distance. The story itself was slow moving and the open ending a disappointment.
I'm sure this will prove to be a popular book, but it just wasn't for me.

This is an enigma of a book…. As review it’s not easy as you can’t really fully give a judgement without possibly giving any spoilers … The premise is based on the discovery of children’s storybook ( written in 1940) on a bus in the 1980s. Steven, who discovered the book, takes it into class and opens the door to the life of an author and so the mystery begins when their teacher disappears on a field trip to the author’s home.Move on 40 years and Steven, recently released from prison, decides to investigate what happened to the teacher, what was so special about the book and discover what the school friends remember of the time. If you like your books to twist and turn , beguile and bewilder then this is for you.Told through the transcripts of phone recordings and dialogues , this unique novel will either appeal enormously or maybe frustrate … the final denouement is highly unexpected and very clever in so many ways ( luckily much is explained ) but did leave a feeling of having a large illusion like trick being played on the reader. Intriguing and bewildering … a winter read conundrum

I want to thank Netgalley and Serpent's Tail / Viper / Profile Books. I received a free review copy from the publisher in exchange for my honest unedited feedback.

Steve Smith is a recently released ex-con who tries to uncover a mystery from his childhood. Forty years prior he found a children's book from the controversial writer, Edith Twyford. When his teacher, Miss Isles takes a big interest in the book and later disappears after a class field trip, Steve is determined to find out what happened to her as he narrates his discoveries and life story to his estranged son's telephone.

The story is told from transcripts of his audio files using a computer program, it reminded me of the subtitle option from videos on Youtube, resulting in some misspellings, censored profanity, etc. It was a unique way of storytelling and, while I struggled, in the beginning, to continue with the story, I asked myself why the author choose to tell the story this way. As I reached the end, I realized it couldn't have been any other way and it left me pleasantly surprised.

We not only learn about Miss Isles's disappearance and the secrets Edith Twyford's books contain but also the mystery regarding Steve's life as we learn about him throughout the story. There were more twists than I was expecting and I was happy with the end result. It's the kind of book you'll appreciate more on re-reads because of all the clues you missed the first time.

I can't wait to see what Janice Hallett comes up next!

I haven’t read Janice Hallett’s previous book and so had no idea what to expect with this one. The idea of the story being told through the use of audio transcripts I thought was imaginative and I liked the character of Steve as he was revealed through the transcripts of his recordings. The details of his teenage life and how he ended up in prison are gradually revealed at the same time as he tries to solve the mystery of what happened to his English teacher during a trip to Bournemouth when he was 14.
I liked the way his story gradually unfolded and how he became almost obsessed with cracking the code apparently set by an Enid Blyton type children’s author. I really enjoyed how we learned more about his home life and how that impacted on the way he lived now. I did find some of the book hard to follow probably because I was reading it on a kindle and it is not that easy to flick back and check something that you have just read. I also found some of the story to be quite slow and overly detailed. I have to say though, that the twist at the end took me completely by surprise.
It is definitely a cleverly plotted book and people who enjoy solving puzzles and codes will love it.
Thank you to Net Galley and the publishers for providing me with an ARC in exchange for this review.