A code hidden within a series children's books, a missing teacher, and her former students who reunite 40 years later to try and uncover her whereabouts and the secrets contained within the book series are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to this tale that's part mystery, puzzle, and treasure hunt.

This story is told thru transcripts of audio files and I have to admit the narrative style gave me problems. Between the unusual format and the mental translation required for the transcription errors in the transcripts, I couldn't find a reading rhythm. While the story itself was interesting and really grabbed my attention initially, trying to make my way thru the transcripts quickly became tiresome and took away from my investment in the plot.

I love that this author brings something fresh and new to the mystery genre and am sure readers who have less of a problem with the narrative format will enjoy this twisty, treasure hunt mystery. I loved The Appeal, but, unfortunately, The Twyford Code didn't work as well for me.

I loved The Appeal last year, but after trying this over multiple days, I’ve decided it’s not for me. The plot moves too slow and I’m not a fan of the audio transcript format. I know it’s well loved and I’ll share it with those wanting a good book with a puzzle.

The Twyford Code is written in a unique, ambitious way that ultimately detracted from the story and made it hard to follow. The entire story is presented in audio files and there was a lot of extraneous info that muddied the actual story. The plot itself felt lacking and didn’t hold my interest.

Short review: 🤯

A bit longer: Around halfway through this I was like HOW in the world is this all going to come together... I was so confused but in a way that seemed intentional. By the time I was nearing the end, I could not put this down because I NEEDED to know. I loved the way that this narrative unfolded in such a unique format (transcriptions of audio files) but it definitely does take a little time to get used to as you go. I think the ending/experience would have been even more impactful if I had managed to buckle down and finish in just a couple of sittings.

This author was already on my radar from The Appeal, which was also told in an interesting mixed media/alternative narration - but I think the writing and execution of this one was better than that. I will definitely be reading her next book as soon as I can get my hands on it.

In The Twyford Code, Janice Hallett once again brings a mystery to life using an unusual form. The majority of the story is told using transcribed audio files, with deliberate misspelling and misused words. As the story unfolds, more and more layers are added to the mystery until the final scenes where the reader is left surprised by the final solution.

I enjoyed that this is not a traditional mystery where a professional detective or amateur sleuth is following the clues, but one where the reader is being told the story. That being said, the reader must be willing to hang out in no-man's land for quite some time before the story makes sense. I enjoyed the weirdness, and will continue to read Ms. Hallett's work.

If I had to describe this book in one word it would be: frustrating.
The British cover/the cover on Goodreads has the tagline "It's time to solve the murder of the century" yet THERE WAS NO MURDER (I mean there were murders, but that wasn't the mystery we were supposed to solve). I do see now as I'm writing this review that the American cover tagline is "It's time solve the MYSTERY of the century" which honestly was a wise choice. Though I'm still bitter that I just spent 336 waiting for a murder.
After loving the Appeal, this book fell short of my expectations.
I understand what this book was trying to do, I just didn't want to go there with it.
Thank you to the US publisher and NetGalley for the chance to read this book ahead of the US release.

Atria Books is releasing the mesmerizing UK bestseller, “The Twyford Code,” in the United States, and American readers will absolutely love this original mystery. The book is presented as a series of transcribed recordings from an old iPhone 4, owned by a missing man. We know from the transcriptions that person is Steven Smith, a recently released convict (he fell into organized crime as a youth) who conquered his dyslexia with one of Britain’s prison literacy programs. Steve is now in his 50s and trying his best to do right and using his newfound ability to read and search the internet, but he is also consumed by a memory of a school trip 40 years ago.

According to his memory, his remedial English teacher, Miss Alice Isles (“missiles” in the faulty transcription), took her small class on an unauthorized field trip to the home of an Enid Blyton type author, Edith Twyford. American readers are probably not familiar with Enid Blyton, but like fictional Twyford of Dorset, Blyton wrote children’s books in the 30s to the 50s, with series such as “Famous Five” and “Secret Seven” (Hallett has named Twyford’s characters “The Super Six”) and the books were criticized later for simplicity, racism, sexism, elitism, and xenophobia, prompting some revisions in the 1980s. Steve remembers that “missiles” disappeared on that trip and tries to find his classmates to fill in the blanks. His mission is about the teacher, but there’s more about the book — he had actually found a copy on a bus; it had some mysterious annotations in the margins; according to classmates, his different brain deciphered something; Miss Isles sort of confiscated the book; and a few days later the fateful trip took place. From just the book’s title and different edition cover blurbs (“Solve the Murder/Crime of the Century…”) there’s much more for Steve (and us) to discover.

I truly loved the concept and structure — this is sort of like the stories about armchair treasure hunt books gone awry (there’s more than one and nothing ever seems to end purely happily — even the real Kit Williams’ “Masquerade ” book, mentioned in this novel, had controversy). It’s multi-layered and always surprising to the end. But this is also about a man’s lifelong struggle with reading disabilities and a previous life of crime who is finally empowered to expand and discover more of his world.The passages about how Steve got involved with the Harrisons would often prompt me to skip ahead — I appreciated the uncomfortable and necessary background facts, but sometimes the prose wandered too much. 4 stars! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I was sort of initially irked that Steve didn’t ever Google Alice Isles to see if she was ever reported missing, or, maybe still alive. But there is a reason…

Thank you to Atria Books and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review!

Literary Pet Peeve Checklist:
Green Eyes (only 2% of the real world, yet it seems like 90% of all fictional females): NO But watch out for the green bus.
Horticultural Faux Pas (plants out of season or growing zones, like daffodils in autumn or bougainvillea in Alaska): NO The Mud Sump garden does hold significance in the plot. There’s an interesting observation about how flora and fauna in old children’s books has been edited out in newer editions, presumably because today’s kids wouldn’t know an oak tree from a poplar tree.

You’ve never met an amateur sleuth like Steven Smith, I’ll bet. He’s just gotten out of prison, and he’s trying to make amends to his son while also investigating the disappearance of his teacher forty years ago. He thinks it’s linked to a book he found, and maybe to international espionage.

The trouble is, Smithy isn’t a very good narrator. He’s inept at using technology, but he’s also dyslexic, so the only way he can tell his story is with voicenotes on an old iPhone 4 his son gave him. What we end up with is the transcript of two hundred voice notes that tell the story – if you are willing to work hard to read it.

I have to admit, the story as a whole is very clever. It is full of puzzles, anagrams, acrostics, secret codes. Words are misspelled, because homophones. It was annoying at times: “mustard” for must have, “gun a” for gonna. “Missiles” for Miss Isles (the teacher) didn’t even work and was confusing, because that word is pronounced differently in North America. For some reason, there was transcription of breathing noises: “hhhh. hhhh” and it was on every page, and all I could think of when I saw that was Beavis and Butthead laughing (IYKYK).

At one point, I thought, maybe the author is trying to show the reader how difficult it is for a person with dyslexia to read – because it was that difficult.

However… I couldn’t put the book down. I read it in two days. I was satisfied by the ending. I actually ended up loving it. hhhh. hhhh

I’ve made it about 50% of the way through this book, but it’s just not for me. I enjoyed the way the story was being told through audio messages and there were already a few surprises I didn’t expect. But I unfortunately am having some difficulty following the story and enjoying it.

Wow, this book is a wild ride and I've never read anything quite like it! I am so impressed with what Janice Hallett pulled off and am eager to read her first book.

The majority of this book is told in transcriptions of voice dictation memos as well as transcriptions of conversations. Steven Smith has recently been released from prison and is on a mission to figure out what happened to his former teacher, as well as discover the Twyford code hidden within an author's children's books. The story follows Steve on this quest, while alternating with stories about his childhood and what lead him to spend time in jail.

Trying to explain this book is tricky because there are a lot of layers to it, and hard to talk about without giving anything away. I was intrigued and engaged the entire time, really curious what was going to happen next, and rooting for Steve and the other characters. And I definitely didn't guess the twists or ending -- it was very unique and so entertaining.

Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced copy of this book!

verbal-humor, amateur-sleuth, murder, suspense, literacy, dyslexia, dysfunctional-families, friendship, frustration, decryption *****

While I found the audio files format quite distracting, I really got into the story and loved it.
In the basics, after learning to read near the end of his prison sentence, Steve is obsessed with searching for his old teacher and solving the mystery of a field trip they were on (in which she disappeared) and the memories of Steve and his old mates have some curious gaps. The trip involved a book written by a Ms. Twyford and was peppered throughout with an unknown code. Sleuthing is unusual and fascinating for those of us who are word nerds and pundits. Excellent fun!
I requested and received an eGalley from Atria Books via NetGalley. Thank you!

While I appreciate the unique presentation of audio files, I found this very distracting. I'll be honest, I tried hard but had to abandon this. Lots of extraneous info (times and other notes) and while there was an explanation for slang type words, I'm on an e-reader and could not keep flipping back to that. Struggled to follow this even for the 25% of the book I tried to read.

I don't usually give a 5 star rating (well except for Steven King), but I think this book definitely deserved a 5 star. I loved the characters and I definitely didn't see the end coming. I sure wish I was as smart as "Steven".

Having read and enjoyed The Appeal last year, I was really excited to read more from the author. This one has a unique structure too—the entire book is in the form of audio files transcribed by specialist software. This means that almost the entire text of the book is annotated according to transcription conventions. For example, pauses are denoted by (...), the number of dots indicating how long the pause was. An indrawn breath is .hhhh, an expelled breath is hhhh, etc. And while this sounds fun initially, it ends up becoming tedious to read. And it's not even that this book is very big comparatively, but 330+ pages of this narrative device was too much.

The plot itself, and the amount of it we get for the length of the book, felt lacking. The most interesting parts to me were the recorded phone calls, and the times when the main character quickly tried to stop recording, presumably because he was trying to hide something from us. Towards the second half, we get told the entire story of how Steve landed in prison to begin with, and while I understand the need for this part, I thought it was way too long. This goes double for the following of the Twyford Code. The idea intrigued me initially, but I steadily found that interest fizzling out the more I read.

Another puzzle of a story that had me hooked! It's a story told through audio file batches, interpretted by a third party that has reviewed the sound files and relayed what they think it says. So there are errors and silly phonetic mistakes. A man, recently released from prison, has gone missing. Audio files are found on an old phone he left behind and those files, described above, are delivered to his estranged son to see if he spots anythig that might give a clue as to what has happened to his dad.

And the transcrips were so fun! In it, the father, Steve, is searching for his old teacher. He remembers a trip and then never seeing her again. He's convinced something happened and no one searched for her. The story was compelling, leading me along with all the clues and mystery. I loved the Twyford code and was totally all-in trying to find clues and ciphers. I loved the twists and turns the story took. It left me guessing constantly, trying to stay a step ahead as I guessed what was going on! And I was so wrong. But I'm not mad about it at all. Any ideas I had pale in comparison to what the author gave us. I loved this one. A story about love, family, and the legacy you leave behind. I'll definitely look for more from this author. I love the writing style and the characters!

A huge thank you to the author and publisher for providing an e-ARC via Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.

In this book we follow Steve, fresh from prison, on an adventure to solve the Twyford Code. The book is written in almost entirely audio files.

I have to say writing flowed better then in the appeal. I'm almost positive it's because your really only following one person for the most part. Which in turn helped the story.

The story was interesting and I honestly didn't want to stop reading until I finished. This was a cleverly woven story that had you guessing the entire time and then realizing you were completely wrong by the end.

There were slow parts and the transcribed audio files could some times be annoying. Especially for an American trying to figure out bleeped out British curses!

I'd say if you read the appeal or like books with mixed media, give this one a read.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me this copy for review.

3.5 stars, probably.

This book is similar to Hallett's first book in its unique format. This one is comprised of transcripts of audio recordings. To be honest, I found this format to be very distracting, and it kept me from being fully immersed. And I LOVE alternate format books, but something about the way the transcription was written kept pulling me out of the story. Every time there was a notation of a breath or a long pause, I was reminded that I was reading a book.

Besides that, and the reason I still mostly enjoyed this, was that the mystery was very clever. This is very original, even beyond the formatting. While I think overall I liked The Appeal a bit more, this one had the better mystery in my opinion. My only warning to readers would be that the blurb on the cover discusses solving a murder mystery. I would say most of this book does not really deal with a murder, to the point I was confused about what murder was even being referenced on the cover. This did not make the book any less interesting, but don't go in expecting a bunch of murder.

I was not completely satisfied with the ending. I think it could be figured out by the reader, but still some things felt like they came a bit out of nowhere for me. I think it mostly a good and comprehensive wrap-up but something left me wanting a bit more.

This is still a book I would recommend because of its originality. The audiobook may be the way to go with this if the formatting bothers you like it did with me. It would have to be carefully produced to maintain the form of the book and mystery but it could be very good. I am definitely looking forward to Hallett's next book.

Thank you SO MUCH to NetGalley + Atria Books for an eARC in exchange for my honest review!

It's been 40 years since Steven Smith found a copy of a famous children's books with strange markings in the margins. Upon showing it to his teacher, Miss Isles, she became convinced that the markings were the key to a secret code and took the class on a field trip to the author's home to learn more - only, Miss Isles never came back from that field trip. Recently released from prison and desperate to turn his life around, Steven finds himself wondering what happened to Miss Isles all those years ago. Completely told through transcripts of recordings Steven makes on his son's phone, The Twyford Code is another uniquely formatted book from Janice Hallett.

I have to say, I am quickly becoming a superfan of Janice Hallett. Her book THE APPEAL was one of my favorite reads of 2022, and so when I had the opportunity to read her THE TWYFORD CODE, I was so excited. This book did not disappoint!! The mystery was so much fun to uncover and Steven Smith was a perfectly lovable oaf of a character to lead us through the story. To format her books in such a totally unique way (one told only through emails/texts and another told through phone recording transcripts) is not only a really fun and interesting way to be told a story from the reader's perspective, but an incredibly difficult undertaking from the author. I really, really loved the ending of this book. There were parts where the code talk went over my head, but in retrospect, confusing the reader/listener is part of the storyline. Hallett has a way of revealing the real story to the reader in a way that makes you want to immediately start from the beginning to uncover all the easter eggs you surely missed along the way. I am so excited to read whatever she puts out next. If you like puzzles and mysteries, I absolutely insist you add this to your TBR.

The Twyford Code is my first book to read by Janice Hallet. The book starts off very slowly for me. I normally like a good mystery but found it difficult to get engrossed in this book.

This mysterious novel is told all in the form of voice memos and recorded conversations, all recorded on the old phone belonging to Steve Smith. According to his recordings, he has recently gotten out of jail, and finds himself thinking back on an incident from his school days when a teacher went missing, which he links to her quest to uncover a mystery relating to the children’s books of an author named Edith Twyford - aka, the Twyford Code of the title. The recordings contain further reflections on his past, including what led him to jail, but also his efforts in the present to find out what happened to his teacher and to crack the code himself.

Hallett’s first novel, The Appeal, was also told in an unconventional format, but for me it worked a lot better in that novel. The conceit here is that the reader is reading a software transcription of the recordings, replete with errors like the teacher’s name “Miss Isles” being transcribed as “missiles,” “must have” being transcribed as “mustard,” etc. The more I read in one sitting, the more I got used to it, but it really made the reading experience more difficult.

But the biggest issue with this book is that everything that happens is so confusing! There are lots of puzzles and clues and whatnot, but the way the narrative unfolds is intentionally vague abs mysterious. Then the end kind of blew my mind, and while not necessarily in a bad way not necessarily in a good way either. Impossible to talk about without spoilers, but it just left me thinking “what did I just read?!?!”

Definitely a unique book, but a strange and not fully satisfying one too.