Janice Hallett

The Twyford Code

Love is brighter than gold, but it is heavier. 

Jodie Reads

*** THE NEW NOVEL FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE APPEAL *** It's time to solve the murder of the century... Forty years ago, Steven Smith found a copy of a famous children's book, its margins full of strange markings and annotations. He took it to his remedial English teacher, Miss Isles, who became convinced it was the key to solving a puzzle. That a message in secret code ran through all Edith Twyford's novels. Then Miss Isles disappeared on a class field trip, and Steven's memory won't allow him to remember what happened. Now, out of prison after a long stretch, Steven decides to investigate the mystery that has haunted him for decades. Was Miss Isles murdered? Was she deluded? Or was she right about the code? And is it still in use today? Desperate to recover his memories and find out what really happened to Miss Isles, Steven revisits the people and places of his childhood. But it soon becomes clear that Edith Twyford wasn't just a writer of forgotten children's stories. The Twyford Code has great power, and he isn't the only one trying to solve it...

Laura Dobie

I looked at those pages last night and I saw something. I looked again this morning and whatever I saw had gone. If something as solid and permanent as a printed page can be bent, moulded, made to fit, then surely nothing is solid or permanent at all.

Donna and I shared glance and without a word, I hold one gate aside for her to squeeze through. She does the same for me. Getting through them gates is as easy today as it was back in 83. As if the strange force that helped us through then returned to help us again all these years later. Yet, I'm speaking with the benefit of hindsight, andI can't tell you now whether that force is good or evil.

kiwi

I did not like the way this book was written.

Amazing! One of the best books I think I've ever read. I was immediately hooked by the style of the voice note transcripts and it just kept getting better. The twists and turns were so well done, surprising but also made complete sense when you read it back. A delight to read.

Soph

seemed a bit of nonsense for a bit but the ending was so worth it 🫶

ophelia ross 

shellybn

I enjoyed this book. Parts of it were confusing, and the conceit of telling the story through voice memos made parts of it difficult to read and understand. However, the end result was worth the struggle. The answers are there if you can figure them out.

This book was a mind twist! It was really good and kept me enthralled. I didn’t expect the twists the books came with! 

THE TWYFORD CODE

Adeline

An addictive, original and well-paced mystery 

Ammerins Moss-de Boer

One of those books that you want to reread after finishing it to get all the clues…

Fun story/mystery but its pacing and format let it down.

Molly Ballantine

Ian Brakspear

I must admit that I think I was a little let down by this one, I loved the Appeal but this one just seemed super flat to me and was extremely difficult to get my head around especially with the close links to an Author that I Grew up loving. I’m glad I kept going to the end however as I think the ending was well put together but all in all the book just felt a little flat to me. 

First things first. I can't but applaud the absolutely refreshing way Janice Hallett tells a crime story. This time around through the medium of audio files recorded on a phone by our main character, Steve. What starts as trying to find out what happened to a favourite teacher, quickly turns into something entirely different as Steve takes the reader on what feels like an adventure, looking for that elusive X that marks the spot. But what spot? And why?

I struggled with about 80% of the book but at the end when things were starting to come together I four it a lot easier to understand and get my head around. I missed most of the clues throughout the book itself and at times I through that the book just went round in circles and left me feeling confused. To be honest, I almost threw in the towel, but sheer stubbornness prevented that. In the end, I'm glad I continued because the latter part of the story is what made it for me! When all the pieces came together and the full picture was revealed, you could almost have knocked me over with a feather.

I think that the main thing with this book was that the format was not what I was expecting, and it was difficult to keep up with the changes in voices as the book is told through a series of Audio Recordings, but it just made it difficult to keep up and it also jumps from the story of the past to the Story of Now which I kept getting confused over. I also struggled with the colloquialisms in the book itself which made it difficult to keep up with what was going on.

Jemima Scott

A brilliant mystery🔍 Hallett, once again, knocked it out the park!

Navya R

Leah Preston

Abby Brake

be p.

A Novel

belle

"Forty years ago, Steven Smith found a copy of a famous children's book by disgraced author Edith Twyford, its margins full of strange markings and annotations. Severely dyslexic and wanting to know more, he took it to his remedial English teacher Miss Iles, not realising the chain of events that he was setting in motion. Miss Iles became convinced that the book was the key to solving a puzzle, and that a message in secret code ran through all Twyford's novels. Then Miss Iles disappeared on a class field trip, and Steven has no memory of what happened to her. Now, out of prison after a long stretch, Steven decides to investigate the mystery that has haunted him for decades. Was Miss Iles murdered? Was she deluded? Or was she right about the code? And is it still in use today? Desperate to recover his memories and find out what really happened to Miss Iles, Steven revisits the people and places of his childhood. And as he does so, he records the story of his life in the form of voicemails and voice memos for his estranged and long unknown son, a professor of mathematics. But it soon becomes clear that Edith Twyford wasn't just a writer of forgotten children's stories. The Twyford Code is valuable, and he isn't the only one trying to solve it."--

The Twyford Code

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