The Twyford Code by Janice Hallett

It's time to solve the murder of the century...

Forty years ago, Steven Smith found a copy of a children's book by disgraced author Edith Twyford, full of strange markings and annotations. He took it to his English teacher Miss Iles, who became convinced that the book was the key to solving a secret code running through all Twyford's novels. But then she disappeared. 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 if it is as valuable as Miss Iles thought, who else might be trying to solve it?

About the author

Janice Hallett studied English at UCL, and spent several years as a magazine editor, winning two awards for journalism. Her debut novel, The Appeal, was a Sunday Times bestseller, a Waterstones Thriller of the Month and Sunday Times Crime Book of the Month. She lives in West London.

Review

Now I have to admit I came to ‘The Appeal’ party pretty late, only picking it up last month but I adored it! I ended up treating myself to the special Waterstones edition even though I already had a copy. So I jumped at the chance to review ‘The Twyford Code’ and boy it did not disappoint! It is a fiendish delicious read that is not afraid to screw with the reader’s perceptions. It’s riveting, full of luscious rich textures that intertwined to form a delightful puzzle.

When Steven was a child he found a book by disgraced author Edith Twyford and although he was hardly able to read he became still obsessed with the book. His whole remedial English class were enthralled by it when his teacher Miss Illes decided to read it to them. But she was also convinced that it was part of a wider conspiracy about the ‘Twyford Code’ that ran through all her books. Then she disappeared. Steven has just been released from prison and with time on his hands decides to investigate her disappearance and look up his classmates from that time. Did she really disappear? Is there a code and how much does his classmates really know?

This is one clever book! I got to the end and instantly wanted to reread it to see how many clues I had missed or overlooked, if there were acrostic codes I had disregarded, if the trail to decipher the narrative was as hidden as I thought it might be. Basically, this book challenges your assumptions to take things at face value, not to accept peoples truths as being real. As an oral history student at uni I should have known better! I think the lull of being in the familiar territory of transcripts switched off part of my brain rather than making me realise that we all put out biased versions of ourselves! The fact that I am so annoyed and frustrated with this book weeks after reading it shows that the author has worked her magic on this story. It’s a testament to her cunning writing and plotting that I have such strong feelings about this book.

I adored all the slight nods to now-controversial author Enod Blyton - the five schoolchildren in Steven’s remedial English class who are involved in the plot. The classic adventure type capers depicted in Twyford’s work and how this is mirrored in the present-day activities of the main characters. The inclusion of many references to other works of literature ranging from Lord of the Flies, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy to The Da Vinci Code shows how much a puzzle entertains us as readers.

I already have a feeling that this is going to be one of my top reads for 2022 and we are only 19 days into the year. It's unique, has a distinct voice both from it's author and its characters, it's complex, beautifully written as not one word is wasted or misused, and made me irrationally angry at the end of it as I had been sucked into a certain perception hook, line and sinker! See only one fishing reference so far!

This is definitely one that needs to be placed on your tbr pile! Now here's hoping that Waterstones does a matching special edition for this one…. After two books Janice Hallett has become an auto-read for me! Now that is quite an achievement. This book deserves all the praise it gets!