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The Twyford Code

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The Twyford Code

By: Janice Hallett
Narrated by: Thomas Judd
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About this listen

 ** WINNER OF THE CRIME & THRILLER BRITISH BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023 **

* THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER*

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

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. Wanting to know more, he took it to his 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. 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...

Perfect for fans of Richard Osman, Alex Pavesi and S.J. Bennett, The Twyford Code will keep you up puzzling late into the night.©2022 Janice Hallett (P)2022 Profile Books Ltd Amateur Sleuths Crime Thrillers Genre Fiction Mystery Small Town & Rural Thriller & Suspense Crime Thriller Fiction Suspense
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Thoroughly enjoyed it. The last sentence though really would work better in a book. Although the rest of it as an audiobook really complemented the story.

Entertaining!

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I realise why the format was as is, so to speak but when listening as a story the constant references to voice 1 audio quality and times make it hard to listen to. I think in this instance I would have preferred a written version. It’s a clever theme I don’t want to give away more. Worth persevering.

Great concept but annoying to listen to, best perhaps to read yourself?

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Wasn’t sure at first,whether I would carry on with it as the way it’s written is a new style/ format but a few chapters in and I was hooked.
An unexpected ending which is always good!

Absolutely brilliant

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This is an amazing, inventive and evocative mystery told through a series of audio recordings on an old phone by ex-convict Steve Smith who is trying to solve a very twisty code apparently left in children's books written in the 1930's and 40's, and to find out what happened to his beloved teacher in 1984. But he also tells the story of his life, his troubled childhood, falling in with a criminal gang and more..Nothing in this story is what it seems though as the reader/listener is drawn deeper and deeper into a veritable maze! The novel is beautifully narrated and is a great pleasure to listen to. Highly recommended.

Inventive, gripping and twisty

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SPOILER ALERT.
I really wanted to like this book (well, any time I pay for a book I hope to enjoy it to the max). But at the end I felt it was really a bit... silly. Perhaps the author was aiming for an effect akin to magic realism but IMHO it falls flat with an endless pursuit of dead ends, inexplicable characters, and meaningless diversions, as well as odd revelations that looked like the author struggled to tie up loose ends. The structure of the book is also hard to follow on audio - not for casual listening - concentration is required to stay on top of all the detail, especially when you don't know what is going to prove irrelevant. Also - as anyone who's ever recorded themselves speaking knows - there are always lots of 'ums', 'aahs' and repetition. Unrehearsed speech is imperfect. A more accurate and authentic depiction of an audio diary would inevitably sound like natural speech and not - as in this book - like a perfectly edited script.
In conclusion, in my view this would have been a more compelling story if the author had focused on a smaller number of credulous plots and story arcs.

Overly complicated and complex plot and execution not suited to audio

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