The Twyford Code, Janice Hallett
The Twyford Code, Janice Hallett
List: $26.99 | Sale: $18.89
Club: $13.49

The Twyford Code

Author: Janice Hallett

Narrator: Thomas Judd

Unabridged: 11 hr 29 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 01/24/2023


Synopsis

The mysterious connection between a teacher’s disappearance and an unsolved code in a children’s book is explored in this new novel from the “modern Agatha Christie” (The Sunday Times, London) and author of The Appeal.

Forty years ago, Steven “Smithy” Smith found a copy of a famous children’s book by disgraced author Edith Twyford, its margins full of strange markings and annotations. When he showed it to his remedial English teacher Miss Iles, she believed that it was part of a secret code that ran through all of Twyford’s novels. And when she later disappeared on a class field trip, Smithy becomes convinced that she had been right.

Now, out of prison after a long stretch, Smithy decides to investigate the mystery that has haunted him for decades. In a series of voice recordings on an old iPhone, Smithy alternates between visiting the people of his childhood and looking back on the events that later landed him in prison. But it soon becomes clear that Edith Twyford wasn’t just a writer of forgotten children’s stories. The Twyford Code holds a great secret, and Smithy may just have the key.

“Filled with numerous clues, acrostics, and red herrings, this thrilling scavenger hunt for the truth is delightfully deceptive and thoroughly immersive” (Publishers Weekly, starred review).

About Janice Hallett

Janice Hallett is a former magazine editor, award-winning journalist, and government communications writer. She wrote articles and speeches for, among others, the Cabinet Office, Home Office, and Department for International Development. Her enthusiasm for travel has taken her around the world several times, from Madagascar to the Galapagos, Guatemala to Zimbabwe, Japan, Russia, and South Korea. A playwright and screenwriter, she penned the feminist Shakespearean stage comedy NetherBard and cowrote the feature film Retreat. She lives in London and is the author of The Silent Appeal, The Killer QuestionThe ExaminerThe Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels, The Christmas AppealThe Twyford Code, and The Appeal.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Baba on February 11, 2023

Another innovative take on epistolary novel storytelling sees The Twyford Code being mostly told in transcripts of voice recordings and messages, and it works so very well in so many ways. Stephen 'Little Smithy' Smith has served his time in prison and now truly on the straight and narrow, he visits......more

Goodreads review by Jayme on December 15, 2022

This definitely won’t be a book for everyone. If you don’t enjoy books that use other forms of media to tell a story-you may want to steer clear. BUT, if you love solving puzzles, the brilliant Janice Hallett has given you a code to break-within the pages of this very intellectual story… Did I crack......more

Goodreads review by Ceecee on October 13, 2021

Janice Hallett does it again! Ex-con Steven Smith records his story on his sons old iPhone 4 and trust me, it’s a darned good one. It all starts forty years ago when he’s in Miss Isles remedial English class when Steven finds a well known story book left behind on a bus which he takes into school. T......more

Goodreads review by Melissa (Semi-hiatus for Work) on January 23, 2023

The one thing I can say about this book before you start is to have patience. There were a couple of times around 40-50% in that I started to glaze over and wonder if powering through would be worth it. When I got to the end I came to the conclusion that it absolutely was worth it. I loved The Appeal......more

Goodreads review by karen on July 08, 2022

fulfilling my 2022 goal to read one book each month that was not published in my country that i wanted badly enough to have a copy shipped to me from abroad and then...never read. We all remember things in our own way, she smiles, and we’re all correct…it’s emotional truth that matters. hallett's debu......more


Quotes

"Thomas Judd narrates the story of Smithy, a former English gang member newly released from prison who is obsessed with the need to track down his beloved former reading teacher...With a neutral tone, Judd describes Smithy’s search for information about his teacher, who disappeared on a class field trip while visiting the cottage of Edith Twyford. Is it possible that Twyford’s old-fashioned books for young children carry encoded secrets?"