As promised I downloaded The Twyford code by Janice Hallett the moment I finished The Appeal as I loved that so much! This is the second novel by this author but where The Appeal was written in the form of emails and text messages this is written in the form of video transcripts left by the main character on an iPhone 4. I had pretty high hopes for this one, if you want to read my thoughts on The Appeal by Janice Hallett, click here https://nicolajayne.blog/2023/02/27/the-appeal-book-review/ but for now back to The Twyford Code.
Synopsis from Good Reads
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..
Again I listened to this book on Audible so cannot say whether the experience would be better or worse reading the physical copy of the book. The story is written as I said above in the form of video transcripts that the main character has left as a spoken diary on an iPhone 4, he struggles with reading and writing which is explained through out the book. When it first started I thought it was brilliant, I couldn’t stop listening I was so fascinated by Steve and the plot that was unfolding really had me gripped. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to the narrator reading the transcripts and even found I got used very quickly to a ‘period of silence’ and jumping between voices. If you pick up the book you will know what I mean. The only problem I had was with the actual hunt for The Twyford Code. I was about 70% in when I had this sudden thought ‘what is actually going on??’ It was all so unrealistic and honestly I had a moment where I thought I might give up. But there were a few twists I didn’t see coming and I like that in a book. I kind of an ‘oooh’ moment.
Conclusion
Now this is abit difficult. Overall I don’t know how I feel about this book. I can’t decide whether I would recommend this book to anyone or not which is a bad sign but I didn’t dislike it either. I enjoyed how it was written I just think the story dragged on a bit too long. Steve’s life story was really interesting but unfortunately the whole mystery part didn’t really work for me.
Have you read The Twyford Code? Did you love it? Was there something that I missed? Let me know your thoughts.
NJ x
nicola jayne 