Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Jan 2023
336 pages
Genre: Mysteries
Publication Information
The mysterious connection between a teacher's disappearance and an unsolved code in a children's book is explored in this fresh novel from the author of the "clever and often wryly funny" (PopSugar) novel 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 disappeared on a class field trip, Smithy became 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 from his estranged son, 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.
"A modern Agatha Christie" (The Sunday Times, London), Janice Hallett has constructed a fiendishly clever, maddeningly original crime novel for lovers of word games, puzzles, and stories of redemption.
"[I]ngenious… 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)
"Hallett creates a unique and imaginative mystery utilizing both an unreliable narrator and mainly epistolary format. The tale spins wildly, and readers are never certain regarding the facts. It's tough going at first but worth sticking with for Smithy." - Library Journal
"Every page is a joy, with laugh-out-loud moments even as the plot becomes more outlandish, and the startling final reveal crowns Hallett as the queen of unreliable narrators." - Sunday Times (UK)
"The Twyford Code is a tour de force.... a mind-bending, heartwarming mystery that is not to be missed." - The Observer (UK)
"Fiendishly clever... manages to be both tricksy and surprisingly moving." - The Guardian (UK)
"[A] wonderful novel, which may start like James Joyce rewriting Agatha Christie with anagrams and acrostics, but ends up being a moving, multistory mystery about the power of books and paternal/parental love." - The Times (UK)
"The Twyford Code is a page-turning mystery that's built for puzzle pundits and literary word nerds. It's also a story about literacy and class, with a hugely endearing ex-con at the center of it all. Clever and refreshing, this book proves yet again that Janice Hallett has a knack for redefining how a mystery is told." - Nita Prose, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Maid
"Brilliantly imagined and stunningly original, The Twyford Code is a nesting doll of mysteries and puzzles, each as alluring as the last. Culminating in a grand finale of twists and surprises, this book is one that even Agatha Christie would not be able to predict." - Megan Collins, author of The Family Plot
This information about The Twyford Code was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
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 Appeal and The Twyford Code.
The House on Biscayne Bay
by Chanel Cleeton
As death stalks a gothic mansion in Miami, the lives of two women intertwine as the past and present collide.
The Stone Home
by Crystal Hana Kim
A moving family drama and coming-of-age story revealing a dark corner of South Korean history.
The Funeral Cryer by Wenyan Lu
Debut novelist Wenyan Lu brings us this witty yet profound story about one woman's midlife reawakening in contemporary rural China.
Your guide toexceptional books
BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
