The Twyford Code, by Janice Hallett

Having loved The Appeal last year, I was so excited to read another book by Janice Hallett! This book also has a unique format and the story is told through transcriptions of voice recordings. It is a fun and quirky format because the audio transcription software isn’t 100% accurate and contains some errors - for example, when characters say ‘must have’ it might type ‘mustard’.

The audio recordings are from a man who is missing, but they found his phone which contained audio recordings that they recovered. The man tells his life story and current journey through the audio recordings, and we find out that he is recently released from prison, and has become obsessed with working out a mystery in his childhood connected to a book by a children’s author. He thinks that the key to the mystery might be in the book, and he discovers that he is not the only person trying to crack the Twyford code. The main character has dyslexia, and it is discussed a lot in the book. I really like that despite not being a confident reader or writer, he is very intelligent and his creative and abstract way of thinking allows him to see patterns that others cannot.

The plot of this book is SO intricate and clever, I never knew where it was going to end up and the twists kept on coming, some of them left me very shocked! I found the resolution so satisfying because it tied together everything so well, and explained some of the things I was unsure about whilst reading. I absolutely loved the little surprise at the end! Who else spotted it?

How accessible is it?

Because of the complexity of the plot, I had to re-read some sections to make sure I was understanding it. I think it is fine if you feel a bit confused whilst you are reading it - everything gets explained really well at the end so don’t worry about it too much!

I think as the book is audio recordings, this would work really well as an audiobook? If anyone listened to this book I would love to hear your opinions about if it worked well because of its format!