Description
*** THE NEW NOVEL FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE APPEAL ***
'It totally foxed me. So clever and totally brilliant' - LISA HALL 'Enid Blyton meets Agatha Christie with a cracking twist' - MARION TODD 'An elegant puzzle of a book with an exquisite heart' - MATT WESOLOWSKI
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.
Review
Written through the use of audio transcripts, the style grated with me.
The story starts with Inspector Waliso forwarding the transcripts to a Professor for his professional opinion. It's pointed out that the transcription of the audio is phonetic. So for example, Miss Iiles is Missiles throughout these transcripts. Any profanity is shown as e.g. s[EXPLICIT]t - realistic maybe but clumsy to read from my point of view. Add into this the flip flopping around of the storyline and I nearly gave up reading a few times. I was intrigued though so I read onto the end.
Around half way through the book I actually got fully drawn into this book and it felt like a real mystery. Later as the twists began to be revealed I felt cheated by the author. I can't say more without spoiling the book but I wished I hadn't invested time reading this book.
I recognise this is a clever plot concept but it just wasn't for me. I'm giving this book 3 out of 5 stars. My thanks to netgalley for the ARC to review.
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