The Twyford
Code
by Janie Hallett
The theme for our
book club in July was “something from your to be read pile.” A friend
had recently read The Twyford Code and spoken so enthusiastically about
it that I immediately added it to be my “to be read” file and picked it up for
this month.
Smithy is out of
jail after a prolonged incarceration, and still on probation. He has a crappy
job and his adult son doesn’t really want any contact with him. He begins to
record his thoughts on a mystery that started years ago when he found a book by
Edith Twyford on a bus and took it to school. His teacher snatched it up and
began reading it to the class, telling them there was a code in it. Then she
disappears on a class outing and Smithy never let go of that mystery. Now he’s
determined to get to the bottom of The Twyford Code and find out what happened
to his teacher.
In the beginning,
I confess I had some trouble settling into this book, due to the format. It is
told through the guise of audio recordings by Steven “Smithy” Smith on an old
smart phone his estranged son has given him. Those recordings have been
transcribed by an automated process, complete with phonetic spellings of some
words or outright misspellings. One simple example is Kos in place of ‘cause,
Or the word “mustard” in place of “must have.” Those were not hard to figure
out, in context. “Bore Moth” in place of Bournemouth took a bit longer.
I think my trouble
getting into the beginning goes a little deeper than that though. Because the
entries are someone talking into a phone using a voice recording app, the story
is being told to us instead of action being described.
Further, there are
places where a conversation is recorded between Voice 1 and Voice 2, back and
forth. In writer’s group, we call this “talking heads” — two voices carrying on
a conversation but no physical actions or setting to ground the reader. You
can’t really picture it in your mind.
I’m really glad I
stuck with it. This turned out to be a fascinating mystery with plenty of
action and many twists and turns. There are revelations upon revelations
regarding Smithy’s family and his previous work with a crime family.
The twist at the
end was magnificent. I would highly recommend this one.
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