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…
The narrative of The Twyford Code is told through audio transcript files from phone recordings and voicemails. The audio transcript files are recovered from a phone used by ex-con Steven Smith after his latest 11-year stint in prison for murder. Steven revisits his past, recalling the disappearance of his teacher Miss Isles when he was 14 years old.
The narrative being comprised of audio transcriptions was really unique. I appreciate that the author was realistic with the transcriptions in that they were not truly accurate. Words were commonly misunderstood by the transcription (Miss Isles turned to missiles, must’ve turned to mustard, etc). This did take some getting used to and occasionally took me out of the story as I tried to determine what the word was meant to be. However, it would’ve been equally jarring if the transcriptions had been accurate.
The integration of codes throughout the story was fascinating, and the ending definitely surprised me. I don’t want to give away any spoilers, but if you’ve read this book you likely know what I mean! One thing I will say though is that I wish the ending had a bit more context… I still have some questions. However, it is also nice to be able to fill in the blanks with my own wishes for the ending of the story.
I do feel that the tagline ‘it’s time to solve the murder of the century…’ is misleading with this book. Yes, there is a murder, but the real mystery here is The Twyford Code and missing gold.
