The Twyford Code

This was an interesting read, partly because it was written in a style I'm not used to, which was the transcripts of video files recorded by our main character, Steven.

The other reason was because Steven, despite his troubled past, was a very likeable character.

I thought the story itself was very cleverly written.

Thank you to PH and Janice for the chance to read this book.

I liked all the puzzles that led to the investigation. I mostly liked the twist, but it did make me stop and wonder how realistic that could be. But then I decided that I didn't care how realistic it was because it was a fun read. I think that is what I came away with. It is a fun mystery with several puzzles. There are a couple clues along the way that lets you know there is more going on than the surface level of the story.

Dit was geweldig!
Toegegeven, het was even wennen en verwarrend in het begin, gezien het verhaal verteld wordt aan de hand van automatisch gegenereerde transcripties van audiobestanden, waarin spellingsfouten en verkeerde interpretaties van woorden niet vreemd zijn. Maar het duurde niet lang eer het verhaal zelf me helemaal mee had. En dan hoe alles spectaculair samen komt op het einde! Dit is eentje dat ik zeker opnieuw ga lezen om de gemiste aanwijzingen te kunnen ontdekken!

I forced myself to finish this because I'm sick of seeing it on my Currently Reading and I wanted to know what the bloody code was in the end, but honestly I was bored to tears by this.

I loved The Appeal so really thought I'd love this too, but it just did not live up to her first book at all for me.

The format is quite original and imaginative, but it just was not engaging at all. The characters were dull and flat, and I just didn't care about Steve's history.

It's a unique set up where we find Stephen Smith fresh out of prison and obsessed with uncovering the mystery of something that happened when he was still in high school. He starts recording his exploration and we are presented with a transcript of his thoughts as he starts peeling back the layers.

Is this the ravings of a deluded conspiracy nut seeing unlikely patterns everywhere or is Stephen onto something, uncovering ciphers, cracking codes and connecting the dots? As he reconnects with former classmates it seems like there might be something bigger happening just at the periphery of his understanding.

But it wasn't connecting with me. The further I got into the story the more convoluted the mystery became, it wasn't until the end that I realized I'd been reading it wrong all along but by then all my literary goodwill had been squandered. The problem certainly lies with me, but I was more relieved than satisfied when the book finally came round to its explanatory conclusion.