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A review by lory_enterenchanted
The Twyford Code by Janice Hallett
mysterious
fast-paced
Reviews and more on my blog: Entering the Enchanted Castle
I was excited to be approved by NetGalley for The Twyford Code, having enjoyed Hallett's first book, The Appeal. Unfortunately, the magic was not there in this one for me.
Although I was able to overlook the unlikeliness of the mode of storytelling in The Appeal, here it kept bothering me. It was just not convincing that anyone would choose such an extremely elaborate and complicated way of conveying a message, let alone this particular character.
I was also distracted by the way words are transcribed by the supposed software. Why is "Shell" recognized as a proper name and capitalized? "Acrostic" transcribed as "a cross tick" -- no "an"? (Nobody would say "it's acrostic," they would say "it's an acrostic") Why "Miss Isles" as "missiles" -- is that really how Steven pronounces it? Even if so, surely a more likely transcription would be "miss aisles," if not "miss isles"? Why can the software correctly transcribe lots of unusual proper names (including Twyford) but not "Bournemouth"? Why is the slurred "musta (must have)" transcribed as "mustard"? Nobody puts a "d" in there. "Muster" would make more sense. In short, the transcription was in places too accurate and in others inaccurate in peculiar ways.
The "mustard" misreading turns out to be important to the solution of the puzzle, which makes it all the more annoying that this detail was not better attended to. As for the rest of the transcriptions and the story that eventually comes out to explain them ... it's all way, way too elaborate and unbelievable. I think a good puzzle mystery should make you want to go back and figure out the clues that were set for you. This one just left me frustratedly wanting to know the answer, and underwhelmed when I had it.
I may read another Hallett book, but I hope she doesn't try so hard with the gimmick next time.
I was excited to be approved by NetGalley for The Twyford Code, having enjoyed Hallett's first book, The Appeal. Unfortunately, the magic was not there in this one for me.
Although I was able to overlook the unlikeliness of the mode of storytelling in The Appeal, here it kept bothering me. It was just not convincing that anyone would choose such an extremely elaborate and complicated way of conveying a message, let alone this particular character.
I was also distracted by the way words are transcribed by the supposed software. Why is "Shell" recognized as a proper name and capitalized? "Acrostic" transcribed as "a cross tick" -- no "an"? (Nobody would say "it's acrostic," they would say "it's an acrostic") Why "Miss Isles" as "missiles" -- is that really how Steven pronounces it? Even if so, surely a more likely transcription would be "miss aisles," if not "miss isles"? Why can the software correctly transcribe lots of unusual proper names (including Twyford) but not "Bournemouth"? Why is the slurred "musta (must have)" transcribed as "mustard"? Nobody puts a "d" in there. "Muster" would make more sense. In short, the transcription was in places too accurate and in others inaccurate in peculiar ways.
The "mustard" misreading turns out to be important to the solution of the puzzle, which makes it all the more annoying that this detail was not better attended to. As for the rest of the transcriptions and the story that eventually comes out to explain them ... it's all way, way too elaborate and unbelievable. I think a good puzzle mystery should make you want to go back and figure out the clues that were set for you. This one just left me frustratedly wanting to know the answer, and underwhelmed when I had it.
I may read another Hallett book, but I hope she doesn't try so hard with the gimmick next time.