The Chris Voss Show - The Chris Voss Show Podcast – The Twyford Code: A Novel by Janice Hallett

Episode Date: April 9, 2023

The Twyford Code: A Novel by Janice Hallett The mysterious connection between a teacher’s disappearance and an unsolved code in a children’s book is explored in this new novel from the “modern Agatha Christie” (The Sunday Times, London) and author of The Appeal. Forty years ago, Steven “Smithy” Smith found a copy of a famous children’s book by disgraced author Edith Twyford, its margins full of strange markings and annotations. When he showed it to his remedial English teacher Miss Iles, she believed that it was part of a secret code that ran through all of Twyford’s novels. And when she later disappeared on a class field trip, Smithy becomes convinced that she had been right. Now, out of prison after a long stretch, Smithy decides to investigate the mystery that has haunted him for decades. In a series of voice recordings on an old iPhone, Smithy alternates between visiting the people of his childhood and looking back on the events that later landed him in prison. But it soon becomes clear that Edith Twyford wasn’t just a writer of forgotten children’s stories. The Twyford Code holds a great secret, and Smithy may just have the key. “Filled with numerous clues, acrostics, and red herrings, this thrilling scavenger hunt for the truth is delightfully deceptive and thoroughly immersive” (Publishers Weekly, starred review).

You wanted the best. You've got the best podcast, the hottest podcast in the world. The Chris Voss Show, the preeminent podcast with guests so smart you may experience serious brain bleed. The CEOs, authors, thought leaders, visionaries, and motivators. Get ready, get ready, strap yourself in. Keep your hands, arms, and legs inside the vehicle at all times because you're about to go on a monster education roller coaster with your brain. Now, here's your host, Chris Voss. Hi, folks. It's Voss here from thechrisvossshow.com, thechrisvossshow.com. Hey, welcome to to the podcast we certainly appreciate you guys being here thanks for coming by we've got an amazing author on the show she's launching her next book

and some other books we'll be talking about as well there and so we're going to have her on the show but as always you know the drill go refer the show to your family friends and relatives tell them all sign up for the show subscribe to the show all that good stuff we certainly appreciate you guys supporting the show in that manner and format go to linkedin.com fortress chris fos youtube.com fortress chris fos and goodreads.com you before it's ash chris fos you can see us all over that those those that and then places today she is the author of the new book coming out january 24th 2023 the twyford code janice Hallett is on the show with us today, and she'll be talking about her amazing hot new book

that will be coming off the presses. Janice is a former magazine editor, award-winning journalist, and government communications writer. She wrote articles and speeches for, among others, the Cabinet Office, Home Office, and Department for International Development. Her enthusiasm for travel has taken her around the world several times, from Madagascar to the Galapagos, Guatemala to Zimbabwe, Japan, Russia, and South Korea.

A playwright and screenwriter, she penned the feminist Shakespearean stage comedy, Netherbard, and co-wrote the feature film Retreat. She lives in London, is the author of The Appeal and The Twyford Code. Welcome to the show, Jess. How are you? Oh, thank you. Thank you for having me, Chris. I'm very well, thank you. Thanks for coming. And it sounds like you're from across the pond, as we like to say in, I don't know, American times. I don't know. Who does say that? I am. I'm from across the pond. I live in London, and I am a Londoner.

There you go. There you go. And I'm a Yankee from America. And we got you guys. We stole the country. But we sent an emissary to take back Britain. I think that's the prince and the princess there. Well, I think they reneged their titles or whatever the proper term is there. It's changing quickly here. It is. King and queen. Yeah.

Prince. Princess. You can't say God saved the queen anymore, which is unfortunate. No. It's God saved the king. Do you guys like him? Is that going to work out? Yeah.

I like him. Yeah. Yeah. Now, if you could just stick with a prime minister for more than a couple weeks, we'll be good, right? You know, we get bored easily, don't we? Switch them around. I do. You guys just like, don't we? Switch them around.

You do. You guys are just like, oh, let's try another one. Just do that. We might, I mean, we're not doing any better on our end. We might want to, I mean, I like the guy who's in there now. I voted for him, but a little bit prior to that, there was some weird stuff going on that we could have used some turntables on. You know, whatever you guys have the ability to say, no, we're not dealing with you anymore.

We need more of that over here, I suppose, is what I'm saying. I don't know. With all of our politicians, in fact. But politics aside, tell us about the new book or give us your.com. We should probably start with that so we can find you on the interwebs and get to know you better. Well, I don't have a website as such. I'm on Twitter as that Janice Hallett. And that's where you'll find me a shocking amount of time, probably when I'm supposed to be working. I am on Twitter. So that's my, that's the place to find me. There you go. There you go. So what motivated you to write this book? And then to my understanding, this is your second book? This is my second book. Yeah. I mean, The Twyford Code is, well, it's about a former prisoner who looks into a traumatic event in his past. And he goes back to investigate the disappearance of his English teacher, who he doesn't remember it quite as much as he'd like to.

So he has to go back and ask his school friends what happened to this teacher that he is sure disappeared. Pete So, it's a mystery? It's very much a mystery because he discovers that this teacher had been obsessed with a cancelled children's writer in the vein of Enid Blyton. She'd been obsessed with this writer and thought she'd been putting codes in her books that are now long forgotten. And Steve himself becomes convinced of the same thing. So, would you say it's kind of a whodunit? Yeah, it kind of is.

Is there murder involved or can you tease that out to us? There's quite a bit of murder involved, actually, thinking about it. All right. Yeah, Steve discovers quite a lot there's quite a bit of murder involved actually thinking about it all right yeah there's it's you know it's steve discovers quite a lot of stuff going down there you go so what made you choose the the plot of the book and and the arc of it i don't know it's one of those things that just came to me i know my first book had been very much an ensemble the appeal has a huge cast of characters and i really wanted to get down and get to know one character in my second book so it's really one character's journey and that's that's steve

and i should say that steve he's a former prisoner but he can't read all right so he's communicating with us via audio files and they've been transcribed automatically by some very quirky software that sometimes misinterprets what he says so it's kind of it's told in a strange way as well i mean once you're once you're getting into it you're into it but yeah it's not a normal narrative by any means there you go probably adds the suspense or the or the plot or you know just thickens everything 100 yep there you go now is that what the twyford code is can you tell us what that title or the plot or, you know, just thickens everything? 100%, yep. There you go. Now, is that what the Twyford Code is?

Can you tell us what that title comes from? I couldn't possibly tell you what the Twyford Code actually is, but I can tell you what it refers to. Edith Twyford is the author, the children's author in the book, the Enid Blyton-style cancelled author whose old stories are retold in the book. And we get to read some very old-fashioned narratives that children were reading in the 1940s. So that was fun to write. So this English teacher, Miss Isles, do I have that correct?

Yes, that's the one, yeah. She believed that the code was running through the book of a disgraced author, Edith Twyford? This is kind of like one of those things where people thought if you played Beatles things, records backwards, that John Lennon was dead or something or whatever. Well, you know, there's a lot of conspiracy theories. Sometimes if you look at them in the cold light of day, they seem strange beliefs. People do take them up and can be made to believe them truth is stranger than fiction absolutely now was this was there any characters or any people that carried over from your first book not at all no they're both the

appeal and the trifle code are both standalone stories what what's an example or a tease out of maybe a scene or scenario that we can let people know? Unfortunately, I think it was novels. We can't tell what the ending is in the middle part. That's true. So it's kind of hard to say, isn't it? Let's think. Mostly a tease out, you know, where you go.

What do you think people are going to find most appealing about the story or the characters i think the character of steve he's very he's a very compelling character because he's not been able to read or write his whole life he's he's developed a personality that um and compensates for that really he's got all sorts of tricks that will cover up the fact he can't read and he can't write. His favorite one that he goes to is that his glasses are being mended. And so could someone read something for him, please? So, yeah, he's a character and he's had a difficult life.

He comes from a very troubled, dysfunctional and poverty-ridden background. But he made his way out of that. From a young teenager, he was taking steps to get out of those roots. But as we'll see as the book goes on, some of those steps really landed him in more trouble. Hence, he's just been released from prison. Wow, man. He's going through some interesting things. He even has some new technology that's in here, an old iPhone and voice recordings.

Talk to us about how you incorporated that in the plot. Well, that's the strange thing. That's how he manages to record his voice. He wasn't intending to write down this investigation at all or to record it. He manages, he's got an estranged adult son who gives him an old iPhone 4. The technology really is quite ropey in that but he does manage to get this voice recorder working and that's what he records he records himself not only telling us about the investigation he records some conversations with people that he has and he

finds himself talking into this phone and using it as a confidant rather than, and so he reveals quite a lot about his background, about his thoughts and his motivations. And we kind of always know what Steve's thinking through what he tells us into the phone. So that phone becomes his surrogate son, really, because his son doesn't want him to contact him anymore. It sounds kind of interesting how the whole thing plays out and there's all sorts of different twists and turns and aspects to it.

There certainly is. Was there anybody that you knew or movie stars or people you had in mind as you wrote it or did you pretty much make up the characters as you went along? I tend to make them up as I go along with nobody visually in mind for them. I must say I don't really

think much about how people look, how my characters look. I don't do a lot of visual description of them. And I think that's because I think more of, I inhabit the character as I write. And so I'm not looking at the character. It's a strange phenomenon when a writer writes from the point of view of a character.

While I was writing, I felt I was Steve. And yet we couldn't have been more different. There you go. Now, is this book out? This book is out over in Europe? It's out in the UK. Yep, certainly. It's got a whole lot of good ratings to it.

And I was just like, it's got a lot of ratings for something that doesn't come out until January 24, 23. Oh, no, it's been out. It's coming out in America. Since January. I'm about a year behind in the US. I think we're, hopefully we'll catch that up.

Well, we're kind of behind over here. It's been a weird couple of years. It's been a weird, I don't know, decade or something like that. So, you know, there it is. The Sunday Times of London declared it a modern Agatha Christie mystery, and she's constructed a fiendishly clever, maddeningly original crime novel. I can't read or write either. Clearly, I went to public school. Crime novel for lovers of word games, puzzles, and stories of redemption.

That sounds like quite a lot to put into a book. That's an awful lot, isn't it? Goodness, that sounds like a lot to me. But it is all in there, I promise. Lots of puzzles, lots of word games. Does the reader kind of find themselves being part of this solver of the mystery? Yes, we are with Steve every step of the way. So as he discovers this code, as Miss Isles felt that it was a code we we crack it with him and yeah we

will get to the bottom of it so is paul mccartney really dead then or what is that beatles thing you're over there can you go down to apple studio sabby road i haven't looked around for you yeah oh paul mccartney what a He seems like an incredibly nice guy. I'm sure he is. I hope he is. I mean, I'd hate to find out that, I don't know, he's a mean person in private, but he seems like a generally nice guy. Maybe that's why he's survived the longest. Maybe.

I don't know. Maybe. I don't know why. That's a really awful thing to say. I just slided Ringo Starr without realizing it. He seems like a nice guy too. Yeah. Peace and love.

Anybody who says that is probably a nice guy. I would hope so. Anyway, I don't know why we're doing Beatles jokes, but it just seemed like it felt very London-y. I don't know why. Sometimes we go on rambles on the show and we just gotta fill in whatever we need to fill in.

Because, you know, that's the big challenge with novels. They're wonderful to read. They're fun to read. But we can't give them away. You've got to order the book and read the book. What more do you want to tease out before we go? Oh, goodness. I think I've done so much teasing already that I don't want to tease your listeners too much.

There you go. You've got to buy the book. You've got to read it. You've got to solve the puzzles, word games. And everyone loves a story about redemption. That seems to be a classic when it comes to, you know, everyone goes through challenges in life, and so they love hearing about stories of redemption.

It's definitely a story of redemption. There's hidden things in there as well. If some of your podcast listeners are particularly clever, they might spot some of the Easter eggs in the tribe. Ah! And they might find out Paul McCartney's really dead. There you go. There's Easter eggs in the book.

Wow, that makes it even more interesting. People love Easter eggs. I love Easter eggs and all sorts of things. It's like finding hidden treasures. You're like, ah. And there you go. And you feel you're the only one. Yeah, or you try to be the smart one.

I always tell people, order the book before the rest of your book club does so that you can be the first one on the block to read it and say you did. Good strategy. I don't know. That's the strategy I like. It gives you game over everyone else. And then if you're really an evil, awful person like I was when my father, as a child, told me that Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny weren't real, and he said, don't tell your brother. First thing I did was go tell my brother what happened and ruined the plot for him. So don't do that, though. Well, it's a commitment to the truth, that.

Yeah. You're right. I was just being honest and the whatever but actually it was being but don't do that don't don't give away the plots the books let other people find out but just just be able to say you're the first one on the block who got to read the book and you know what happens at the end so there you go well janice it's been wonderful having the show we'll look forward to having you back for future books and give us your dot coms or plugs or wherever you want people find find you on the interwebs.

Oh, well, thank you, Chris. It's been lovely being here. You can find me on Twitter at Janice Hallett, and that's with two L's and two T's. Or you can also find me on Instagram, which is at Janice.Hallett, two L's, two T's. There you go. Or just Google me. You could Google me. Order it up and solve the crime of

the century per the book the twy ford code a novel that comes out january 24th 2023 welcome to the year 2023 that's pretty freaking awesome but now what's up next 2024 wow where's the time go i don't know anyway thank you very much jess for being on the show we really appreciate it thank you very much there you go thanks being on the show. We really appreciate it. Thank you very much. There you go. Thanks, Mon. It's for tuning in.

Be sure to go to all the places where you can order the book, wherever fine books are sold. Go to goodreads.com, Fortress, Chris Voss. Go to youtube.com, Fortress, Chris Voss, LinkedIn, Fortress, Chris Voss, and all those crazy places all those kids are playing on the Internet. Thanks for tuning in. Be good to each other. Stay safe, and we'll see you next time.