Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Twyford Code | 2022 | Janice Hallett | Buy |
| 2 | The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels | 2023 | Janice Hallett | Buy |
| 3 | The Examiner | 2024 | Janice Hallett | Buy |
| 4 | A Box Full of Murders | 2025 | Janice Hallett | Buy |
| 5 | The Killer Question | 2025 | Janice Hallett | Buy |
Janice Hallett’s standalone novels share a format, assembled documents rather than traditional narration, but each picks a different type of document and a different institutional world to inhabit. The Twyford Code (2022) unfolds through voice recordings made by Steven Smith, who believes a series of children’s books contains a hidden code connected to his teacher’s disappearance on a class field trip when he was a teenager. It won Crime and Thriller Book of the Year at the British Book Awards 2023.
The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels (2023) follows rival true crime writers both trying to locate the surviving baby from a cult-related triple death in Alperton two decades earlier. The story is told through their competing emails, WhatsApp messages, and interview notes, and the rivalry between the two writers becomes as much a subject as the original crime. The Examiner (2024) moves into an art school, where a year-long MA course is accessed after the fact by an external examiner who finds the students’ emails, messages, and coursework submissions concealing a possible murder.
A Box Full of Murders (2025) marks a departure in audience, as it is Hallett’s first novel for children aged 8-12, following two siblings who find a box of old papers in their attic and piece together an unsolved murder. The Killer Question (2025) returns to adult crime fiction with a mystery set around a weekly pub quiz. The standalones demonstrate that the epistolary format is a genuine mode she keeps finding new ways to use.