ARC BOOK REVIEW: The Puzzlemaster by Danielle Trussoni

Publication Date: June 13, 2023 Format: physical book Genre:  mystery

Publisher: Random House Length:  371 Pages Buy: Kindle | Audio

Synopsis

All the world is a puzzle, and Mike Brink—a celebrated and ingenious puzzle constructor—understands its patterns like no one else. Once a promising Midwestern football star, Brink was transformed by a traumatic brain injury that caused a rare medical condition: acquired savant syndrome. The injury left him with a mental superpower—he can solve puzzles in ways ordinary people can’t. But it also left him deeply isolated, unable to fully connect with other people.

Everything changes after Brink meets Jess Price, a woman serving thirty years in prison for murder who hasn’t spoken a word since her arrest five years before. When Price draws a perplexing puzzle, her psychiatrist believes it will explain her crime and calls Brink to solve it. What begins as a desire to crack an alluring cipher quickly morphs into an obsession with Price herself. She soon reveals that there is something more urgent, and more dangerous, behind her silence, thrusting Brink into a hunt for the truth.

The quest takes Brink through a series of interlocking enigmas, but the heart of the mystery is the God Puzzle, a cryptic ancient prayer circle created by the thirteenth-century Jewish mystic Abraham Abulafia. As Brink navigates a maze of clues, and his emotional entanglement with Price becomes more intense, he realizes that there are powerful forces at work that he cannot escape. 

Review:

I received a free copy of this book from the authors publicist. I am leaving this review voluntarily. 

This was a fun fast paced mystery with a lot of moving parts and a lot of problem solving. Brink can see solutions to puzzles in an instant. He is known for his NYT puzzles and has won various puzzle competitions and is content with his life until a therapist from a women's prison calls and asks for his help.  Her patient who doesn't communicate wrote his name and drew a puzzle that she thinks will unlock her client. She asks for Brinks help.  What he finds is an intriguing puzzle that is not finished and a woman that tugs at something in him as well as her story.  

This book reminded me a little of National Treasure (yes the movie) where the characters go running around trying to solve ancient clues to unlock some secret treasure.  There are bad guys chasing them and nothing is as it seems. I loved it.  The Jewish mysticism and the creepy dolls kept me going and the strange glass house and the family home that is being kept exactly as it was since a gruesome murder occurred give this book a great ambiance and lead you to want to know more. 

This is a new author for me but I will be checking out her other books as well. 

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