I’d say for me this was a 3.5 star, but I rounded up to 4. I found it a little confusing, my brain doesn’t work like a puzzle master. The plot takes the reader on a wild race across time and places. Some of the characters were quite interesting and some just plain creepy. I guess it isn’t really my genre, but I was glad to read it.

[Blurb goes here]

Mike Brink, a man with 'acquired savant syndrome,' is called to visit a murderer who happens to be a woman. She hasn't spoken about what happened but seems to know who Mike is. Thus begins Mike's quest to solve a ton of puzzles that will help save this woman. Oh! Right. Mike is a Puzzle Master...he creates puzzles for a newspaper.

The first 20% of the book is exciting: setting the background for the story. Soon after that, it becomes a convoluted mess. While beautifully written, the plot branches out into infinity, confusing the reader in the worst possible way.

Most of the events taking place around our hero don't make sense and turn into holes in the story. I wanted to like this novel. As I've said, it is well written...but goes too far out into tangents that are never fully explained.

Thank you for the advanced copy!

Do you enjoy reading and thinking about the following: mysticism, Kabbalah, numerical brain teasers, demons, conspiracy theories, digital surveillance, Golems, secret societies, computer, hacking, Blockchain, and immortality?

If yes, then this is the book for you. I am only mildly interested in a couple of these topics, so I didn’t really enjoy this book. It is well written, and I think someone who is fascinated by these topics would really love this book. I don’t think I am intended audience. I’m giving it 2 1/2 stars and I always round up.

Much of the book goes into very long explanations of mystical theories that did not hold my interest so I wound up skimming this book and finished it in a day.

I appreciate net galley and the publisher, giving me a free digital ARC in exchange for my truthful opinion.

This was one of most uniquely fascinating books that I have had the pleasure of reading in quite some time. The synergy achieved between the puzzles contained within the book along with the central plot made this book so utterly intriguing, that I literally could not read it fast enough. The male protagonist Mike Brink, has what is called acquired savant syndrome, which leads him to see the world as puzzles and patterns. This aspect of the story was what drew me in because my foundation as a medical provider is in neurology, so I find the brain to be quite an enigma. Then you have the religious ideologies and hypotheses keenly interwoven into the central plot of the book and that my friend becomes this masterpiece of a novel.

I cannot state it often enough how utterly fascinating and unique this novel is, and I will be recommending it to any and all because how keenly written this book is, is genius that needs to be shared and appreciated by one and all! Kudos to Ms. Trussoni!!

a well written thriller that i couldn't put down

thanks to the publisher and netgalley for the copy for review

This book was interesting but it gave me a lot of whiplash. It was a quick read that reminded me of Dan Brown. I thought the puzzle would be more of a mystery than a cipher. I think this would be good for a movie adaptation.

Mike Brink is a puzzle master. A head injury in his past life has allowed him to see patterns and remember them like no one else. Jess Price is an author who stumbled across a mystery which turned into a murder and dove into the supernatural. Mix these threads together and you have a thriller that blends the past and present, reality and mysterious.

Overall a good read. The way the supernatural blended with the puzzle with religious roots was well done and interesting. The questions and ideas it brought up were stimulating. I did however struggle with the end of the novel. It felt rushed — with story threads abruptly tied off or dismissed in an unsatisfactory manner. 3 stars.

Review based on a digital Advanced Reader’s Copy provided by Random House Publishing Group and NetGalley. Thank you!

Enjoyable book that I thought I knew where it was going but boy was I wrong! I loved the surprises in this novel but felt like some of it went over my head. The puzzles were the best part - wish there were a bit more though!

This one started strong, lagged a bit in the middle and ending sort of preposterously. I liked it but it won’t be for everyone and I’m not sure I’d continue if there was another book in the series. 3.5 stars

This was a capturing read! It reminded me of The Da Vinci Code with the God puzzle. But it was so thrilling and fun. It has everything from murder to porcelain dolls. Advanced technology to billionaires who think they can get away with everything and get everything they want. I felt like the author left it in a way that there could be a second book, and I would be ok with that.

While the book itself was pretty far-fetched, it did make me more inquisitive of acquired savant syndrome. Not a bad read, just so unlikely that it was hard to get into.

I really wanted to like the Puzzle Master more. It started out pretty strong, reading a lot like the Da Vinci Code. But then it went off the rails. I did keep reading it, it was very entertaining. It's not a supernatural book, yet there are some elements of characters sending messages in their dreams. There is a romance that doesn't make sense at all. Parts of the book seemed pretty anti-semitic to me. And I don't think the author did much research on how the New York State prison system works - there were some massive issues and really made it seem pretty easy for someone with no training at all to sneak in, around and out of a prison.

This wasn't a bad book, it held my attention long enough to finish it. Jess Price is an inmate at a women's prison, she hasn't spoken since she was convicted and jailed 5 years ago. But, she gives her psychiatrist a puzzle she had drawn, which included the name of Mike Brink, a man who had suffered a traumatic brain injury in his youth that left him with the ability to see patterns in everything he looks at, which made him a master a building puzzles (mostly various crossword type). The psychiatrist invites Mike to visit Jess in the hopes that Jess will speak, Mike isn't convinced she will but does visit out of curiosity. Jess convinces him that she's in danger and he's the only one that can save her. This sets Mike, and his dog, off on a varied route to find what the puzzle means and how to solve it. The story includes part of a letter from a man who had created a golem (an inanimate object that can be brought to life and could be good or bad) way back in the 1700's, he did it to replace another one that was wearing out. It was created in the image of the man's daughter who had died earlier. Back in the present Mike meets with a couple that also want to solve the puzzle and will stop at nothing to get the solution. There were points in the story that I really enjoyed the writing, mostly when Mike was involved, the story covers many genres, horror, supernatural, science fiction, thriller, romance. I would recommend. Thanks to #Netgalley and #Random House for the ARC.

Everything is a puzzle to Mike Brink, a brilliant puzzle constructor. Before a brain injury in high school, he was a typical guy, a football player. But afterward, he found out that the injury caused a rare medical condition: acquired savant syndrome. The huge changes in how he saw the world led him to leave football behind. He got advanced degrees on scholarships. But being so different from almost everyone else also left him feeling isolated.

When a psychiatrist at a women’s prison reaches out to him about a puzzle an unusual inmate drew, his curiosity is piqued. When he meets Jess Price, incarcerated for a horrific murder, he’s not just fascinated by the complex and drawing; Mike feels a connection to her.

Jess hasn’t spoken a word since her arrest, not even to defend herself, and Mike wants to figure out the meaning behind her strange puzzle as well as find the true culprit of the murder.

One mysterious puzzle leads Mike into a dangerous situation, going up against very powerful people and forces. But he can’t turn away.

The Puzzle Master blends ancient Jewish mysticism, scholarly research, complex puzzles, horror, and cutting-edge technology into one page-turning story. By the conclusion, the parts were all put together to reveal some curious answers. I personally wasn’t quite on board with a few pieces of the whole at the very end; some of the answers just didn’t work for me. But that may not be the case with many readers; overall, it’s a tantalizing and smart read.

I loved the premise of this, but it just didn't hook me as much as wanted. The concept is very intriguing, but I didn't love the characters or where the story went. I would be interested in picking up future works by this author though, as I found her writing style enjoyable.

This mystery/suspense follows Mike Brink - a celebrated puzzle constructor with acquired savant syndrome that allows him to solve any puzzle. So when he gets invited to a prison to solve a puzzle one of the inmates has drawn, he isn't expecting this day to be much different than any other. But when he isn't able to solve the puzzle, he ends up getting drawn into the prisoner's case and the hunt for the truth.

Overall, I liked this book just fine, but I think it was a case of mis-matched expectations. The one big selling point for me was a blurb I saw that compared this to The DaVinci Code + The Silent Patient. Unfortunately, that blurb along with the premise of Brink being a puzzle master gave me a very specific set of expectations that I didn't feel the book lived up to. I was expecting a book titled The Puzzle Master, with a main character who literally can solve any puzzle he comes across, being compared to The DaVinci Code to be really involved with the puzzling aspects. And sure, the puzzles were important to the overall plot, but used much more infrequently that I was expecting.
The mystery plot was overall satisfying and I think it all came together really well. There were a lot of moving parts, but Trussoni was able to balance them all well. We get some flashbacks from a journal entry and those did slow down the pacing some for me but we get a lot of background information that really fleshed out the details and stakes of the overall mystery. I did find the goalposts of the mystery kept moving because the characters would solve the first mystery, which would lead to the next, etc. Since all the parts were interconnected, it did still feel cohesive. However, I really love the big build up and investigation for mystery reads and these collection of smaller mysteries didn't quite give me the big satisfaction of having all the pieces fall together at the very end.

The characters felt like they were a little too one dimensional for my tastes. This was more of a plot-forward story instead of being really concerned about the character development. I do feel like there was some attempt at character development but it came across to me as very surface level and I didn't actually see the changes in our main character. The ending did leave the door open for a book 2 so there's potential for more development if this continues into a series. I usually prefer my reads to be more character-centered and since the mystery plot and lack of puzzles fell short for me, there wasn't enough plot for me.

Overall, this was a pretty satisfying mystery read, but it wasn't quite what I had expected. I liked a lot of the elements on their own, but the overall execution veered away from my personal tastes in mysteries. I was expecting a more complex, puzzle-forward mystery but this didn't quite rise to the level I was hoping for. I have heard really good things recently about this, so I think readers overall are enjoying it.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House for the ARC. Publication date was June 13, 2023

This reads like a cross between Dan Brown and Alex Michaelides. The perfect summer thriller and the best thriller since Girl with a Dragon Tattoo. Very unique from Angelology but equally as compelling.

The best part of this difficult-to-read, hard-to-understand novel is the condition of the lead character. Mike Brink suffers from acquired savant syndrome, a condition that gives him the unique ability to solve puzzles of any kind. He is pulled into a very involved plot that I found almost impossible to follow. Others will disagree, but this book was not for me. Thanks to NetGalley and to Random House for providing an ARC.

The Puzzle Master is an intriguing story that is masterful in the telling. It begins with Mike Brink, a puzzle developer for major outlets, such as the New York Times, who gets summoned to a correctional facility to meet a woman, Jess Price, who has been incarcerated and her attempt at communication was to summon Brink to the prison with a puzzle. Brink’s back story is interesting as to how he developed his gift with making and solving puzzles. He was a high school football player and a major head injury changed everything. He suffered a concussion that left him with an ability to see and think patterns in the world around us. He often visualized numbers as colors and that allowed solutions to come to him differently than most people experience puzzles. Jess knows that she has stumbled into a situation that is complex and fraught with danger and needs an ally who can maybe help her before its too late.
Overall, the book is an interesting mix of the story and the puzzles, allowing the reader to glimpse how Brink’s brain works. The story is well developed and engaging, although at times I felt like it dragged a bit. Power through these slower parts of the story, it is worth it in the end.
Definitely recommend!
#ThePuzzleMaster #NetGalley#RandomHousePublishingGroup

Thank you to NetGalley for an early edition of The Puzzle Master by Danielle Trussoni.
This was a strange story, requiring a leap of faith, so keep an open mind. It is the story of a high school quarterback hero, who it is injured during a game, ending his football career. However, the head injury he suffers brings with it a savant ability to see numbers and puzzles. This ability leads him to get a degree at MIT, but ultimately landed at the NYT making puzzles.

When a partial puzzle arrives in the mail and requests his presence at a penitentiary, Mike is intrigued and cannot help himself. He goes to the penitentiary and is thrown into a theoretical puzzle like no other he’s ever experienced. As noted above, it is a strange/interesting story on the meaning of numbers and patterns in the universe and their relationship to religion. The ending is as expected, as you read.

The author did a good job of explaining the more complex parts of the theory. The character development was OK. Parts are too detailed, however, other parts are not detailed enough, so there were a few times, I got lost as to where we were in the story. The ending felt a little rushed.