Thank you to Netgalley and Random House for the eARC.

I will be honest, this is unlike anything I have read before. The mystery in this novel surrounded by puzzles was a truly unique experience.

Mike Brink suffered a horrific accident that ended his goal of playing college and professional football. He struggles to make sense of his new life and find a way forward. As part of his life changing, he discovered a new found ability to solve puzzles. Mike is dubbed the “puzzle master”. He creates puzzles for the paper and solves those that are sent to him. He is contacted because a mysterious woman has asked for his help. She has refused to speak since her arrest and imprisonment for murder. Mike Brink is intrigued by the request and agrees to meet. Why did she request him? Will Jess Price reveal what happened to her and the victim?

Danielle Trussoni has written a fascinating story about two broken people, Mike and Jess, feel a connection, surprising Mike. Is the connection real? Jess wants to share a puzzle that is a vital part of the mysterious night in question. Mike becomes consumed with finding the solution. The search for the solution leads in many directions and involves many characters popping up unexpectedly. This supernatural thriller is entertaining and thought provoking.

* I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley. Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for this book. All thoughts are my own.

2.5 stars

This was just not the book for me. I didn’t realize it would lean heavily on religion, specifically, the God Puzzle has a lot of religion behind it and I was incredibly confused when it got explained. This is a book you really need to pay attention to and think about, which is not really what I want in books that I read.

The Puzzle Master really didn’t hold my interest because I constantly felt confused. It’s about a murder, and then perhaps a “haunted” doll, and then a bunch of puzzles in between, and then there’s a big religious document/explanation component. I was just mish-mash of too much.

The ending completely lost me. It was super unrealistic and I couldn’t understand why the author bothered to bring in AI and quantum mechanics??? I was just shaking my head the last few chapters of the story.

If you’re somebody who loves to analyze the story as you read and absolutely love puzzles, then this could be the book for you. Unfortunately, I don’t really fall within that group so it’s not for me.

If you start the story with this, of course you are going to keep in it: “I have suffered, but it is the suffering of a man who has created his own torture chamber. I believed I could know what shouldn't be known. I wanted to see things, secret things, and so I lifted the veil between the human and the Divine and stared directly into the eyes of God. That is the nature of the puzzle: to offer pain and pleasure by turns. And while the truth I am about to reveal may shock you, if it offers some small refuge of hope, then this, my last communication, will achieve all it must.”

This book is my version of “talk dirty to me”. You have the puzzles, you have the patterns, you have the philosophy, you have the theology. Justify things mathematically to me and put it in a mystery, you will get 5 stars from me. Every bit of this book was intriguing. While some parts of it were borderline fantasy, it was smartly inserted.

“"It's an incredible, world-changing revelation. The idea that God is male is the very foundation of my tradition, and Abulafia's message overthrows it entirely. […] It is non-binary, quantum, comprised of superpositions. And so is God." Brink paused to consider this. If what Rachel said was correct, and God was neither male nor female, the Creator and the quantum nature of the universe were in perfect alignment. "This will have an enormous impact on religious beliefs," he said.” While it might be a revelation for Christianity and Judaism, Islam already states that God does not have gender or human like traits. God is anything and everything all at once. So I found that interesting that this passage fails to consider that. Maybe this is where language fails us too. Most western languages have she or he talking about 3rd person, but not a word combining two. While Turkish, for example, has “O” signifying gender less 3rd person, which can also describe an entity beyond normal forms.

Mike Brink received a head injury in high school. It changed his life drastically. He acquired a rare condition called savant syndrome. He now has a weird super power. He can solve any puzzle in seconds. This has left him strangely isolated from people. So, when he is called to a prison to meet a famous murderer, he is perplexed. Little does he know this will draw him into an ancient mystery with a maze of clues and his life at stake.

I love how this author weaves in religious or historical mysticism in her books and this one is one of her bests. Still not as good as Angelology, in my opinion, but is pretty dang close.

This is a fascinating tale with a unique race for time. I swear, I love a book which has me reading faster and faster to help the main character. And this book leads the reader on a fast paced chase with dire consequences. And an ending you won’t see coming!

Need a unique mystery…THIS IS IT! Grab your copy today.

I received this novel from the publisher for an honest review.

For fans of The Davinci Code and The Silent Patient, this may be your next great read because you have all the great aspects of both.

The puzzles and the acquired savant syndrome aspect of Mike Brink draws the reader into the world of puzzles. And if anyone’s a puzzle it’s Jess Price. She’s been silent since she was accused and convicted of her boyfriend’s grisly murder.

Only cons are that the story gets a little convoluted with all the genre bending. You have puzzles, murder, Kabbalah, science fiction, an icky ick ick insta love, quantum computing, haunted houses, demons and the worst of all: PORCELAIN DOLLS.

Thank you to the author, publisher and @NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

When Mike Brink, an expert puzzle maker is thrust into a mystery by an inmate at a women’s prison, the stakes are high and we are off on a journey I wasn't expecting. The story takes place in an upstate New York women’s prison through nineteenth-century Prague, to secret rooms in Piermont Morgan Library. This book is very smart and at times, I felt like I had to re-read sections to fully understand the answer to a puzzle but that being said, I this one was so fun. If you like The Da Vinci Code, you will enjoy this book!

What a great and engaging book. I have red Angelology, but this book is vastly different. It follows a man who has become a puzzle master. Following a traumatic brain injury, he suddenly is able to complete and create amazing puzzles that are solveable by few people, and does so for a living. He is brought in to work with a medical mental facility associated with a prison as they have an individual who has basically asked for him through her puzzle. The story touches on all of the most engaging topics I have interest in - the supernatural, the Talmud, secret societies, archaeology, and more. I highly recommend this read if you want something amazingly engaging, and have interest in books along the line of Steve Berry, Dan Brown, and the like - this is great, and maybe even better given the clear attention to research here. HIGHLY recommend.

This ebook was provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I wasn’t a huge fan of this book. It’s wasn’t bad, but it also wasn’t good either. I think it tried too hard to be too many things. There is religion, history, science (specifically cryptography), puzzles, murder AND immortal consciousness. Like I said, it’s a lot. If you come just for the thriller side of it, then go for it, that was solid. But throw everything else in and you just get kind of a weird salad

The Puzzle Master by Danielle Trussoni is a thrilling ride that follows Mike Brink who becomes a puzzle and pattern savant after a TBI. He gets an unexpected request to help a convicted murder. Her case, and the puzzles within it, become more and more complicated the deeper Mike gets involved.

This book is reminiscent of Robert Langdon thrillers with a large dose of Jewish mysticism thrown in. The characters take a back seat as this compelling story unfolds. I enjoyed the fast-paced plot that took me for a thrilling ride. I wish some elements had been revealed a little later in the book to prolong the tension. I personally preferred the suspenseful first half as the ending veered more deeply and confoundedly religious than I had hoped.

This is a perfect summer read for Dan Brown fans or readers who love to dive into a smart, fast-paced, plot heavy story. Sit back, relax and enjoy the ride.

The Puzzle Master released June 13, 2023. Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for the advanced copy.

This review will be posted on Instagram and Goodreads.

After reading the blurbs, I was intrigued by this one. And it was really good.

Mike was just an ordinary guy planning his life when a football injury sidelined him for good. He begin hearing things and seeing things and suddenly the whole world was a puzzle he had to solve. Talk about feeling alone!

When he receives a phone call from the doctor at a prison. A phone call that will change his life once again. There is a woman who wants to meet him. She hasn’t spoken since she came here. Accused of a crime so horrible, she will never leave.

But she has a message for him and he believes her story so he is going to help her no matter the cost. And there will be a cost!

This exciting thriller took us from upstate New York prison to secrets from long ago, to the Pierpont Library. There was something for everyone in this book and I loved it.

June 13, 2023 RHPG/Netgalley

From the publisher:
Reality and the supernatural collide when an expert puzzle maker is thrust into an ancient mystery—one with explosive consequences for the fate of humanity—in this suspenseful thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of Angelology.

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.

Ranging from an upstate New York women’s prison to nineteenth-century Prague to the secret rooms of the Pierpont Morgan Library, The Puzzle Master is a tantalizing, addictive thriller in which humankind, technology, and the future of the universe itself are at stake.

The Puzzle Master by Danielle Trussoni was released June 13th, 2023 by Random House.

My Thoughts:

There's a lot going on in this book. From puzzles of different kinds, historical happenings, haunted dolls and golems, and quantum computers and cryptocurrency, there is so much covered in this book. But, the author manages to pull it off. I have to admit, my eyes glazed over a little at some points because of the amount of detail. At those points I skimmed a little to get the gist of what was happening. There weren't many parts like that though.

I also skimmed ahead a little reading some of the parts with the dog. I was worried for the dog and needed to know what would happen to it before I could go back and read what all was going on with the people. The inclusion of the dog seemed to do two things. It helped to humanize Mike Brink. And it ratcheted up tension a little. Frankly, I could have done without the inclusion of the dog, no matter how cute the name Conundrum is for a puzzle master's dog. Honestly, I had to look ahead because I was on the verge of DNF'ing the book because of the inclusion of the dog. But, because of the way things worked out, I was able to go on and finish and enjoy the book.

My favorite characters in the book were the lead character Mike Brink and the Kabbalah expert. The rest of the characters were ok. Cam Putney and Jameson Sedge played good villains.

Generally, the book moved along at a decent pace. Things were explained along the way as part of what was going on.

Overall, I enjoyed the book. I gave it 4 out of 5 stars. I would recommend it to people who enjoy thrillers with both a supernatural and technical aspect. The supernatural aspect appealed more to me than the technical parts.

I received a copy of the book from the publisher through NetGalley.

After a traumatic brain injury as a teenager, Mike Brink has somehow acquired extraordinary skills at solving and creating the most difficult of puzzles. So when doctors reach out to him on behalf of a troubled woman sentenced for murder - to solve a specific complicated and mysterious puzzle to prove her innocence - reality and the supernatural blur into a unique and complex series of cryptic events that prove to threaten both of their lives.⁣
⁣
This isn’t your average thriller. It’s a maze of mystery and suspense and a next level enigmatic journey that weaves you through a web of science, religion, across dimensions and a bewildering amount of uncertainty. There a fusion of history, art, and a slew of supremely creepy porcelain dolls all melding together in a stunning and sometimes terrifying labyrinth of riddles - to provide a mind blowing conclusion that merges both past and future in the most brilliantly beautiful way.⁣ An exciting and very special story.

The Puzzle Master touched on just about every genre I enjoy. It had aspects of mystery, thriller, horror, science fiction, and science all wrapped in a mix of reality and the supernatural that kept me turning pages. Everything is thoroughly researched and deftly written. I finished the book feeling like I needed to know more on several topics because she piqued my interest in areas that I don't have a background in.

The book is built around Mike Brink "a celebrated and ingenious puzzle constructor" who "understands its patterns like no one else." Mike's abilities will be tested in ways he can't imagine--as will the readers. It's a ride that spans centuries, belief systems, and dimensions.

A Puzzle that Draws You In

Mike Brink is a famous creator of puzzles. His ability to solve puzzles dates from a head injury that left him with this unusual talent. He suffers from acquired savant syndrome which gave him extraordinary cognitive abilities. Now he is being asked to use his ability to decipher puzzles to help Jess Price a woman accused of murdering her lover while staying in an eerie mansion.

Jess hasn’t spoken since the murder, but she has drawn puzzles. Her therapist believes that solving the latest extremely complex one can aid her recovery. Mike is fascinated not only by the puzzle, which is not an easy one to solve, but by the woman herself.

The book has multiple time lines and narrators. There are creepy mansions, strange porcelain dolls, and mysterious puzzles including the God Puzzle. The book is very well researched. I was fascinated by the amount of detail about puzzles and their construction.

The characters are interesting, but seem mainly to serve the plot. Mike Brink is a good character, but he is prinarily a person with a mission to decode a difficult puzzle. The transition between time lines works well. Although the book is long, it’s hard to put down and can give you a scare along the way. I recommend it if you enjoy Dan Brown type novels.

Thanks to Net Gallery and the publisher for this book.

Mike Brink suffered a head injury while young and in the process received the gift of sudden acquired savant syndrome. He is now a puzzle master. He can solve any puzzle in a matter of minutes, sees everything differently than before and can retain anything he’s seen or read. When asked to come to the New York Correctional Unit of Ray Brook, Mike is more than a bit intrigued. A prisoner had drawn a perplexing puzzle and puzzles were his passion after all. Feeling a strong connection to the prisoner, Jess, he is lured in with the puzzle and now he is desperate to figure it out. She gave him some obscure clues and he immediately has an overwhelming need to solve the puzzle and help this woman he doesn’t even know. The only problem is nothing is what he believed it to be and as he digs deeper everyone that tries to help Jess is in danger. There are powerful forces at work here and Jess holds the key. The only question is can Mike Brink solve the puzzle before it’s too late for all of them?
This book started strongly, but quickly turned into a slower, tedious read. Too much dry religious history was thrown in to make it an edge of your seat thriller. There was some creepy supernatural moments at play, but this book just didn’t really work for me. Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for an ARC of this book.

Such a captivating premise! I was drawn in immediately and thought the first half was paved well. I enjoyed the horror moments as well and made things creepy. The second half struggled for me. I thought the central religious mystery got very very dense and I found myself losing focus. I also thought there were too many characters at time, jumping from support to support. I enjoyed the cryptic ending but wish the second half would have been as interesting as the first.

THE PUZZLE MASTER started off strong but lost me somewhere around the half way point. I kept on reading in hopes that the plot points that hooked me in to begin with would reappear (possessed dolls! paranormal activity! murder!) but alas…it was a bit of a slog to reach the end.

Or maybe I just didn’t “get” it because I’m not a PUZZLE MASTER? Maybe. Probably.

Thank you to @netgalley for my #gifted arc!

The Puzzle Master hooked me from the very beginning. Maybe it is because I am a puzzle person (Sudoku, Wordle, etc.). The challenge is that I started it right before going to bed while on vacation and did not want to put it down. I forced myself so that I could also enjoy my trip.

Due to a high school head injury, Mike Brink developed the ability to see patterns quickly and have 100% recall to writings or pictures that he has read or seen. This ability is the center of his career as a puzzle designer. It also is a detriment as he can be distracted when encountering a pattern when his focus should be elsewhere.

Brink has called to help break the design code from an ancient design from a Jewish mystic to help save the woman charged with a murder.

The author has a lot of twists and turns and keeps the reading pace vibrant. The only challenge I had was that I know next to nothing about the mystics of the Jewish faith. I probably missed or did not understand some of the religious nuances. This did not stop me from enjoying the book. There is definitely mysticism that my be far fetched for some. It was on the cusp for me.

I definitely would recommend this book.

Thank you, NetGalley, for an advanced copy

I read early release and provided my feedback and not sure why it’s gone. Happens a lot with NetGalley.

Loved the book, page turner, and interesting twist using puzzles as the story thread. I am a big fan of her Angelology series (please finish!).. The author does her homework and story unfolds & the reader learns new things along the way. Big fan of the author! The Puzzle Master is another great feather in her cap of story telling. Buy the book!