One word. Amazing.

This book follows a man with a unique ability to create and solve almost any puzzle that comes his way. When he receives a request to solve a puzzle from an inmate at a state prison, he has no idea what kind of adventure he is about to start.

This book is part thriller, part horror, part historical fiction and so much more. I loved how this delved into the history and mystery of well know wonders like Porcelain while weaving it seamlessly into the twisty and engaging story.

It is hard to truly write a review for The Puzzle Master by Danielle Trussoni that captures all the emotions that this book sparked.

The Puzzle master was an incredibly different type of book. Puzzles AND murder!? Yes, thank you very much!

The Puzzle Master is one of the most weirdly uneven novels I’ve ever read. It reads to me like an unedited first draft. There are flashes of brilliance--there’s a legitimately spooky haunted house sequence that had me up past my bedtime and frantically texting my boyfriend. However, unfortunately this book is just spread too thin to be effective at any one of the seven things it’s trying to do.

It’s trying to be about technology, and mysticism, and puzzles, and trauma, and possession, and it’s a gothic Dan Brown thriller historical mystery mash up. Even a modern day Shakespeare might blanch at trying to accomplish all that. And this author is not Shakespeare. The convoluted plot is hung like an albatross around the shoulders of characters that barely have space to breathe let alone develop into anything other than one dimensional stereotypes. The prose is workmanlike. I think the author has potential if she could get a better editor and maybe stop trying so hard to be Dan Brown, and instead cultivate her own voice.

In the end, when you put together seven half-baked ideas, you just end up with a mess. The ending also left me somewhat skeeved out about questions of how consensual some of the sex was.

I was given an advance copy by the publisher in exchange for this (perhaps overly) honest review.

This was a fun read! This book was a little of several genres: thriller, mystery, horror, suspense. I do love puzzles and the mystery in this book kept me going. Some of the religious aspects of the puzzles lost me, but I was intrigued enough to read on. Highly recommend!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Mike Brink suffered a traumatic brain injury on the football field that turned him into a puzzle prodigy. Several years later, he's swept into a mystery as big as life itself when he receives a puzzle from a woman convicted of murdering her boyfriend.

But when Mike meets Jess, she opens up to him when she hasn't said anything to her therapists before. Together, they have to solve the God Puzzle and prove Jess innocent.

Unfortunately, while the premise for this story is fascinating, this book just didn't really do it for me. There was a lot going on. There were times I couldn't keep track of characters and sometimes puzzles were described in too much detail. A lot of information about characters, however, was unnecessarily repeated time and again.

I also didn't find Mike Brink to be a particularly likeable guy. He was a hot quarterback who got injured and gained, essentially, a superpower. And for some reason we're supposed to feel bad for him. I feel bad that he's still stuck on what happened to him in highschool.

The central mystery of this book isn't revealed until half way through. I was interested in how everything would play out, but a lot of the discussion of regarding religious history, symbolism, and codes was over my head.

I think this will appeal to a lot of other people, it just wasn't the one for me.

Wowza! I did not expect "all that" when I picked up this book! No need to know too much prior to going in. You have a man who has a savant level ability to work out puzzles. He is wrapped into some major intrigue and get's put in the middle of a lot of drama, but with his intellect, will he be able to help resolve the issue at hand?

This felt similar to The Davinci Code, which I think would have helped set my expectations going into it. I didn't quite know where this roller coaster was going and was abruptly jolted at times with some of the plot point. I loved the concept and intelligence behind the book. A story that I can't work out on my own without reading it is always a winner in my book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for the complimentary e-copy of this book.

I could not stop flipping through the pages. A face paced read with lots of action and twists at every corner. Danielle Trussoni’s work building is fantastic and keeps you enthralled. Thank you Danielle Trussoni, NetGalley and Random House Publishing for this great ARC!

Acquired savant syndrome is both very real and very rare. For some people, a traumatic brain injury can actually cause extraordinary new abilities—be they scholarly, artistic, musical, or otherwise. This is what happened to Mike Brink, the protagonist of Danielle Trussoni's The Puzzle Master. And while he's found a way to make use of these abilities while appeasing their unpleasant side effects, said abilities and coping mechanisms are about to lead him down a twisting path of mystery, conspiracy, and strange spirituality.

Mike's brain injury may have ended his football career, but it's turned him into a puzzle master... whether he likes it or not. His tendency to see formulas in everything is debilitating, but he's focused it into both solving and creating puzzles. These puzzles have caught the attention of Jess Price: once a renowned author, now serving a prison sentence for murder. She's as keen on puzzles as Mike is, but she's dabbling in things far beyond her pay grade.

After visiting Jess and receiving some odd encoded messages from her, Mike soon finds himself fully tangled up in her world. She visits him in steamy dreams and seems to remember these encounters. And her diaries from before her arrest take him even further down the rabbit hole... into a world of golems, religious puzzles, doll-making, and demons.

The Puzzle Master is intriguing in that it hides its hand early on. It would have made for a perfectly serviceable crime drama with a reluctant detective at the helm. But as it opens up bit by bit, it brings more and stranger fascinating turns into play. By the end, what looked from the outside like a Rubik's cube has opened up into a complex and thrilling Lament Configuration.

Trussoni has a masterful storytelling style that is evident throughout The Puzzle Master, keeping the reader engaged as the story travels across multiple interlocking narratives. That said, the first few chapters are a bit infodump-y, cramming Mike's story into several rounds of oddly placed exposition. Trussoni's characterizations of everyone else, especially Jess Price, flow naturally into the narrative. Perhaps it's a narrative choice: a more structured, up-front exposition for the highly logical Mike to set him apart from the rest of the cast. Unfortunately, for readers new to Trussoni's work, it sets up an expectation that this is how all exposition will be approached. It is not, though, and pushing through this first series of chapters leads to writing that's much more rewarding.

For the most part, the story is compelling. Much as Mike is pulled down unexpected rabbit holes, so is the reader. What starts as a deep dive into the history of porcelain making turns into a conspiracy of Biblical (literally) proportions. The comparisons to The Da Vinci Code seem a bit unfair; Trussoni's work is much more respectful of and grounded in the ancient puzzles and mythologies it references. And while the plot does inflate to potentially affect Life As We Know It, the story still remembers who and what is at its core. Brink's affliction is never truly treated as a blessing. We are never allowed to forget the true trauma of having your entire life and worldview suddenly altered forever. As much as Mike can feed and appease his sudden genius, we also see his longing for normality, for his brain to stop behaving in the way that's earned him so much admiration. It's a very compassionate approach that I was pleased and relieved to see at play.

Sadly, I'm not in a position to discuss my favorite aspect of The Puzzle Master, as even bringing it up would give away a portion of the surprise twist ending. Suffice to say there's a nice bit of mirroring that hints at the true solution to the high-end puzzle Brink finds himself working with.

If you're a fan of puzzles, history, and Judeo-Christian mythology, The Puzzle Master is worth your time. It's an intriguing ride which, while it does stumble at the starting line, races strong to the finish and keeps you guessing from chapter to chapter.

My thanks to both NetGalley and the publisher Random House Publishing Group- Random House for an advance copy of this book filled with conundrums, head scratchers, thrills and secrets that nobody should ever try to solve.

Games Magazine was a periodical that i used to love getting in the mail when I was young. I would start right at the beginning and felt super smart when I could figure something out, and really dumb when I had to look at the answers. Today I still do crossword puzzles, never got Sudoku, and when feeling like Mr. Burns in the Simpsons will do an occasional Jumble. The best thing about Games was that the if one couldn't solve the puzzle, the answers were at the back of the book. Something the lead in The Puzzle Master by Danielle Trussoni doesn't have the option for, and the puzzle he is solving, might change the world forever.

Mike Brink was once a promising football player till an accident ended his career but gave Brink something more. Brink could see puzzles in his head and could both construct them, and solve them, a gift but a curse as well. Solving puzzles was suddenly easy, but life became a construct that seemed to elude him, something he could puzzle out, leaving him alone. Brink receives a strange message from a therapist at an institute that handles dangerous prisoners. One patient, a writer who committed murder but has not spoken in over five years has made created a puzzle, with Brink's name on it. The inmate, Jess Price, offers Brink something he thought he would never find, a difficut puzzle with roots stretching back almost 900 years, and a person who is as much an enigma as the puzzles she gives him.

A clever, twisty story full of questions, and conundrums, with a bit of supernatural tossed in. The story is laid out well, beginning very mysterious and going at that same pace. Brink is an interesting character, along with his dog, and the puzzles unfold carefully. There is a lot of descriptions about Brink's height and his not looking like a puzzle nerd, which after awhile can be a little tiring, but the story really holds up well. People might want to compare it to Dan Brown, but this is a lot more thoughtful, better written, with characters who seem alive. A summer read for the beach that makes the reader think and care.

For readers of Danielle Trussoni's previous book, this will go over well. Also a good introduction for new readers, to get a feel for Trussoni's style and ideas. For fans of Katherine Neville, Donna Tartt, even Michael Crichton.

I don’t think this was a bad story but I don’t think it was a good fit for me.

There was a lot going on, too much at times, that I had a hard time connecting to it. I didn’t really feel a connection to the characters and I felt like the characters’ connections to each other weren’t fully earned. I think that can be the trade off with a complicated plot.

Sometimes there was so much going on that a lot of little things get brought up once and seem important to the story but never mentioned or explained again, while other aspects felt like they were revealed more than once.

I think the premise was interesting enough though, it brings a lot of interesting ideas to the table, and I think it will find it’s audience.

The Puzzle Maker is a fantastic and such an intelligent book that I highly recommend.
it’s a mix of thriller, mystery, suspense, sci-fi, drama and so interesting, that will keep you hooked the entire time.

Thank you Maddison Dettlinger from Random House Publishing Group, the author Danielle Trussoni, and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.
Coming out June 13, 2023.

I can't quite put my finger on why this book didn't sit perfectly with me. I had a hard time getting into it...perhaps it needed a bit more backstory before dropping me in the middle of weirdness with Mike Brink showing up at the prison to meet Thessaly, the doctor who needs to unravel a puzzle presented by her patient, Jess. See? Even that was a lot.

Pros: lots of moving pieces to keep track of, puzzles, deep thinking, mystical problems/issues, many "experts".
Cons: deep thinking (at times it's a bit much), a terrifying doll, more dolls, one of the dolls MOVES, Cam Putney (does this guy EVER die?), and Jameson Sedge (no redeeming features on this one, at all).

It was still good, so 4 stars. Could maybe have pared down some of the convolutions and stepped up the pace a bit for me to give it 5.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC of The Puzzle Master! I love puzzles so when I got this book, I was excited. I really enjoyed the puzzle aspect and trying to figure out what happened. The characters were well done, I’m glad that we got Cam’s background to make him more human rather than a robot that follows orders. Mike’s background in explaining his injury, the result, how he uses his abilities, and how it effected him was very nice and informative. Also thank you for not killing the dog! Connie was my favorite, who doesn’t love a dog that can do fun tricks? Jameson? Now that guy was something else. Although Anne-Marie’s ability to play whatever role she needed to in order to help herself could give Jameson’s crazy a small run for his money. The only thing I wasn’t a huge fan of was the religious aspect of this novel. It was well written, it just wasn’t quite my cup of tea. I almost wanted to not finish the book when we got to the heavy religious portions but I will say that I learned a lot. Learning about Lilith and the final revelation of the puzzle outside of the murders was very interesting. It was fun that the book talks about how puzzles have a succinct solution, yet the main puzzle’s solution is really multiple different solutions since it solved all the major problems of the book. I enjoyed the ending where it wrapped nearly everything up yet left readers believing this story could continue in a second book if the author so chooses. Although I don’t believe a second book is necessary and this ending lets readers imagine whatever future they desire. Thanks again to NetGalley for the ARC of The Puzzle Master!

I really enjoyed this! Short chapters that had me flipping the pages and staying up past my bedtime to see how it ended.

This book sounded right up my alley, as I loved The DaVinci Code. Sadly, I didn't find that to be the case. There was just too much going on, and the plot felt thrown together, making it chaotic and hard to follow. Instead of solving things, Brink just appears confused. The romance angle was forced and unnecessary. The beginning chapters showed promise, but it went downhill quickly. Overdetailing stalled the plot.

As a lover of puzzles and huge fan of The DaVinci Code, the premise of this book had me sold. The story started out strong and I flew through the first few chapters. Then, the intensity just fizzled out and I found myself nodding off while trying to trudge through to the end. I became bored with what I felt were unnecessary details and overly described scenarios. I couldn't connect to any of the characters. The puzzle aspect was intriguing and, like Mike Brink, I couldn't give up until I had the answer. Unfortunately, the explanation was very complicated and I have to admit to not understanding most of it due to my ignorance in advanced science, quantum physics, and the Hebrew religion. I probably would have enjoyed this book more if I did, but my brain just couldn't handle it.

Thank you to the author, Random House and NetGalley for allowing me digital access in exchange for my honest review.

The Puzzle Master by Danielle Trussoni is a puzzle in and of itself. It does not fit into any one genre because it has inclinations toward many different niches. It is part mystery, adventure, and romance. It has elements of sci-fi, history, and the paranormal. It has a little bit of everything that people will love.
The story is exciting and original. The plot takes you from solving a puzzle to solving a murder to solving the creation of the universe. The characters are also unique and complex. The varied nature of the characters drives the plot in numerous directions but never loses sight of the storyline.
You can tell that Danielle Trussoni did a lot of research for this book. The vast descriptions of puzzles, the explanations of science, and the incredible mix of religion and mathematics show that she spent time learning her subject before writing about it. She weaves her knowledge into the story in a way that makes you learn as you are engrossed in the storyline and mystery of the plot.
If you like sci-fi or mystery mixed with puzzles to solve, you will enjoy this book. The only negative would be that it slows towards the middle of the book because you just want the solution to the riddle of the story and you don't want to wait any longer. However, it is worth the wait.
Thank you to Netgalley and Random House publishers for the advanced copy of the book. The opinions are my own.

I'm not sure what genre this book belongs in. It's complicated and has bits of several reading categories. Partway through I would have compared it to a Dan Brown book, but then it shifted. I enjoyed it. Even when I got a little lost occasionally. I would like to read more Danielle Trussoni books.

Mike Brink suffers a traumatic brain injury and becomes a brilliant puzzle solver and maker. Jess Price is serving thirty years in prison for a murder she may not have committed. She has a puzzle of her own for Mike to solve
This was a great read that had me flipping through the pages. Thanks NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group-Random House for this ARC that will be released June 13, 2023!

Thanks NetGalley for a copy of this book!

I am not sure what I was expecting after reading the description of this book but I was thoroughly surprised. This book does a great job of crossing over genres - lots of suspense but here is a bit of supernatural, how about some religion and science, now lets sprinkle in some horror and creepy dolls!

Mike Brink is a master at solving puzzles but this was not always the case. After a football injury left him with a brain injury, he sees everything as puzzles or patterns that need to be solved. Having a solution is very important to him. He is contacted by a psychiatrist at a women's prison to see if he can help her solve a puzzle one of her patients, Jess Price, has drawn. Jess has not spoken a word in 5 years since she was convicted of murder. After Mike and Jess meet, the action skyrockets and we are thrown into a crazy journey. At the center of the journey is the God Puzzle, a very old Jewish prayer that just might be the key to immortality.

The author did a fantastic job of keeping the action high and taking turns I never saw coming. Highly recommend this book!