Puzzle maker Mike Brink is pulled into a quest to solve a difficult ancient cipher and also gets involved with a woman accused of murder,

I was almost immediately turned off by main character Mike Brick, making it difficult to read much more than a few chapters in this story, at which point I had had enough.

Thank you to Netgalley and to Random House Publishing Group - Random House for this ARC in exchange for my review.

I started this book because I enjoy puzzles and puzzle construction. I had no idea that it was going to shift to discussions of a Golem. A pretty fascinating turn of events. I think the author did a great job constructing the story.

I wanted to like this book since it contained many elements that I enjoy - puzzles, mystery, thriller, Kabbalah, occult, horror, etc. Unfortunately for me, I found this book boring and had to force myself to finish it.

Other readers could have a different impression so try it for yourself.

I heard nothing but great things about this one and I was so excited to read it. I love puzzles even though I am not always that great at solving them. I was drawn into this one and loved the first third. But there was the current story, then it switched to Jess’ diary, then we threw in the puppet maker’s letters, then it went paranormal and then very religious. And kinda like my last sentence, it seemed like the author might have lost focus on what the point of the plot was.

It also didn’t help that I listened to this in addition to reading it and there wasn’t a strong segway or indication when the story changed to another focus (the diary or the letters). I sadly found myself confused and would need to wait until I could pick up the book again.

It had a lot of potential and the part I loved was five stars all the way, so I would be interested in the author’s next book.

strong premise but it leans a bit too far into the cerebral and obsessive. i understand the silent patient comp and hoped it would be more puzzles than knockoff vertigo

This may very well be the hardest book I have ever reviewed. In fact, I admit I did something very weird with it. But more on that in a bit. First a synopsis. Honestly, I could try to write one but it's a story that I feel is almost two separate stories, so this one is from Goodreads. Whoever wrote this summary did a better job that I can do:

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.
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So, here's the weird thing that I ended up doing. I got an e-book copy of it and seemed to really be struggling with it. I almost gave up on it and thought that maybe if I got a physical hard copy it would be better. Well, that actually worked. I don't know what it is about me. I just love to hold a book. Usually, it doesn't matter too much to me, but this one I had to hold in order to finish it.

I have such mixed feelings about this book. It took me way too long to finish and, for me, it read like a text book in some places. BUT, in some places, it really sucked me in, especially toward the end. I thought it started picking up immensely. Now, all that being said, while I may not have devoured the book, I applaud this author's creativity! I cannot even imagine being able to come up with this kind of intricate plot. So, overall, I am going to say I did enjoy this even though I spent more time with it than I would have liked. I wish the author the best. One more note: I think this would be a good movie! Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher. No review was required.

A Puzzle That Didn't Quite Fit

"The Puzzle Master" by Danielle Trussoni is an intriguing blend of mystery, history, and the supernatural. The premise is fascinating: Mike Brink, a puzzle constructor with acquired savant syndrome, is called to solve a perplexing puzzle drawn by a mute prisoner, Jess Price. The narrative promises a thrilling journey through a series of interlocking enigmas, with the fate of humanity at stake.

However, despite its promising premise, the book didn't quite click with me. While the plot was intricate and the characters were well-developed, I struggled to connect with the story. The narrative seemed to veer off into tangents that, while interesting, didn't contribute to the overall momentum of the story.

The writing style is commendable, and Trussoni's ability to weave historical and supernatural elements into the narrative is impressive. However, the pacing felt uneven at times, making it difficult to stay engaged.

I want to clarify that my decision not to finish the book reflects my personal reading preferences more than the book's quality. "The Puzzle Master" is a complex and thought-provoking novel that will likely appeal to readers who enjoy intricate puzzles and supernatural mysteries.

I'm giving this book 3 stars, acknowledging the creativity and effort that went into its creation, even though it wasn't the right fit for me.

This book is a whole lot of everything - murder, demented dolls, demons and conspiracy theories. The main character is a savant who has the ability to solve mind puzzles. His gift helped him through MIT, and now he's being asked to help solve a murder. From here, the reader is taken through a complex puzzle of connections from 1800's Prague to a haunted old mansion in New England. This puzzle will define his abilities and uncover the answers about eternal life.

This read was a bit confusing. I was lost in all the pieces and struggling to fit them all together. I was hooked in the beginning, confused on the middle and fumbled my way through the end.

Thank Random House Publishing Group - Random House, Random House for the complimentary copy of this novel.

DNF at 55% which pains me to say. I feel like this was just a case of right book, wrong time, and I think I would have enjoyed this more as a physical copy I could make notes in rather than a digital copy. So many great possibilities here that I really think it's me, I'm the problem, it's me (ha!). Will try again with a physical copy of the book because this one has all the elements I usually love!

A woman named Jess Price has been convicted of a murder and has not spoken a word since she was institutionalized. Jess shows her psychiatrist a puzzle with the name Mike Brink under it. Her psychiatrist decided to call Mike and asks him to visit Jess.
Mike suffered a traumatic brain injury and is left with acquired savant syndrome. He is able to figure out complex puzzles and patterns. He agrees to see Jess to help her and figure out what, if anything this puzzle has to do with her and the murder.
Many things happen in the story as Mike tries to get to the bottom of things. It was interesting to see how Mike tries to solve the puzzles, however he becomes caught up in dangerous situations.
The story has different timelines and veers off into descriptions of religious beliefs that tie into the mystery. Also, a strange doll collection is brought into the story that has something to do with the puzzle.
This story is for you if you enjoy the different genres of mystery, gothic tales, suspense and horror.

This was a wild ride! I’m not sure what I would classify this story as since it hit so many different categories. At times, I tuned out because of the extensive explanations (much needed though), but overall, I enjoyed it. The puzzle drawings in the story were a cool touch! 😎 I especially liked the final twist at the end! 😉

The blurb for <i>The Puzzle Master</i> had me hooked from the start, and from there on, the whole book felt like a love letter to puzzles. To the satisfaction to be gained from finding the one, correct solution. To "the nature of the puzzle: to offer pain and pleasure by turns."</b> We begin with a puzzle lover/savant, Mike Brink, who is drawn into the mysterious case of Jess Price, accused murderer.

As we learn more about what really happened to land Jess in jail, it seemed like the author began to throw everything <i>and</i> the kitchen sink into the plot. I felt like it drifted further and further from the original premise. However, this didn't affect my interest in finishing the book. In fact, I devoured this book and enjoyed the dive into Jewish mysticism, which I had not previously seen represented in a mystery or thriller.

I've seen other reviews comment on the realism of Mike's savant abilities, but I'm not a doctor. As a casual reader, I enjoyed Mike's backstory and found him to be an empathetic, compelling protagonist. Plus, he gets major bonus points for his relatable devotion to his dog: <b>"[Mike] didn't trust her. Anyone who didn't allow dogs in her house had something wrong with her."</b> 4.5 stars!

Thanks to NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for my honest review!

I did not enjoy this story at all. I felt I was duped into reading a Dan Brown book masked as a mystery. The religious aspect of the story completely lost me. I was able to get through the book but even the ending was unsatisfying.

This was the first book I’ve read by this author, and I think I’ll check out others. It was well-written and thoughtful. Full of scientific ideas, it was sometimes hard to follow, but overall a fascinating ride.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Do you like puzzles? Remember the Da Vinci Code? This is like that but with way more twists and a fantasy element I didn't expect.

You'll need a notebook to keep track of everything going on here and you might feel a bit disoriented afterwards. I was into this story of the savant former pro athlete puzzle solver initially, but then the hard fantasy religion stuff started and I checked out. Sorry, I just couldn't get back into the story.

I listened to the finished audio version of this book from my library. I didn’t love the way their story was told, through the finding of journals and notes and letters, etc. I also just had a hard time staying invested. This one wasn’t for me.

I found the premise of this book extremely intriguing, but the payoff wasn't there for me in the book itself. For me this was a good idea, poorly executed. To sum up, when Mike Brink was a high school football QB, he suffered a traumatic head injury that led to a rare side effect - acquired savant syndrome, giving him the ability to solve and create puzzles like no one else in the world. This ability is what gets him pulled into the mystery at the heart of the book.

I made it through 50% of this book before I gave up. It wasn’t that the main story/mystery wasn’t compelling, it was more of an issue with the author’s writing style for me. The narrative is very info-dumpy and full of backstory that is told in grand detail over the course of several pages for every one page of actual plot-moving storyline. And I have to admit, most of the information in these info dumps was not that relevant to the story. This might appeal to some readers, but it simply did not work for me.

Furthermore, I found the relationships between the main character and his "love interest" to be forced. It didn't come off as authentic or believable and it was one of the other main reasons I eventually DNF'd this book (rated 1-star for DNF).

There is a lot that I really liked about this book. There is a very intricate set of puzzles, yes, but also there's intricate history and religion and numerology, and, Judaism and Kabbalism and secret societies, and all sorts of interesting things in this book. And those were all very interesting, and they definitely were done in a way that I like a lot. That is, the reader was treated as an intelligent person, this book wasn’t dumbed down in those portions.

But, the portions that involved our lead character, Mike Brink, left me incredibly cold. For some reason I just never became invested in this character, and I tried all the way through to figure out why. I just felt like he was held at a distance from me. Like he was somehow not made of flesh and blood and thoughts and heart but instead, he was very much just a figment of the paper. I don't know if that's because the author doesn't write men as well as she writes women? It could be because they were several interesting female characters in this book. So that's my operating theory.

Also, there was more telling, then showing in the parts of the book that focused on the lead character and that really started to drive me crazy in the first little bit. In fact, I almost DNF'd this book because of it.

I'm really glad I didn't because it is a very interesting novel, as I said, it's got an intricate plot line that I was very much wanting to turn the pages through the whole way through.

This was not at all what I expected. I was hoping for a mystery that was guided by the solving of puzzles - kind of like a modern Indiana Jones. What I got was a DaVinci Code with a demonic/horror aspect and very strong religious themes. There was so much about this book that I enjoyed but I got lost along the way when AI, quantum theory, and religion/God was added to the mix. If you're looking for a heavy mystery that will keep your brain working, this is your book!

The Puzzle Master by Danielle Trussoni is a suspenseful literary thriller that reminded me a twisted Dan Brown novel, In the novel Mike Brink, a neurodivergent man who developed the remarkable gift of pattern recognition after a brain injury, is called to a prison to look at a puzzle drawn by a mute prisoner. There he falls into a web of danger, secrets, and deceipt. Never one to walk away from an unsolvable puzzle, he allows himself to be drawn into the mystery of a lifetime.

I really enjoyed this new novel. It is a thriller for the thoughtful reader, skillfully weaving together puzzles, ancient lore, and exotic settings in a way that is both challenging and revealing. The plot moved quickly and the sense of danger was high throughout, which kept me turning pages late into the night. I recommend this novel for readers looking to go beyond the typical twisty thriller and delve into a world of ancient mystery. 5 stars from me.

Thanks to Netgalley and Random House for making this arc available in exchange for my honest review.