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.

The Puzzle Master by Danielle Trussoni is a superb read and well worth the time spent! Great plot and characters.

I absolutely love puzzles of any kind and I was into this one! Mike Brink was just a normal guy, a formal football player but now after an injury he has acquired savant syndrome which allows him to solve complex puzzles.
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Jess is serving a 30 year prison sentence and hasn’t spoke in 5 years. When she draws a puzzle her psychiatrist believes this is the key to solving her crime and calls on Brink for his assistance. This is more than puzzles, this is complex relationships and mysterious conditions at play! I could totally see this as a movie!
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Huge thank you to @berkleypub @berittalksbooks @thephdivabooks @dg_reads and @netgalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

This will be a fun one to recommend to readers who love smart mysteries with lots of surprises, twists and turns. A well known puzzle master is called to a woman's prison to analyze a puzzle that is related to a crime. From there on, it's fasten your seatbelts!

Mike Brink is a former football player who had a traumatic brain injury and developed a rare condition called “acquired savant syndrome”. He can’t play football anymore, but he can solve puzzles - cryptic puzzles, crossword puzzles, math puzzles - with his photographic memory and title of “Puzzle Master”, he’s now a puzzle creator.

Jess Price is a writer who was found at the scene of a killing, and although she had blacked out during the crime, she was still tried and convicted of the murder. Five years into her prison sentence, she hasn’t spoken a word to anyone. Prison therapist, Dr. Moses, reached out to Mike to try to unlock the puzzle in her mind.

The first third of this book was fantastic and definitely worthy of five stars. I kept wondering why the Goodreads rating was on the lower side, when all of the sudden this book changed from a horror/thriller to a strange fantasy/religion book. Out of nowhere, we are introduced to a deserted house, a room full of creepy porcelain dolls, and are taken through a history lesson on ancient Judaism and the Kabbalah.

The middle of this book got really slow, and the strange parts about religion and dolls didn’t seem to make a lot of sense. The ending picked back up again, but by then I was just wanting to be done with this strange story. I wish it would have stayed simple and had included Jess more, but it did get a little convoluted for me with all the other aspects. The beginning would be five stars, the ending four, but overall I’m giving this 3.5 stars, rounded down. It just got a little out there for me, but if the “God Puzzle” interests you, you just may love it.

(Thank you to Random House, Danielle Trussoni, and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my review.)

TL;DR: Fans of Dan Brown (THE DAVINCI CODE) should definitely prioritize the latest from THE ANCESTOR author @danielletrussoni, a whirlwind action-adventure mystery about a master puzzle constructor (a Wordle Wizard, if you will) who finds himself caught up in a global conspiracy when he’s asked to meet with a mysterious woman who hasn’t spoken in almost 5 years and might hold the key to secrets a lot of very-bad-no-good people would like to get their hands on. The book is a wild ride and takes readers to some very unexpected places (I now consider myself a porcelain expert, #thankyouverymuch).

I wanted to like this book so much. The concept sounded very interesting - puzzles to figure out what's going on? Sign me up.

Unfortunately, the writing of the book didn't draw me in. It felt like too much to get to the story line.

I can definitely see promise and will be checking out this authors other books!

If "Inception" and "Indiana Jones" sat down and wrote a book together, this would be the book they write.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group as well as the author for this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.
#NetGalley #RandomHousePublishingGroup #ThePuzzleMaster #DanielleTrussoni
This review can also be found on my blog at horrorcorner.wordpress.com
Title: The Puzzle Master
Author: Danielle Trussoni
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Publication Date: June 13, 2023
Mike Brink is a young man with acquired savant syndrome. A head injury has given him the astounding ability to solve any puzzle and see patterns everywhere. When he meets Jess Price at the prison where she's serving time for the murder of her boyfriend, he is thrust into a dangerous world of haunted dolls and ancient puzzles. Every time Brink puts a piece of the puzzle into place, his situation becomes more dire as Jess Price isn't the only one who wants to solve this puzzle.
Immediately, this story comes off as slightly convoluted. There's a lot going on in this novel. It reads more like a thriller than a horror novel, but it does contain some elements of horror, such as a doll containing a Jewish Demon called a golem. While it isn't difficult to keep up with the storylines, it becomes tiresome by the end of the novel. The first half is quite interesting. It doesn't keep the momnentum up for me though. It's my opinion that this could have been divided in to two stories. Mike Brink could have his own book and the golem couod have a story all its own.
This isn't to say that there was nothing good happening here. Haunted dolls are always fun and I did enjoy learning about Jewish supernatural lore. The golem is a fun component. Ms. Trussoni is a talented writer who has the unique ability to blend science and emotion without compromising the impact of either. The best part of the book though, for me, was Conundrum. Conundrum, or Connie, is Mike Brink's dog. She is a delightful dose of adorable levity.
Overall, while this book wasn't my favorite, I do look forward to reading more from this author.
Overall, this wasn't my favorite book.

I wasn't terribly sure about this read at first - then it TOOK OFF. Definitely Dan Brown vibes. A great, original story that I truly enjoyed. I will follow this author for future well-paced reads!

This is an interesting mystery for puzzle lovers.

Mike Brink was a star football player until a freak accident. He may have lost his athletic career, but he gained savant qualities, including photographic memory, seeing colors with numbers, the ability to create complex word and number puzzles and reciting pi to thousands of of decimal points. He is invited to a minimum security prison to see a puzzle written by an inmate.

Jess is charged with killing her boyfriend in a very brutal way. She isn't talking to anyone at the prison. When she shares a puzzle with her new psychologist Dr. Moses and it has Mike's name on it, Dr. Moses contacts him. Mike is intrigued by the puzzle, and by Jess. He begins to dream vividly, dreams where he and Jess are together.

If you are a puzzle geek, you will enjoy the puzzles included in this book. It also features Kabalah, artificial intelligence, and porcelain dolls as part of the mystery. There is a fair amount of violence in this book, and the mention of childhood death.

This book is an interesting mystery, but it was strange. I could see people not enjoying it because of the religious aspects and the violence.

Thanks to Netgalley for the advance copy of this book.

Dear The Puzzle Master,
You felt a bit Dan Brown with some creepy doll vibes thrown in. I loved the breadcrumbs that you left all over your story to bring everything together. Your puzzles were also interesting and complex, but I wished that I could have looked at some of the puzzles, as opposed to listening to them being described, which can be a disadvantage of audiobooks. I enjoyed the alternating timelines and the way all of the exposition and back story were told. It felt very authentic as your story unraveled for me. The bits of ancient magic sprinkled throughout the story kept me interested as well.