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.

I want to preface this review with the fact that I think I might be in a reading slump. After reading two back to back 5 star books, my reading has been falling flat lately so I think this book unfortunately fell victim to the reading slump.

This book is about Mike who, after a head injury playing football, developed a rare medical condition that basically left him with mental superpowers - he can solve puzzles and see solutions in a way that normal people cannot. A woman serving a prison sentence asks to see him and shows him a puzzle that needs to be solved to clear her name. I love this concept and did really appreciate the character of Mike and his incredibly interesting condition. I just wanted SO much more of this part of the story and the puzzle solving!

What worked:
Vibes - At the start of this novel, I got a lot of Dan Brown DaVinci Code vibes and was all in!

Puzzles & Murder Mystery - The puzzles and mystery of the murder and the woman in the prison really pulled me in right from the beginning and I couldn't wait to unravel the clues and watch Mike solve the puzzles.

The writing - I can tell this author is incredibly talented with her language and the research she must have put into this novel is off the charts!

What Didn't Work FOR ME - but might for you!:
Too Many Elements & Subplots - Even though the synopsis mentions supernatural elements, once it went that way in the story, it kind of lost me and I felt like there was a lot of subplots and twists that fell flat for me and took me out of the excitement of the story. It just felt like too much especially towards the last 25% of the book and I felt like "maybe I'm not smart enough for this book" - the mix of puzzles, murder, creepy dolls, mathematics, computer science, mysticism, demons, etc. just became a lot for me to digest.

The Dog - This is a me problem, but as a fur momma there was one element dealing with Mike's dog, Connie, that really bugged me. His love and loyalty to her was evident but then one comment he made about having sympathy towards someone who was semi-abusive to Connie made me go NO WAY - NO DOG PARENT would ever say that about someone who potentially could have hurt their dog! This is a me problem but it bothered me so much LOL!

I can tell the writer is talented and I think this just became a "not for me" book but I absolutely think that fans of Dan Brown + supernatural elements will enjoy this book. This started out so strong, and I was entertained for sure while reading, but once the supernatural elements kicked in, it just wasn't for me.

Thank you to Netgalley & Random House for this advanced reader's copy in exchange for my honest opinion.
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I absolutely loved this book! It was so good!! I was hooked after the very first chapter. I was sad when the book ended but I was excited to also get a physical arc from the publisher. Thank you so much for the opportunity to read this book. All I need now is to buy a finished copy to add to my home library

I read this during a plane ride recently and it pulled me in right away. The beginning set up a mysteriously creepy storyline; with an added puzzle aspect that was so unique and interesting. When the book started to dive deeper into the mystery, we follow a historical path full of religious details. The book dives deep into these details, making the story feel slow and a bit boring at times. Overall I did enjoy this book, however, if the story leaned more into the creepiness and puzzle mystery that it built in the beginning, with just a little of the history for context, it would have knocked it out of the park for me.

Thank you to @netgalley @PRHAudio and @randomhouse for the gifted copy of this book.

I had a bit of a love/hate relationship to this story while I was reading it.

I loved the way it was written but man, I did not realize how overwhelmingly dull really complex puzzles were. And this whole story was a puzzle.

One with no real ending.

So in this one we have a fella named Mike Brink, who had a head injury and when he woke up, had the ability to see exactly how a puzzle, any puzzle, was solved. I am going to admit something here. Brink was boring. I mean, he had this whole gift, was apparently so attractive that people didn't believe he did puzzles, but was as exciting as a dish rag.

Well one day he is called to come to a prison to see if he could figure out a puzzle that a convicted female murderer created. He of course, hopped into his truck and went over.

This starts the whole present time story. There is also the story happening in 1909 that starts with a letter that begins the book. Yes, its confusing and it stays confusing throughout the whole story.

Of course Brink becomes obsessed with the female prisoner and at the end gets a HFN? I am not sure as its kind of creepy that he was all up in her business.

But that is not where the book ends, nope, one of the baddies has the honor of what the last chapter was about and we find out that something actually worked.

This book had no real genre. Was it a suspense? Horror? Was is supernatural?

Who knows.

A fascinating premise for a thriller: a traumatic injury bequeaths acquired savant syndrome to a man who becomes a master puzzle creator. He is invited to meet with an uncommunicative murderer in prison to unravel what really happened at Sedge House when Noah Cooke died.

The story is told from multiple perspectives, with the puzzle master, Mike Brink, as the central figure. It weaves puzzles, old and new, into the story, along with religion and myth, and wealth and power.

This was a fascinating follow-on to The Puzzler by A. J. Jacobs, which explores the human fascination with puzzles, puzzle history, and the sheer breadth of puzzles out there.

A worthy read! I couldn’t wait to continue reading with so much twists and suspense. Mike Brink suffered a traumatic head injury while playing football. He has reimagined himself with the new skills he has- which are puzzle skills to the highest level. He becomes involved in a intricate life consuming puzzle when he is asked to visit an inmate; Jess Price. Murder, control and power are the key. Well written story that I enjoyed reading.

Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for providing an advance copy of this title in exchange for honest feedback.

This was a conflicting read for me. While I was intriguing from the beginning, I began to lose interest mid way through this. There are a lot of interesting ideas, almost to many as times that I ended up losing interest with its changing.

This was a quick and fascinating read with a main character that I instantly loved reading from. But there was just so much going on that it felt disjointed at times with its ideas. With so much going on, it was hard to continue with my interested in this.

Overall, I think I liked this for the most part but I felt it got a bit convoluted by the end.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the e-arc.

I really enjoyed The Puzzle Master. It was a deep read that reminded me heavily of The da Vinci Code - and that’s a good thing. It’s been a while since I’ve read anything that engrossed me quite like The da Vinci Code. There were a lot of twists and turns, and plenty of spookiness throughout this book that kept it entertaining. It was a unique, genre-bending book with beautiful writing. I highly recommend this book.

𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘗𝘶𝘻𝘻𝘭𝘦 𝘔𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳 by Danielle Trussoni isn't my normal go-to genre, but I enjoyed this book nonetheless possibly because it tapped into so many genres (mystery thriller, suspense, horror, sci-fi, etc). I wasn't sure what to expect with this book, so maybe that's why I enjoyed it because I had no preconceived ideas. The main character was decently developed and rife with struggles. At times, there were elements of the story that reminded me the Autumn Trent and Winter Black series by author Mary Stone--which is a good thing because I genuinely like those books. I would definitely recommend this book to others and I look forward to reading more by this author.

Puzzle Master by Danielle Trussoni is a kindle gripping adventure from beginning to end. If you are a fan of Dan Brown, you will also enjoy Trussoni. Mike Brink suffers from Savant Syndrome after a brain injury. Brink has used this gift to reroute his life to become one of the most prolific puzzle creators in the world. A talent that caught the attention of Jesse Price, a convicted murderer. What ensues is a gripping tale that grabs you quickly and doesn’t let go until the very end. I enjoyed this novel so much. Such a great mixture of fiction and history.

The Puzzle Master by Danielle Trussoni
𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐫𝐞𝐬: Mystery/Thriller, Paranormal
𝐅𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐭: Physical/Audio

QUICK BITS
•Savant syndrome
•Synesthesia
•Genre bending
•Philosophical/religious
•Paranormal
•Multiple POV

REVIEW
I honestly don't even know where to start with this one.

I was really invested in the first 25% of this book...but it really took a hard turn that just did not work for me.

I think I am coming to find that dolls/puppets are an immediate no for me when it comes to characters/plotlines.

Whereas, savant syndrome and synesthesia are big yeses.

In the end, I really did see what the author was doing with this book, but the actual experience of reading it was not for me.

RATINGS
7 Characters
7 Atmosphere
6 Writing Style
5 Plot
4 Pace
5 Intrigue
4 Enjoyment
2 SOS Bonus
TOTAL= 38+2= 40/14=2.86

2.00/5.00 SOS Rating
--There is a good amount of surprise in here, but most of all would be the surprise of the book I thought I was reading verses what it ended up being

2.75/5.00 Rounded Rating