I would love to thank Duncan Ralston, Wicked House Publishing and NetGalley for this ebook in exchange for an honest review.

Alexei Vasiliev just died, leaving a high amount of money to 6 people, most of them strangers. But they all have one thing in common.

We have a former detective who is in jail for 2 years, an actress who is Vasiliev's ex-wife, a virologist that has a deadly problem and three other characters we meet later on.

They all arrive at Vasiliev's mansion for the reading of the testament, when Alexei appears on a screen, apparently recorded before, with instructions of a game.
He was the best puzzle-maker and he set one last game for these people to win and leave with the money.

However, as they progress through this maze of a home, they get to meet each other better, finding secrets of one another and soon they discover that someone is watching them while they die one by one in each room they encounter.

To be honest, I have mixed feelings about this one.
I really liked the overall vibe, the creepiness I was feeling, especially when reading at night and being afraid of things in the dark.

I liked Henry, the murderer, Joy the widow, Oscar the virologist and Rudy, an old guy who knew a lot about ancient history.
Other characters were annoying. But that's not the thing I didn't like.

The story is progressing fast and it doesn't bore you out. But I think this made me connect less with the story itself.
It was gory and I enjoyed this.
But what was off for me was the ending. It went far off from what it was at first, and not necessarily in a direction I enjoy.

It has an open ending. Maybe the author will write a continuation of it. I will be curious of reading it. But there are a few things left unanswered, and those upset me a bit.
The twists weren't that shocking overall.

But the story is nice and I recommend it for fans of locked-room mysteries, cults and the feeling that you're watching a movie ("Saw" vibes).
My rating is 3.5 stars rounded to 4.

3.5 or 4

Six strangers, six escape rooms… $150 million to split! But Puzzle House is something none of them would have imagined. Deadly… at the risk of life or death.. money and determination how will this insane story unfold!?

(But I will need a second to know where this story goes from here!!! We can not be left hanging like that.)

If you are a fan of Saw, Puzzle House is for you!

I was glued to this story. There were things I didn’t care for but overall this was the perfect spooky season read.

*Be aware that it does have graphic details but what horror story doesn’t?* I am so glad I read this during October.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Wicked House Publishing for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review. This was not my first book from Ralston and definitely won’t be my last.

what in the saw escape room did I just read?! lmao this wasn’t what I expected but it was a great read. absolutely perfect for spooky season. I love a good escape room but this was some next level sh*t hahah
imagine being named in a will by someone you have never heard of and being promised 150 million bucks BUT you have to solve his puzzles to win. I was glued to these pages, it gripped me in. it’s a quick, entertaining read and full of secrets + twists. def check this one out!

This book reminded me of the film "Cube". Six strangers arrive to a house where they are told if they are able to solve the escape rooms within the house they have arrived at, they will split $150 million.
What they don't know is that with each escape room, a death will occur. The last one standing is pretty easy to figure out. The ending is not what I imagined at all. This is a must read for any horror/gore fan.
This is a fast read and I would recommend.
I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Arc provided by NetGalley!

This book was good! I think I went into it with higher expectations than what they could reach, but that's a little more my fault than the books.

The premise was really good - a group of strangers, a huge inheritance, a house of puzzles? It sounds great!

I think what it ended up reading like - at least to me - was a sort of Saw fanfiction. I had to suspend pretty much all belief in anything in order to enjoy this story. I just couldn't imagine what was actually happening in the story as something that could actually happen... like how could he have all this set up the way that he did? His ex was living there not that long ago??? What?????

And the ending... I don't think that the ending was very well thought out at all. It was almost one of those situations where it seems like the author may not have known how he wanted to end it but needed to do SOMETHING. It just wasn't explained at all.

All that is to say... it wasn't bad. It was fun, if you didn't think too much about it. Did I enjoy it? .... meh. But that could just be me, and I'd still recommend for people looking for something that is horror that has more of a thriller vibe instead.

Thanks to NetGalley and Wicked House Publishing for this ARC.
I expected this book to be great, but I liked it more than I thought I would. It isn't the typical "solve this puzzle or be brutally murdered" type escape room book. The story elements related to the house were well-researched and clever. The conspiracy runs deep.
The ending. SO GOOD. I need another 500 pages. It's hard to go into any detail about what sets this book apart without ruining it completely. Just read it. At only 160ish pages, you can read it tonight so you don't have to be kept in suspense any longer.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with a copy of Ralston's newest novel in exchange for an honest review!

I was really excited to check this out after reading Woom by the same author.

6 strangers, 6 puzzles, 6 ways to die.
This book sounded like the perfect combination of horror movies Escape Room and Saw based off the synopsis, which really intrigued me. And it did really give off those vibes, at least at first, and had an interesting premise.

At no point did I know where this was going, which honestly is usually a really great thing, but I think in this case it ended up being something totally different than I expected.

I was ready to give this at least 4 stars, maybe even 5, until the end—WTF?!

The concept of the house was great, the characters were super interesting and I liked their dynamics, but the ending totally ruined it for me.

We have unresolved threads and the ending makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. It felt like a really cheap attempt to set up a second book. Not something I'd expect from a seasoned author.

Thank you NetGalley @ Duncan Ralston for this ARC.

Having read a few of Duncan’s books I had high hopes for Puzzle house. I wasn’t disappointed either. I really enjoyed the plot line from the start. Having elements of mystery/thriller with horror always seems a good mix for me. I love puzzles and lateral thinkers!
The world building that was centred around the house and the rooms was well described. I’ve got a good imagination so the mental pictures of the puzzle rooms were great in my mind.
The 6 characters that the book is based around were ok. I felt like they were real enough, with enough background details for their back stories. I did feel that there could have been a little more there to have and could have been fleshed out a little more though. Although, I did bond with them all for various reasons!

I really enjoyed where the book took me. Considering it’s a medium to fast paced and a shortish book, I got carried away with the plot. I really enjoyed the ending. I’ve read some reviews that people didn’t.. I did, I kinda hoped it did take the turn it did with the foreshadowing I picked up. So wasn’t disappointed at all.
For a quick paced short read, a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This was a weird one. This rich puzzle master dies and six people are entitled to his millions if they show up in person. Once there, they find themselves in a life-or--death escape room scenario. This started out good but became weirder as it went on. I didn't care for the ending, and a lot of the stuff along the way seemed kind of gratuitous. 2.5 stars rounded to 2.

Escape room thriller where failing to solve the puzzle leads to death. Such a good read and I couldn't put it down. Four solid stars.

⭐️Arc Book Review⭐️
📚Puzzle House - Duncan Ralston
⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 5

Puzzle house follows 6 people as they try to solve puzzles in order to escape a house. These people were brought to this escape house to get money that they have be willed by the rich puzzle master Alexei Vasiliev. If they can solve the puzzles, they will receive millions.

This book was...interesting. It was the perfect book to read during spooky month. The puzzles were a cool twist that I haven't seen done in a book before. While reading this book, all I could think of were the saw movies. If you read this book & have seen the saw movies, you'll know exactly what I mean.

Overall, it was a quick and easy read. Not going to lie though, the ending was super weird & I just think it could have been done differently. It kind of ruined the book for me.

Thank you @netgalley and @wicked_house_publishing for sending me this book. This is 100% my honest opinion.

📕 Puzzle house- Duncan Ralston- ⭐️ 4
available on KU and NetGally

A puzzle maker dies. His estate will be left to one lucky person. But only if they can solve his puzzles. 6 strangers will try but only one will win. Along the way they will figure out why they have been invited by the stranger.

If you enjoy movies like Saw, Cube, and/or love puzzle rooms check this book out!

Puzzle House follows six strangers who arrive at the home of a renounced Puzzle Master for the reading of his will, only to discover that they are now apart of a puzzle themselves. The prize? Their life.

I went into this book with the hopes that it’ll be like the horror movies that surround escape rooms. The book wasn’t exactly what I was hoping for but I still got all the great horror elements that make it a fantastic read.

This was a fast-paced and entertaining read. There were so many twists and turns that left me hanging onto the next page. The puzzles in the house were not the only ones that the characters needed to solve as their pasts and secrets were entwined with the house too. I loved that the atmosphere of the book made me feel as if I were one of the people in the house.

This is a great book to pick up if you want to get out of a slump or if you want to try to get more into the genre.

Thank you to NetGalley and Wicked House Publishing for providing me with this ARC. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

𝚁𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚐: 3⭐️
𝙶𝚎𝚗𝚛𝚎: Horror/thriller📚

𝙼𝚢 𝚃𝚑𝚘𝚞𝚐𝚑𝚝𝚜:
I am a huge Saw fan so I was really looking forward to this one but it felt a little flat for me

𝚁𝚎𝚊𝚍 𝚒𝚏 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎:
Escape rooms
Saw vibes
Suspenseful reads that will keep you on your toes
Fast paced reads
Lots of twits
Dark secrets

𝚃𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚜 𝙸 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎𝚍:
Quick and entertaining read

𝚃𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚜 𝙸 𝚍𝚒𝚍𝚗’𝚝 𝚌𝚊𝚛𝚎 𝚏𝚘𝚛:
I didnt love the turn the book took
The ending felt rushed

It starts as a challenge for 6 strangers to work together to split 150M dollars cash if they can make it through a dead billionaire's mansion turned escape room. Throw in some real ancient artifacts, some even older gods, and cameras watching every move and it ends up as something far more sinister than a mere fight for survival.
This story is richly character driven, and boy are there some characters! Some that you hope will make it to the end, even more that you want to reach into the pages and hasten their gory demise.
Don't even pretend that you know how this one will end. Besides, something tells me the end is just the beginning!

Who is Alexei Vasiliev, why did he name these specific people in his will, and what exactly is going on in Puzzle House?

This is definitely a good "spooky season" read, as the beginning reminds me of "Fermat's Room," and then it eventually dives into the "Saw" franchise as the story progresses, with the puzzles getting more and more tailored to the people involved as well as more horrifying. It does get a little... odd after a while, but nothing that put me off finishing the story at all, and the pace keeps ramping up with each room the characters enter, increasing the reader's adrenaline right along with theirs.

Someone's clearly been studying these people, preparing for this "game," but who? And why? Who will survive these puzzles to receive their "inheritance"--or is that even really an option?

You'll have to read it to find out. =)

4 stars

**I received an ARC copy from NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving this review. All thoughts and comments contained within are my own.**

I was hoping for a book that would be like Knives out of Inheritance games, but with some creepy things added in. I got that! And a lot more, and not is a great way. In this cross between Glass Onion and Jigsaw, the players must survive to inherit millions. But everything is working against them and surviving is going to be a lot harder than they thought. There are some extra aspects that seemed really ridiculous and unnecessary. And I wish we had gotten to know the characters better so that their deaths were more impactful. Overall, I think the author tried to do too much in not enough pages and it wasn't very well flushed out. Except the puzzles. Those were excellent and creepy. They just weren't strung together very well.

"Puzzle House" is extrermely different from other books that I read by Duncan Ralson. It starts out with the feel of a thriller but the horror comes.
Six stragners compete to beat a series of escapre rooms to split an inheritance. Each room is designed in great detail.
Puzzle House has good pacing and builds tension. It is a real page turner.

Six strangers are invited to secure their part of a $150 million inheritance from puzzle master Alexei Vasiliev. They include a former cop turned prisoner (and his jail guard), a movie star who is Alexei's soon-to-be ex-wife, a virologist with a death sentence, a professor with a wealth of knowledge on old religions, the dean of a college, and a shady politician (a bit redundant, isn't it?!). The beneficiaries need to get through the puzzles Alexei has left to win the money. But these are no ordinary puzzles, and some won't live to collect their part.

Wow, this was fun! I have yet to be disappointed by Duncan Ralston (two years later and I still am freaked out by WOOM...) and I don't think you will be either. Grab this one now!