Book 2 featuring the great puzzle master Mike Brink as he is invited to Japan to open a mysterious 19th century Dragon Box
This box has been shut for over 150 years and dates back to the times of samurais and shoguns. Every 12 years, when the year of the dragon comes around, the Imperial family invites puzzlers to open the box - inviting the puzzlers to deal with the booby traps and dangerous poisons that kill.

Brink is up for the test. Or is he? He is facing off a rival and chases by Japanese enemies. He is fighting off his own self doubt and personal issues. Can Brink open the box? Should he?

This is book 2, but it could be read as a standalone. It's pretty consuming and a perfect dessert to any puzzle lover!
#thepuzzlebox #danielletrussoni
#randomhouse

Mike Brink, one of the world’s greatest puzzle masters, has been invited to Tokyo to open the Dragon Box, a famous puzzle box that has remained unopened for more than one hundred fifty years.

Emperor Meiji, who commissioned the box, placed an Imperial secret within it then hid it far from the palace. Only two people knew the solution, Meiji and the box’s blind creator Ogawa. Since that time, every twelve years there has been a contest to attempt to open the box but every puzzle master has died trying - the box is filled with lethal tricks and poison. Brinks’s attempt will take him across Japan and will put him against terrible villains, some from his past, as they race to uncover Meiji’s secret.

From the description this sounds like the sort of book that I would love. I’m fascinated by puzzles of all types and those who solve them. However, I had forgotten the I read the first Mike Brink book and didn’t like it. Brink is either a man with serious mental illness which, now, with, MINOR SPOILER ALERT, the death of his therapist, isn’t being treated, or a little too “woe is me, I’m a tortured genius” to be borne. Ease up, Mike. There are people who are starving to death. You could have bigger problems.,

And while I do love puzzles, and love the idea that someone wanted to pick up the Dan Brown mantle, making Mike Brink Jesus was really not the way to go, in my opinion. Not for me, and I won’t be reading any more of these.