Book Review: THE PUZZLE MASTER by Danielle Trussoni

THE PUZZLE MASTER by Danielle Trussoni (Random House, June 13 2023) Kindle edition, 384 pages. Synopsis on the Goodreads website . . . . .

     Reality and imagination collide when an expert puzzle-maker is thrust into an ancient mystery—one with explosive consequences for the fate of humanity—in this fantastical thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of Angelology.

     All the world is a puzzle, and Mike Brink—a celebrated and ingenious puzzle constructor—understands its patterns like no one else. 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, calculate equations, and see patterns in ways ordinary people can’t. But his condition has also left him deeply isolated, unable to fully connect with other people.

     All of this changes after Brink meets Jess Price, a woman serving thirty years in prison for murder. Traumatized by the crime, Price hasn't spoken a word since her arrest five years before. When she draws a perplexing puzzle, her psychiatrist believes it will explain the crime she committed, and calls Brink to solve it. What begins as a desire to crack a strange and alluring cipher quickly morphs into an obsession with the woman who drew the puzzle. Price 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 mysterious prayer circle created by the thirteenth-century Jewish mystic Abraham Abulafia, one of the most controversial men in the history of Kabbalah. As Brink navigates a maze of clues, and his emotional entanglement with Price becomes more intense, he realizes that there are dark 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.

My Five-Star Review on the Goodreads website . . . . .

     What earns this a five-star review from me is the author's ability to mesh together a variety of themes and genres and link them all together with adeptness. Anytime I learn more about a subject through fiction I consider that a bonus, like ice cream on top of your favorite cake or pie.

     At its' core, THE PUZZLE MASTER is about puzzles and cryptograms, specifically the fabled God Puzzle that holds the key to immortal life (which also receives a different and creative spin compared to the standard perceptions of immortality). It's up to main character Michael Brink, an a.c.s. subject (acquired savant syndrome, a real thing) as the result of a traumatic brain injury, to unravel the mystery and solve the puzzle. 

     Brink is too good of a character to fade into memory after his first appearance, and I suspect there is a possibility of more (as the final chapters imply). All the characters in the novel are well-defined considering how much of the book depends on explanation background related to the subject matter. Trussoni maintains the balance, adds the details, gives little insights into all the characters, and keeps things moving forward.

     This began as a compelling mystery that later adds a supernatural/horror element that might have been more fully developed, although it would have interfered with the main plot and pacing. 

     I was reminded, as have many other readers/reviewers of Dan Brown's THE DAVINCI CODE. THE PUZZLE MASTER has the potential to become just as big a best-seller as Brown's novel once it finds its audience and word-of-mouth recommendations push it up the charts. Well done.