Danielle Trussoni's "The Puzzle Master"

 

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 in ways ordinary people can't. But it also left him deeply isolated, unable to fully connect with other people.

Everything changes after Brink meets Jess Price, a woman serving thirty years in prison for murder who hasn't spoken a word since her arrest five years before. When Price draws a perplexing puzzle, her psychiatrist believes it will explain her crime and calls Brink to solve it. What begins as a desire to crack an alluring cipher quickly morphs into an obsession with Price herself. She 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 cryptic ancient prayer circle created by the thirteenth-century Jewish mystic Abraham Abulafia. As Brink navigates a maze of clues, and his emotional entanglement with Price becomes more intense, he realizes that there are powerful 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. ~taken from Goodreads

Author Danielle Trussoni's latest was one hell of a journey. I read and reviewed her previous book, The Ancestor, and really enjoyed it. This one was no different. 

I think the less the reader knows going into this, the wilder the ride will be. We know from the blurb that Mike Brink's brain injury has left him a highly sought after puzzle master. He is asked to try and speak to a prison inmate who hasn't spoken a word since her arrest, but drew a puzzle they think Brink can solve. Little does he know his life is about to change. 

This story is told from several different perspectives and in several different timelines. I learned about religions, science, math... and it was fun! This is a thriller mixed with horror mixed with sci-fi, and it's amazing! 

Trussoni is a master (see what I did there- wink wink) at story telling and does a phenomenal job intertwining facts and fiction to create a truly unique adventure. This is a very skilled, very talented author and I cannot wait for the next book. 

This was a 5 star read for me. I enjoyed every single page. 

The Puzzle Master is out now and ready to be read here in the U.S. so get your copy now! 

Thanks to Netgalley and Random House Publishing for allowing me an advanced e-copy to read and give my honest review. 

Happy Reading!