Wow. Well…this is a book I didn’t see coming my way. At all.

It started off in a direction where I thought I knew where it was going, seemed somewhat paranormal and metaphysical, which is so my speed, and it kept swerving through plot turns until the very satisfying, “wh-a-a-at?” inducing ending.

There was nothing in my previous plethora of reading that prepared me for this book, and I mean that in the best way.

So, was it good? Yes.

Do I plan to pick up the rest of the author’s backlist? Absolutely. Without question. Have it on my Kindle right now.

If you want a thriller that is both riveting, heart racing, and thought provoking, look no further than The Puzzle Master.

Blurb:

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.

The actual, literal puzzles in this book are fantastic as well as the puzzles within the plot. A great read for cult fans of “Dad Fiction” or thrillers that have a male protagonist racing against the clock to solve a mystery or right a wrong before the antagonist wreaks havoc on their world.

Think Jason Bourne meets Da Vinci Code minus the violence.

Brink is racing from mystery after mystery, but each piece fits in an altogether intricate nesting doll laced with multiple points of view and past documents including letters, diary entries, and actual puzzles laid out on the page.

Plus, there’s a super cute wiener dog. Her name is Connie and I’m quite fond of her as the adorable side kick. She’s got moxie.

The care that was taken to create this book is evident throughout the detailed and intricate plot, but it reads like a story that grips you by the throat and doesn’t let go until you’re done. There is nothing bogged down about this thriller, despite the multi-layered timeline. I devoured it in one sitting.

The overall intricacies were a puzzle inside a puzzle and the main antagonist’s end goal was eerily similar to something that could feasibly happen in the near future. Yikes. But also, staggeringly brilliant. I won’t spoil anything, but prepare to put your copy of the Puzzle Master down and go “whoa” before you keep reading to the fantastic conclusion.

There could be room for a sequel, or it could merely be my love of the characters, but I hope this isn’t a one-off or standalone from the author. I would happily enjoy another go with Brink and Jess in a whirlwind across the globe.

Keep Reading Book Fam,

IBCK