Editorial Content for The Puzzle Master
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Danielle Trussoni’s THE PUZZLE MASTER introduces readers to Mike Brink, a puzzle expert who has come to that avocation by a very circuitous route. Brink was a high school football player in Ohio leading his team to the finals. Early in the championship game, while being tackled, he suffered a serious brain injury. It left him with acquired savant syndrome, a rare disease that follows recovery from brain damage and creates a condition in which the person demonstrates unique abilities relating to memory, artistic skills or, in Brink’s case, puzzle creation and solution.
"Several subplots involve horror, mysticism, religious fantasy and, perhaps most importantly, dolls. Keeping all of these elements moving toward an exciting conclusion is the mark of an excellent mystery novel. THE PUZZLE MASTER accomplishes that task in impressive fashion."
The book opens with a brief career summary of Brink’s life following his injury. After attending MIT and graduating with honors, he has become nationally known for his puzzle work at the New York Times. Through an intermediary, he is contacted by Jess Price, an inmate at a New York prison. She refuses to speak to anyone, including her psychiatrist. She has barely spoken since her arrest and presented no defense to the charges leveled against her for the murder of her boyfriend.
However, Price has drawn a puzzle that her doctor believes might explain the crime for which she has been convicted. So Brink is called upon to assist in solving this perplexing puzzle and somehow unlocking the secrets behind her behavior. A journey stretching from the 13th century to modern-day New York City begins.
Brink finds himself in a world that includes a Jewish mystic and a modern villain, both of whom are entangled in a search for eternal life. This is the heart of the novel, and the clues --- coupled with Brink’s emotional entanglement --- make for quite an intriguing storyline. Several subplots involve horror, mysticism, religious fantasy and, perhaps most importantly, dolls. Keeping all of these elements moving toward an exciting conclusion is the mark of an excellent mystery novel. THE PUZZLE MASTER accomplishes that task in impressive fashion.
Trussoni seems comfortable with Mike Brink and his puzzle-solving career. She is already working on a sequel set in Japan, which is scheduled for a 2024 release. If you enjoyed meeting Brink as I did, you certainly will await his next adventure with great anticipation.
Teaser
Once a promising Midwestern football star, Mike 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. Everything changes after Brink meets Jess Price, a woman serving 30 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 dangerous, behind her silence, thrusting Brink into a hunt for the truth.
Promo
Once a promising Midwestern football star, Mike 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. Everything changes after Brink meets Jess Price, a woman serving 30 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 dangerous, behind her silence, thrusting Brink into a hunt for the truth.
About the Book
Reality and the supernatural collide when an expert puzzle-maker is thrust into an ancient mystery --- one with explosive consequences for the fate of humanity --- in this suspenseful 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.
Everything changes after Brink meets Jess Price, a woman serving 30 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 cryptic ancient prayer circle created by the 13th-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 19th-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.
Audiobook available, read by Edoardo Ballerini
