Due to a traumatic brain injury suffered during his college football years, Mike Brink has become a puzzle genius! This injury completely changed the trajectory of his life and has made him a successful puzzle creator but also has caused him to remain emotionally isolated in his genius. When Mike is called in to meet with infamous prisoner Jess Price, he isn't sure what to expect. Jess is imprisoned for a grisly murder, but has created a puzzle that she has passed on to her psychiatrist. Based on the little Jess has communicated, the hope is that Mike will solve it and the Doctor is desperate that Mike take a look.

Thoroughly intrigued, Mike comes to the prison and begins a whirlwind journey as he works to solve the puzzle and determine Jess's innocence. If you love puzzles, mysteries and thrillers or just want to lose yourself in a modern day DaVinci Code, The Puzzle Master is for you! #RandomHouse #ThePuzzleMaster. #Puzzles #DanielleTrussoni

“The Puzzle Master” will fill the longing of Dan Brown fans who desperately want to experience another mesmerizing “DaVinci Code” and have the appeal of a chase as clues are discovered, solved and then point to another clue. This book is absolutely amazing, layered, haunting, mystical, beguiling, horrifying and twisted. I loved it!

Mike Brink, a famous puzzle master by way of acquired savant syndrome, is summoned to an upstate New York women’s prison. A detainee, presumed murderer, Jess Price, hasn’t spoken in 5 years, but she has drawn what might be a puzzle and put Mike’s name on it. Jess, a promising writer, supposedly killed her boyfriend while house-sitting a Gothic mansion. The mansion had a creepy doll collection (isn’t every collection of porcelain dolls creepy?) and one of them was very valuable and very Chucky-like. The prison psychiatrist calls for Mike’s help — what Jess has drawn is a puzzle he can’t solve immediately, but the bigger puzzle is Jess — is she, too, another puzzle master, who has been imprisoned for other reasons? Or the victim of a psychic malevolence? Plus, there’s more: secret rooms in the J.P. Morgan Library, golems in Prague, and modern day Jewish mysticism all are incorporated into Mike’s puzzle search.

The research must have been mind-boggling and I was so appreciative of the illustrated puzzles included (I would not have fully imagined the puzzle by mere description). Mike Brink is so likable he deserves to be played by a young Tom Hanks-like actor in the film versions of the sequels that should be written after this book. 5 stars!

I loved Ms. Trussoni’s “Angelology” so many years ago, and I’m delighted she’s back writing in this mystical sort of genre.

Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review!

Literary Pet Peeve Checklist:
Green Eyes (only 2% of the real world, yet it seems like 90% of all fictional females): YES Violaine has brilliant green eyes.
Horticultural Faux Pas (plants out of season or growing zones, like daffodils in autumn or bougainvillea in Alaska): NO Just an uninteresting forest.
There goes a Tesla: YES I am starting to observe that literary billionaire villains drive black Teslas.

Mike Brink, a rising Midwestern football star, suffered a traumatic brain injury resulting to Acquired Savant Syndrome. Since that accident, he was never the same again — he now has the ability to create and solve complex puzzles, riddles, high-level memory where he can replicate an image or series or numbers like *snap* that. Much-like a superpower that he possesses, his skills were called to help Jess Price, a woman serving thirty years in prison for murdering her boyfriend, Noah Cooke, in an old estate that she was housesitting for a few years ago. Jess Price was only able to communicate through a puzzle and the rollercoaster begins…

This is definitely a genre-bending novel, where interaction and shift between these genres make it more interesting so the reader invest deeper into the story. There’s suspense, thriller, mystery, horror, and sci-fi — yes, even sci-fi! It’s not even confusing although I have to say, it does go way over my head sometimes on the mystic-history part of it. There is a good build-up of characters and not one bit of it is a nuisance. A dash of action-packed chapters that gets you hooked, which picks up halfway through the book, with a major twist in the end. There are puzzles that makes you want to figure out with the characters, which is interactive in a way that makes the story all the more fun.

Curious yet? The Puzzle Master releases on June 13, 2023.

Thank you Netgalley, Random House Publishing Group, and author Danielle Trussing for the ARC in exchange of my honest opinion.

Receiving a traumatic brain injury in a high school football game, Mike Brink wakes up to find his world transformed. His brain has now evolved into a high IQ superpower with total recall, synesthesia, and the ability to see patterns while creating and solving puzzles that no one else can. But with human connections now difficult to read Mike is very much alone until he is asked to visit Jess Price in prison. She hasn’t spoken since her incarceration but wants to talk with Mike about a puzzle. Sucked into an elaborate quest, Mike becomes enthralled solving the Puzzle of God, and connecting with innocent Jess Price.
A roller coaster ride, this book is a wild from start to finish. An unusual and exciting plot with lots of history and science thrown in, the character of Mike and his new abilities is fascinating. Reminded me of the DaVinci Code at times. A little technical, and very much over my head in a few spots, but still very much recommended.

This book is phenomenal. It had me sucked in from the very start. I cant imagine the amount of research that went into it. It’s right up there with Preston and Child, in my opinion. I am thoroughly impressed with this author, to say the least. She is definitely high on my list of author’s to read from now on! Just wow!


Huge thanks to Random House Publishing and Netgalley for sending me this ARC for review! All of my reviews are given honestly!

One word: Fantastic.

Perhaps the greatest puzzle in Danielle Trussoni's new book, The Puzzle Master, is the puzzle she expertly weaves into the book itself.

The Puzzle Master touched on just about every genre I enjoy. It had aspects of mystery, thriller, horror, science fiction, and science all wrapped in a mix of reality and the supernatural that kept me turning pages. Everything is thoroughly researched and deftly written. I finished the book feeling like I needed to know more on several topics because she piqued my interest in areas that I don't have a background in.

The book is built around Mike Brink "a celebrated and ingenious puzzle constructor" who "understands its patterns like no one else." Mike's abilities will be tested in ways he can't imagine--as will the readers. It's a ride that spans centuries, belief systems, and dimensions.

The Puzzle Master is, again, fantastic. Highly recommended. It's set for release in June of 2023--preorder it now, you won't regret it.