A review by tonstantweader
The Puzzle Master by Danielle Trussoni

  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

 
The Puzzle Master is a mystery about the mysteries of creation, of life, death, and immortality. It features Mike Brink whose traumatic brain injury resulted in acquired savant syndrome. His new gift of seeing patterns everywhere made him a master at making puzzles for newspapers like the New York Times. In other things, he is incredibly naive. For example, he was hired to solve puzzles that he would download and then upload the solution to a secret site and didn’t realize he was working for some national security agency.

A prison psychologist sends him a puzzle that is irresistible. It was sent on behalf of infamous murderer Jess Price, the prisoner she is attempting to treat. When he meets Jess, he feels a compulsion to help her. It seems like a case of love at first site. Her erotic visits with him in the night make him uncomfortable but increase his connection to her. And thus begins a ridiculous plot dependent on multiple occasions of awkward soliloquies as though a dozen Bond villains were there to declaim their plan for ruling the world.

There is a muddle of computer code, theology, kabbalism, supernatural possession, and code-breaking. But for such a smart guy, Mike is incredibly dumb. He leaves his cell phone on even though he fears he is being followed. He leaves his dog in the car outside the villain’s house. But then the villains are no better, letting him go home to change his clothes and take care of his dog, for example. And of course, is anyone really a villain if they’re trying to change the world? Even the hired muscle gets a redeeming characteristic, he does it all to provide for his daughter’s future, even though that means he is barely there in her present.It feels like the remit was to find one decent quality in each character to make them “more three-dimensional.” It didn’t work. They are flat as the plot is muddled. They have no natural connection. The spider at the center of this web of intrigue makes no sense. His muscle makes less sense. His girlfriend even less sense. Meanwhile, why does Brink whose syndrome left him uncertain in personal interactions falls in love at first site, the object of his affection is alternately terrified and uncommunicative or wildly bold and demanding. That a psychologist would break as many rules as she did is doubtful. Even more doubtful, a museum expert sneaking a priceless document out of a museum with a man she just met and driving like she was trained by the CIA in avoiding surveillance.

The dialogue is mostly declamations of what is some theological effort to connect the Kabbala to computer coding and suggest a theology that welcomes science. Sometimes I just skipped a page or two to get past it. It was laughable.

This book sounded so good. Mike Brink struck me, at first, as a great potential series detective, before he made so many dumb moves. I would say the first quarter of the book was promising. The rest…I wish I had just quit while I was ahead.

I received an e-galley of The Puzzle Master from the publisher through NetGalley.

 


https://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpress.com/2023/09/09/the-puzzle-master-by-danielle-trussoni/