Random House
June 2023
On Sale: June 13, 2023
Featuring: Mike Brink; Jess Price
384 pages ISBN: 0593595297 EAN: 9780593595299 Kindle: B0BF8ZG195 Hardcover / e-Book Add to Wish List
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
“In short: The Puzzle Master = (The Da Vinci Code + The Silent Patient + sprinkle of Stephen King) x gorgeous writing.”—Angie Kim, author of Miracle Creek
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.
Read less
Print length
371 pages
Language
English
Sticky notes
On Kindle Scribe
Publisher
Random House
Next page
Due to its large file size, this book may take longer to download
Customers who bought this item also bought
Page 1 of 5Page 1 of 5
Previous page
Going Zero: A Novel
Anthony McCarten
4.3 out of 5 stars 341
Kindle Edition
Editors' pickBest Mystery, Thriller & Suspense
$14.99$14.99
Killing Me
Michelle Gagnon
4.2 out of 5 stars 185
Kindle Edition
Editors' pickBest Mystery, Thriller & Suspense
$14.99$14.99
Ink Blood Sister Scribe: A Good Morning America Book Club Pick
Emma Törzs
4.4 out of 5 stars 98
Kindle Edition
Editors' pickBest Science Fiction & Fantasy
$14.99$14.99
The Ancestor: A Novel
Danielle Trussoni
3.9 out of 5 stars 709
Kindle Edition
$13.99$13.99
Whalefall: A Novel
Daniel Kraus
Kindle Edition
$14.99$14.99
Next page
From the Publisher
Editorial Reviews
Review
“Utterly absorbing . . . The ‘master’ of the title isn’t the only master here. The word applies equally to the author of this fabulous novel.”—Justin Cronin, author of The Passage Trilogy
“My kind of thriller.”—Steve Berry, author of The Last Kingdom
“The Puzzle Master is a riveting, beautifully layered, fast-paced page-turner. You’ll want to clear your calendar for this one.”—Janelle Brown, author of Pretty Things
“An absolute gem of suspense, with a wholly original and unforgettable protagonist, a propulsive plot with diabolic twists, and pure reading pleasure on every page. I loved it.”—Chris Pavone, author of Two Nights in Lisbon
“The Puzzle Master is an ingenious literary thriller that combines everything I want in a book: an absolutely blistering Russian nesting doll of fascinating stories that dismantle some of the most deeply engrained ideas about good, evil, and the origins of humankind. In short: The Puzzle Master = (The Da Vinci Code + The Silent Patient + sprinkle of Stephen King) × gorgeous writing.”—Angie Kim, author of Miracle Creek
“Addictive and effervescent . . . A tantalizing and delightful read that engages both heart and mind.”—Jean Kwok, author of Searching for Sylvie Lee
“The Puzzle Master is one of the most insanely compelling novels I’ve read in ages. This story has all the elements I love—dark histories, gothic settings, murder, vivid characters, and a twisty, unpredictable plot. I am normally a jaded reader, but I could not put down this book. . . . Highly, highly recommended.”—Douglas Preston, co-author of Bloodless and The Cabinet of Curiosities
“A thrill ride through space and time. This novel is so original that I was happy to be taken wherever it led me!”—Lisa Scottoline, author of What Happened to the Bennetts
“A surefire hit . . . [The Puzzle Master] is an ambitious story, expertly told. . . . A sequel, The Puzzle Box, is in the works, and it can’t come soon enough.”—Booklist
“This page-turner incorporates motifs of religion, security, meaningfulness, and loss into a mystical narrative that traverses different centuries focused on the same puzzle quest. This is a literary Da Vinci Code–like title that readers of quest-based thrillers and mysteries alike will enjoy.”—Library Journal
“Trussoni blends the cerebral and the supernatural in this impressive thriller that sees renowned puzzlist Mike Brink drawn into a mystery with ancient roots. . . . Fans of Dan Brown’s Robert Langdon novels would do well to pick this up.”—Publishers Weekly
By the time you read this, I will have caused much sorrow, and for that I beg your forgiveness. As you know, my child, I am a haunted man, and while the toll has been steep, I have at last made peace with my demons. I do not write this as an excuse for what I have done. I know too well that there is no forgiveness for it—not in the eyes of God or man. But rather, I write this account of my discovery out of necessity. It is my last chance to record the incredible events, the terrible and wonderful events, that changed my life and will, if you venture into the mysteries I am about to relate, change yours, as well.
What, you ask, is responsible for such torment? I will tell you, but take heed: Once you know the truth, it is not easily forgotten. It has haunted me every minute of every day. There was no question of ignoring it. I was drawn to its mystery like a moth circling a flame—In girum imus nocte et consumimur igni. And while I am fortunate to have survived to record the truth, even now, as I stand on the edge of the abyss, I cannot help but shrink at the thought of entrusting such a dangerous secret to you.
I have suffered, but it is the suffering of a man who has created his own torture chamber. I believed I could know what shouldn’t be known. I wanted to see things, secret things, and so I lifted the veil between the human and the Divine and stared directly into the eyes of God. That is the nature of the puzzle: to offer pain and pleasure by turns. And while the truth I am about to reveal may shock you, if it offers some small refuge of hope, then this, my last communication, will achieve all it must.
© 2003-2024 off-the-edge.net
all rights reserved Privacy Policy