I can't do without my daily fix of the New York Times Crossword puzzle. So much so that when my local paper (yes, I still read a physical newspaper!) stopped carrying the NYT crossword, I found out I could subscribe to the Games app of the NYT. I haven't looked back since! With that said, how could I not be intrigued by a novel with the title The Fellowship Of Puzzlemakers (#1,242) with a nod to jigsaw puzzles on its cover?
Samuel Burr has cleverly centered his tale of an orphan left on the doorstep of a mansion inhabited by a group of older puzzlemakers, all busily contributing their earnings from their various pursuits to a communal purse. Young Clayton Stumper has been happy in this intellectual cocoon, but when Pippa Allsbrook, the women who has raised him as her own dies, she leaves him with a string of clues which she promises will lead to his true identity. Brogue-wearing Clayton seems older than his actual age and is reluctant at first to leave the only home he has ever known in pursuit of the wider world. Yet this is what his beloved mother wishes for him, so he follows the first clue to London...
The plot jumps between Pippa's story and Clayton's search for himself as the reader is invited to solve the clues along with Clayton (mastery of these clues is not required on the part of the reader!) which adds to the fun. It's a lovely book about the many kinds of love, even if you are not a particularly keen puzzle-solver yourself. Highly recommended for those looking for something different in a "feel good" book.
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