THE FELLOWSHIP OF PUZZLEMAKERS - Samuel Burr

Pippa Allsbrook is a 50+ year old, unmarried, crossword puzzle enthusiast.  She she feels a bit empty in her life, and would like to socialize with others who share her interest in puzzles. She starts a club and recruits a number of other puzzle enthusiasts with diverse interests and talents.

Still, though, Pippa doesn't quite feel fulfilled. That all changes one day when a black, leather hatbox is left on the steps of the home that the puzzle club members share and in that hatbox is a baby boy, only a couple of days old.

Pippa becomes the boy's guardian. He is named Clayton Stumper and the entire club helps to raise him. He leads a pleasant enough life, but he wants to know more about his background. Who were his parents? Why was he left, abandoned the way he was? He is never able to get any answers.

When Clayton is about 25, Pippa passes away, leaving a series of puzzles for Clayton. The puzzles appear to lead Clayton to getting some of the answers he's been looking for, regarding his parents. But solving puzzles isn't always as easy as it looks, even for someone like Clayton who was raised on them. And the answers take Clayton, who led a very pleasant, but sheltered life to far away places.

I really liked the premise for this book, and the characters - the different puzzle-solvers - were so much fun.

The book is told in two different time frames - 'now,' as Clayton works on the puzzles Pippa left for him, and the twenty-plus years ago when he just came into the lives of the puzzlemakers.

I was honestly bored with the 'now' section. Clayton is a pleasant young man on his own journey of discovery, but he's not particularly remarkable. It's Pippa, and coterie of puzzlers that were most interesting. Of course there's a reason we get to know more about them, and the book definitely provides an uplifting story, but it does so by sacrificing that challenge that makes puzzles so interesting to so many. That challenge is told to us, rather than shown to us, and it just didn't work well for me.

Looking for a good book? The Fellowship of Puzzlemakers by Samual Burr is a charming, sweet tale, but lacks the real attraction of a puzzle. It's the difference between a 1000 piece puzzle and a 250 piece puzzle. 

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

3-1/2 stars

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The Fellowship of Puzzlemakers

author: Samuel Burr

publisher: Doubleday

ISBN: 9780593470091

hardcover, 368 pages