Acquired savant syndrome is both very real and very rare. For some people, a traumatic brain injury can actually cause extraordinary new abilities—be they scholarly, artistic, musical, or otherwise. This is what happened to Mike Brink, the protagonist of Danielle Trussoni's The Puzzle Master. And while he's found a way to make use of these abilities while appeasing their unpleasant side effects, said abilities and coping mechanisms are about to lead him down a twisting path of mystery, conspiracy, and strange spirituality.

Mike's brain injury may have ended his football career, but it's turned him into a puzzle master... whether he likes it or not. His tendency to see formulas in everything is debilitating, but he's focused it into both solving and creating puzzles. These puzzles have caught the attention of Jess Price: once a renowned author, now serving a prison sentence for murder. She's as keen on puzzles as Mike is, but she's dabbling in things far beyond her pay grade.

After visiting Jess and receiving some odd encoded messages from her, Mike soon finds himself fully tangled up in her world. She visits him in steamy dreams and seems to remember these encounters. And her diaries from before her arrest take him even further down the rabbit hole... into a world of golems, religious puzzles, doll-making, and demons.

The Puzzle Master is intriguing in that it hides its hand early on. It would have made for a perfectly serviceable crime drama with a reluctant detective at the helm. But as it opens up bit by bit, it brings more and stranger fascinating turns into play. By the end, what looked from the outside like a Rubik's cube has opened up into a complex and thrilling Lament Configuration.

Trussoni has a masterful storytelling style that is evident throughout The Puzzle Master, keeping the reader engaged as the story travels across multiple interlocking narratives. That said, the first few chapters are a bit infodump-y, cramming Mike's story into several rounds of oddly placed exposition. Trussoni's characterizations of everyone else, especially Jess Price, flow naturally into the narrative. Perhaps it's a narrative choice: a more structured, up-front exposition for the highly logical Mike to set him apart from the rest of the cast. Unfortunately, for readers new to Trussoni's work, it sets up an expectation that this is how all exposition will be approached. It is not, though, and pushing through this first series of chapters leads to writing that's much more rewarding.

For the most part, the story is compelling. Much as Mike is pulled down unexpected rabbit holes, so is the reader. What starts as a deep dive into the history of porcelain making turns into a conspiracy of Biblical (literally) proportions. The comparisons to The Da Vinci Code seem a bit unfair; Trussoni's work is much more respectful of and grounded in the ancient puzzles and mythologies it references. And while the plot does inflate to potentially affect Life As We Know It, the story still remembers who and what is at its core. Brink's affliction is never truly treated as a blessing. We are never allowed to forget the true trauma of having your entire life and worldview suddenly altered forever. As much as Mike can feed and appease his sudden genius, we also see his longing for normality, for his brain to stop behaving in the way that's earned him so much admiration. It's a very compassionate approach that I was pleased and relieved to see at play.

Sadly, I'm not in a position to discuss my favorite aspect of The Puzzle Master, as even bringing it up would give away a portion of the surprise twist ending. Suffice to say there's a nice bit of mirroring that hints at the true solution to the high-end puzzle Brink finds himself working with.

If you're a fan of puzzles, history, and Judeo-Christian mythology, The Puzzle Master is worth your time. It's an intriguing ride which, while it does stumble at the starting line, races strong to the finish and keeps you guessing from chapter to chapter.

The Puzzle Master goes on sale June 13.