First published 2023
Mike Brink constructs puzzles for a living. A former football player from the Midwest, he gained extraordinary puzzle-solving abilities after a brain injury triggered acquired savant syndrome. The same trauma left him struggling to connect with others. His isolated existence shifts when psychiatrists ask him to interpret a drawing created by Jess Price, a woman imprisoned for murder who stopped speaking after her arrest five years ago. Price believes her sketch holds the key to understanding her crime. Brink arrives expecting a simple decoding job but finds himself drawn into Price's mystery. She breaks her silence to reveal that darker forces lurk behind her conviction. Her puzzle connects to the God Puzzle, a mystical prayer circle designed by Abraham Abulafia, a thirteenth-century Jewish mystic. Brink follows clues from a New York women's prison to nineteenth-century Prague to hidden chambers in the Pierpont Morgan Library. As he unravels each layer of the mystery, his fascination with Price deepens into something more dangerous. The investigation reveals that powerful enemies will stop at nothing to keep certain secrets buried.
Genres: mystery, crime, thriller, psychological-thriller
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: hidden-secrets, investigation
Setting: New York, Prague, Pierpont Morgan Library
Period: 13th Century, 19th Century
362 pages · Hardcover · Random House