I first came across The Fellowship of the Puzzle Makers book when it was advertised in Good Housekeeping a couple of years ago. They described it as an uplifting read.
Clayton had been abandoned on the steps of the Fellowship of the Puzzle Makers head quarters. The members took the baby in and raised him, without giving him any details about this parentage. When their founder dies, she leaves him a puzzle trail to follow that will hopefully answer his questions.
I loved the book, which switches timelines between Pippa, a crossword compiler and puzzle enthusiast who sets up a club for other puzzle enthusiasts and the story, years later, about her ward, Clayton who is trying to solve the puzzle of where he came from and who are his parents.
Throughout the book there are puzzles to solve. As you might expect his trail also gives him a crossword to complete.
Recommended
The Plot
Sometimes finding your place in the world is the greatest puzzle of all…
Clayton Stumper is an enigma.
He might be twenty-five years old, but he dresses like your grandad and drinks sherry like your aunt.
Abandoned at birth on the steps of the Fellowship of Puzzlemakers, he was raised by the sharpest minds in the British Isles and finds himself amongst the last survivors of a fading institution.
When the esteemed crossword compiler, Pippa Allsbrook, passes away, she bestows her final puzzle to him: a promise to reveal the mystery of his parentage and prepare him for his future.
Yet as Clay begins to unpick the clues, he uncovers something even the Fellowship have never been able to solve – and it’s a secret that will change everything…
Read the book
The Fellowship of the Puzzle Makers is available from
Waterstones at https://tidd.ly/4y7Lg5R
Amazon at https://amzn.to/4wCB9oK
City Adventurers Solve The Murder bookshop at https://uk.bookshop.org/a/3668/9781398712324