Puzzleman
Review by Mari Lynne Rupp

Is this the first book by Christopher Alan Broadstone? Because he can only get better. By that, I mean this book wasn't good. It tries very hard to do what "Weaveworld" did, and it was a good try, but writing in Southern vernacular isn't his strong suit.

The dialogue isn't great, the character development has much to be desired...For instance, a hotel Detective suddenly thinks he's Perry Mason, but acts like Columbo (psssst...Perry Mason was a lawyer...) and the hysterical protagonist, Amanda Zimmerman just seems scattered, like she's a pain-pill addict, but Christopher forgot to write that detail in. The author does try to cement his story with half-researched mythology, some bible theories, and clumsy symbolism, but it only succeeded in scattering the plot even further, and causing the reader more pages to get through.

I kept reading, waiting for that delicious moment where you're sucked into a story, no matter how aweful it starts you can't put it down, and I figured if I hadn't found it by page 370, it wasn't going to happen for me. I ploughed on, determined to give this review a sense of fairness, and was rewarded by a truly horrible and gruesome ending. Not horrible enough to justify the first 410 pages, however.