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A review by emilyrainsford
The Fellowship of Puzzlemakers by Samuel Burr
hopeful
lighthearted
relaxing
slow-paced
3.75
This was a very sweet, cosy read that was pretty much exactly what I expected from the cover, title, and Alexander McCall Smith endorsement.
A group of older midlife puzzle creators all live together in a big house. One day a baby is left on their doorstep and they all raise the child. When the mother figure Pippa dies, the child Clayton, now in his 20s, is sent on a quest of clues and adventures to find out the identity of his birth parents.
Clayton is a somewhat reclusive fellow, so of course this quest forces him to get out, meet people, live a little, even find a cute little romance.
The story moves between this present quest storyline, and flashbacks to what happened in the past leading up to Clayton's arrival as a newborn in a hatbox on the doorstep.
It is definitely a slow moving story, something to read when you want cosiness, not compelling intrigue. I agree with other reviewers that at times the past timeline felt a bit dragged out.
Unfortunately, all the male characters in the house kind of blended together in my head. Of course a couple stood out as being more solidly characterised, but many of them I may couldn't form a clear picture of in my mind.
I did struggle to get past the feeling that this treasure hunt Clayton is sent on to find out something so important to him is just cruel. It made me feel a lot less endeared to the character of Pippa, because why would she keep his identity from him until she died and then send him on this wild quest, instead of just telling him the information that he's really quite entitled to know about himself?
There are only two women in the story other than Pippa, so the identity of the mother is hardly shocking. The identity of the father is pretty confusing, because the reasoning given for him not to have raised Clayton like a father his whole life is not only extremely flimsy, it's also basically negated by something in one of the flashbacks. It felt to me like a draft in which the plot hadn't quite been properly ironed out yet to make a modicum of sense.
The saving grace of the whole story for me was the boy-meets-boy romance storyline, which I thought was adorable.
One thing that genuinely shocked me was how badly this book was edited. I can't remember ever finding so many errors in a trad published book. Continuity errors, word errors, fact errors (newborn babies don't have tears), errors in the puzzles which are the whole gimmick of the book. I just learned that this book was the subject of an eight way auction, so it's kind of shocking that a publisher would spend however much they spent on this and then seemingly skip an entire round of editing. The acknowledgements specifically thank an "eagle-eyed" copy editor and I'm just like.... is the eagle in the room with us?? Can it come back??
I do think it was a sweet story with a unique storyline, and Clayton was an endearing character. Perhaps less picky readers than I am will be happier to gloss over the issues for the sake of vibes. I do think it was pretty much what it promises to be on the tin, so if that appeals, I wouldn't dissuade you from picking it up. Could be a good book club read.
A group of older midlife puzzle creators all live together in a big house. One day a baby is left on their doorstep and they all raise the child. When the mother figure Pippa dies, the child Clayton, now in his 20s, is sent on a quest of clues and adventures to find out the identity of his birth parents.
Clayton is a somewhat reclusive fellow, so of course this quest forces him to get out, meet people, live a little, even find a cute little romance.
The story moves between this present quest storyline, and flashbacks to what happened in the past leading up to Clayton's arrival as a newborn in a hatbox on the doorstep.
It is definitely a slow moving story, something to read when you want cosiness, not compelling intrigue. I agree with other reviewers that at times the past timeline felt a bit dragged out.
Unfortunately, all the male characters in the house kind of blended together in my head. Of course a couple stood out as being more solidly characterised, but many of them I may couldn't form a clear picture of in my mind.
I did struggle to get past the feeling that this treasure hunt Clayton is sent on to find out something so important to him is just cruel. It made me feel a lot less endeared to the character of Pippa, because why would she keep his identity from him until she died and then send him on this wild quest, instead of just telling him the information that he's really quite entitled to know about himself?
There are only two women in the story other than Pippa, so the identity of the mother is hardly shocking. The identity of the father is pretty confusing, because the reasoning given for him not to have raised Clayton like a father his whole life is not only extremely flimsy, it's also basically negated by something in one of the flashbacks. It felt to me like a draft in which the plot hadn't quite been properly ironed out yet to make a modicum of sense.
The saving grace of the whole story for me was the boy-meets-boy romance storyline, which I thought was adorable.
One thing that genuinely shocked me was how badly this book was edited. I can't remember ever finding so many errors in a trad published book. Continuity errors, word errors, fact errors (newborn babies don't have tears), errors in the puzzles which are the whole gimmick of the book. I just learned that this book was the subject of an eight way auction, so it's kind of shocking that a publisher would spend however much they spent on this and then seemingly skip an entire round of editing. The acknowledgements specifically thank an "eagle-eyed" copy editor and I'm just like.... is the eagle in the room with us?? Can it come back??
I do think it was a sweet story with a unique storyline, and Clayton was an endearing character. Perhaps less picky readers than I am will be happier to gloss over the issues for the sake of vibes. I do think it was pretty much what it promises to be on the tin, so if that appeals, I wouldn't dissuade you from picking it up. Could be a good book club read.