Samuel BurrRezensionen

A rather strange story of a young man who showed up as an infant at a house filled with people who were puzzle makers. Pippa is a creator of crossword puzzles who has always been nurturing but never had children. Anthony, the son, goes on a quest to find his real mother after Pippa's death.

It is filled with unusual characters and uses puzzles, mazes, etc throughout the book. The ending was somewhat a surprise.

Quirky puzzle makers of all kinds come together to form the Fellowship of Puzzle Makers with Pippa the driving force. Told in two time periods, we learn the history of all the members and how the Fellowship evolves and sustains itself. After Pippa dies, she leaves clues for Clayton Stumper, the child that was left on the steps of Creighton Hall as a baby, to solve the mystery of his parentage.

The Fellowship of Puzzlemakers is about a 25-year-old Englishman called Clayton whose adoptive mother has recently died and who decides that now is the time to find his birth parents. Of course, since he was raised in a commune of puzzlemakers—crossword setters, jigsaw crafters, hedge maze creators—Clayton's search for his origins will require him to solve a series of clues.

In the right hands, this hook could make for a good cosy mystery about found family and friendship, but this didn't work for me. I found it trite and clumsy. Sentences clanged (god, the use of epithets), the characterisation failed to convince, what plot there was didn't make much sense if you thought about it at all, and while we are told over and over again what an amazing, life-saving tonic the friendship of this group of people is, we don't see it. I also found it baffling that a book that seems to be aimed at people who are into puzzles included ones that were so very weak, or that had people talking about sudoku puzzles five years before the things were invented. (Lots of weird mistakes like that throughout the book: someone talks about having a "bucket list" 20 years and an ocean away from where the term is coined.)

Clayton Stumper was abandoned at the Fellowship of Puzzlemaker’s door when he was a baby.
Raised by Pippa and all the members of the Fellowship, he grows up to be a very lovely young man.
When Pippa passes away, he is left with a series of puzzles that will guide him to reveal who his biological parents are and why he was given away.
This is a quaint, feel good book, no doubt. Loved the puzzle aspect of it and the characters are fantastic. It reminded me a little of The Thursday Murder Club, hehe. Crossing fingers we will get sequels of some sort.

Interesting book about people who create all sorts of puzzles think crosswords, Upwords, etc who form a communal living. Interesting people and some twists.½

I enjoyed the quirky, brainy characters of this book. They are all puzzlemakers of varying types - crosswords, jigsaws, mazes, trivia, codebreakers, and more. However, the most important puzzle is one that Clayton has to solve. He was left as a baby, and taken home by Pippa, the cruciverbalist. Now an adult, Clayton tends to the funeral of Pippa. He finds that she has left him a puzzle, to find his birth parents.
Told in 2 timelines, we learn the history of the group and follow Clayton's journey as he tries to find himself, and his birth parents. Puzzles are sprinkled throughout the book to lead him on the journey.
Clever.

The Fellowship of Puzzlemakers was everything I'd hoped it would be. It's a book about puzzles of course and it's also a wonderful story about found family with a touch of mystery and romance.

A group of puzzle makers live in a commune in Britain. Pippa Allsbrook, the founder of the Fellowship of Puzzlemakers, raises a baby as her own after discovering him on her doorstep. When Clayton Stumper, the baby, is in his twenties, Pippa passes away. He is then given a series of clues that Pippa prepared ahead of time to solve the question of his true identity.

The novel alternates between Pippa’s story of the founding of the Fellowship and Clayton’s story of his search for his real parents. Pippa has provided many clues in the form of a crossword puzzle, and Clayton must solve each clue to get to the next one, and get closer to solving the riddle of his parentage.

Throughout the novel we meet the puzzlemakers, who are all a bit quirky and eccentric. Some invent word puzzles, some jigsaws, some lifesize mazes.

The book is basically a quest for Clayton to uncover the secrets surrounding his birth. “It is a story about love and family and what it means to find your people – no matter what age you are.”

I thought I would enjoy this more than I did. I love word puzzles as well as jigsaws, but I just couldn’t suspend my disbelief for several of the plot elements (no spoilers). I never engaged with Clayton and thought the novel dragged. Hmmm, how about 2.5 stars rounded up to 3.

Abandoned on the doorstep of a house belonging to a collective of puzzlers, Clayton Stumper is a twenty something old fogey. He doesn't know what he wants from life but when his adoptive mother dies, Clayton has the opportunity to discover the secret of his birth. As his quest takes him away from home Clayton learns the truth about himself.
There are many rave reviews about this book and it is good. However, for this reader, it's not that good! The puzzles are fun and easy enough to solve. The story is nicely put together with an eclectic cast of characters but it is really predictable.

When I first heard The Fellowship of Puzzlemakers mentioned I knew there was no way I could resist a book with that title. Having just finished reading it I can say that the whole story offers just as much quirkiness and joy as the title does.

When Clayton Stumper was a baby, he was left on the steps of the house owned and lived in by the members of the Fellowship of Puzzlemakers. These great minds of their generation were known for their amazing puzzle skills - you name it, they were brilliant at it. Think crosswords, mazes, jigsaws, code-breaking, arithmetic and so on. Clayton is brought up by the Fellowship but primarily by the woman who started it all, Pippa Allsbrook. When Pippa dies she leaves Clayton a trail to follow to find out more about who he really is.

One of the characters in this book says something along the lines of "everybody loves a puzzle", and isn't that the truth? We all enjoy a puzzle of some description and I really loved the puzzles contained in this story. Not only are there some actual puzzles dotted throughout, but the real brainteaser is the one that Clayton has to solve and I took so much pleasure from following his journey from a fairly closeted life to realising what he wants from his future.

Every character is a darling in their own way. I had particular soft spots for Pippa, who was a crossword compiler, and Earl, a mazemaker, but I thought every single one was perfectly drawn. Each has their own little idiosyncrasies but they're all united by their strengths and abilities in the puzzling arena. Clayton is so lovely too. The story follows him on his quest, whilst in alternating chapters we are taken back into the past to the formation of the Fellowship and the introduction of the members.

This is a debut novel by Samuel Burr and I know it is going to fly high. It's utterly charming in every way, such a comprehensive delight to read and populated with characters that just jump off the page. I absolutely adored it.

I enjoyed the concept - a group of like-minded people who are somewhat lonely form their own community. The group enjoys all kinds of puzzles - words, numbers, codes, mazes, jigsaw - but each specializes in creating a certain type. Following the timeline of how the group formed and developed over time was interesting though some of the characters' actions are hard to believe. I was less interested in the journey of the man who grew up in the fellowship because he was left on the doorstep as a baby. His mother dies at the start of the novel and he decides to find out about his birth mother. The narrative proceeds in dual timelines, with the past eventually informing the present. I found the resolution of Clayton's story to be too contrived. I was also annoyed at the author's apparent lack of understanding of how to work a jigsaw puzzle! So, a good idea for a setting but the execution was lacking in skill.

This is a coming of age story, even though the main character is 25 years old. Clayton has lived with, and been protected by, a quirky group of adults his whole life. As an infant, he was found on the doorstep of a group of adults united by their love of various types of puzzles, and has never really been independent in any way. After the group's founder and mother figure Pippa dies, Clayton embarks on a quest to learn about his parentage. Before her death, Pippa organized his way with a series of puzzles to solve. Although I enjoy puzzles, I found the pace of this novel to be slow enough that I had no interest in engaging in the puzzles embedded in the narrative. Somewhat predictably, Clayton learns a great deal about himself and while his world opens up, solving many puzzles in the process.

The Fellowship of Puzzlemakers by Samuel Burr is a tale about the joy of puzzles and a young man solving a puzzle and finding himself. It is a highly recommended feel-good novel.

As a baby Clayton Stumper was left in a hatbox on the steps of the Fellowship of Puzzlemakers in Bedfordshire, England. Now 25, he was raised by Fellowship founder Pippa Allsbrook, the esteemed and prolific maker of crossword puzzles, along with the other older members, all enigmatologists living together in the commune. Now Pippa has passed away, and Clayton wants to know who his birth parents were. Lucky for him, Pippa left a series of puzzles that will provide him with the answers he seeks if he can solve them.

The narrative follows dual story lines, alternating between the past, when Pippa started the Fellowship of Puzzlemakers, and the present, as Clayton solves the puzzles and clues left for him. The past allows us the meet Pippa and the other members of the Fellowship before Clayton arrived. It's a look into who raised Clayton. The present follows Clayton's quest to find out who he is as an individual apart from the Fellowship.

The Fellowship of Puzzlemakers is a sweet-tempered, gentle, cozy tale that has pleasant, appealing characters, and many types of puzzles. The main focus of the novel are puzzles of all types and varieties. They are embedded in the novel and part of all plot threads in the narrative with the characters circling around the puzzles. The pace is slow, almost glacially at times, but if you adore puzzles and novels about finding your family, then this will be a good choice. Thanks to Knopf Doubleday for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.
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