With a fellow bookworm, we seem to have managed to go on some buddy reads that are helping to clear our tbr piles. ‘The Fellowship of Puzzlemakers’ has been sitting on my shelf after I saw all the love it was getting on Bookstagram, and I spotted it in one of my favourite independent bookshops, Warwick Books, – so, it was definitely time that I read it. This is also a book that I chose because the cover just made me happy on the beautiful hardback edition.
I adored this book – it was just a wonderful hug in a book. This has so many of the things that I seem to be loving in a book at the moment, especially one that I consider to be a cosy read.
‘The Fellowship of Puzzlemakers’ was set up by Pippa Allsbrook as somewhere that those who love creating puzzles of all kinds can live and work together; a haven for those who may need a little companionship as they get older. However, one day Pippa finds an unusual package on the doorstep which leads her to compile her final puzzle, and unravel a mystery that has been hanging over the fellowship for quite some time.
I loved that in this book we are privy to that final puzzle; we see the same clues as the characters and we have the chance to try and solve them before the solution is revealed in the chapter. The puzzle almost becomes a character in the book.
There is also a dual timeline in the story that alternates between chapters; we see what took Pippa to decide to establish the fellowship, and the friendships and experiences of her earlier life. Alongside this, we follow Clayton as he tries to solve the puzzle left to him by Pippa – as well as him going on a journey of self-discovery of where he has come from and where he may be going.
But, for me, something that was very special about this novel is that we did not just have wonderful characters – we had wonderful older characters. I am not sure if we are just being treated to so many more books with brilliant older characters, or if I am just drawn to books that feature older characters when I am looking for my cosy comfort reads, but, either way, this is a book full of brilliant, bold characters that you would love to hang out with.
So, if you are looking for a charming, cosy read as we enter the long winter months, then this is a book that will bring you some sunshine and joy. And I hope we hear more from Samuel Barr, as I think he may be someone that becomes an auto-buy author for me in the future.