Christopher Alan Broadstone ‘Puzzleman’ Review

Written by: Vitina Molgaard
“Ya can’t deny it, I know it. An’ all dem lies ya tell your own self, ev’ry damn day, all dey do is keep yo’ pretty li’l ol’ brain outta da drain.”
“Shut up.”
“Cuz nobody’s sane down a drain. No …body. An’ I mean nobody!”
-Excerpt from the book between A street vendor and Amanda

Amanda, a woman lost in the world and unable to figure out how to survive from day to day finds herself caught up in a horrific place. She comes to the attention of a demon known as the Puzzleman and finds her life is sucked into his twisted vision of eternal life, in the underworld of the drain and the pipes.

By no means is she alone, she is accompanied in her battle by a number of other people that are linked into her life and also the haunting vision of her deceased infant son, that may well not be so very dead after all. What he has become is something else altogether, as she will eventually discover.

And the Puzzleman, well he is quite well named for he certainly is just that, a puzzle and right along side him is Conundrum…another bit of nasty. Not to be overlooked are the gruemonsters and the living hell where they reside.

Understand this immediately I am only just barely touching on the characters here. With good reason on my part. For this is one very intense and excellent book, which cannot be read with a simple head right to the punch line mentality. No indeed, here I found a book meant to be read without any distractions, one meant for a person willing to put forth the time and concentration…a thinking persons novel.

Mr. Broadstone has created an excellent novel and I recommend it. He covers quite a gamut of information which ranges from Greek mythology to Jesus Christ, which is important for this authors piece of work and for his style of storytelling. I will admit I found part four (where he addresses those subjects) to be a complete distraction that felt more like filler than story enhancer. It felt unnecessary, and brought an excellent pace to a screeching halt. That, was unfortunate. But Broadstone picks up the pace once we enter part five, which goes a long way in erasing a drab portion of the novel. The hiccup in part four may disturb some but it may well satisfy others with craving for historical elements. That will depend entirely on who is reading it.

Ultimately, part four is what prevented me from rating this a solid 4-4.5. But trust me when I say my preferences may vary from yours, and furthermore, this is a strong enough read to leave me looking forward to finding future works from Broadstone.

Order it here.

Rating: 3.5/5