The best books for the puzzle-solving reader

I’m not usually a fan of dystopia, but Doctorow created an immersive, just-enough-in-the-future-to-be-believable world and filled it with compelling, conflicted characters. The protagonist, Martin Hench, is a self-employed forensic accountant (read: hacker!) with high-end computer skills.

While navigating an increasingly hostile environment–including a spell in a homeless camp–Hench digs into dark-web cryptocurrency and the shadowy figures who mine it, upsetting some powerfully dangerous people along the way. Hacking at its finest!

This book kept me guessing all the way to the end, and that doesn’t happen often these days. I’ve read so many mysteries over the years that it’s hard to fool me, but Doctorow manages and then some.

Because I love Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy five-book trilogy (trust me!), his down-to-earth detective Dirk Gently was an immediate attraction. The layers of mystery take quite a bit of untangling, and I was hooked all the way through. This is my reliable go-to when I need a break from reality that won’t take me too far from home. Or does it? Somehow, with the help of Thor’s hammer, his characters travel from London to the Great Hall of Valhalla and back again. But Avengers, this is not! 

I read this more than once before parts of the intricate plot really made sense, but what a journey! And its precursor, Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, has a permanent spot on my bookshelf, too.

The perfect murder is not possible, right? Well…this book may have changed my mind! I don’t generally like brooding, self-absorbed characters, but Simon–ah, Simon, odd and way past cute-quirky. But somehow, Ellis makes him a compelling character. And the twists in what at first glance is a typical murder mystery with a spurned lover, a big trust fund, and lots of lies make a sharp 180-degree turn in the final pages.

As puzzles go, this book has it all. Dark history, long-held grudges, cross, double-cross…is triple-cross a thing? If not, it should be after this ending. And beware the Grim Reaper next Halloween!

I love the idea of hidden places on maps–it was really a trick to prevent theft! This book takes that academic reality and weaves it into a decades-long mystery with a satisfying–and, for me, wistful–conclusion. This book caught my eye because real paper maps are fascinating on their own, bringing far-away places to life and creating new worlds when authors like Tolkien–and Shepherd–allow their imagination free rein, taking readers to a place that exists only in dreams…or not.

The added family tensions echoed a recurring theme in my books: why are those relationships so fraught? And can they really work out in the end? I’m still figuring that out, but at least the characters here find a way…sort of.

I was hooked from the moment young Daisy Darker–she of the “broken heart”–introduced me to her grandmother’s tidal island family home, complete with a wall of clocks. I generally prefer first-person novels like this, and Daisy’s perspective kept this story moving. A bizarre cast of characters navigate questionable relationships–family…yes? No?–from Daisy’s unique point of view that eventually crumbles into the sea. And the mysterious messages that show up on the kitchen blackboard each morning…what a puzzle! Too bad I couldn’t solve it before the end.

I’m sure Feeney must have given readers some clues along the way that I managed to miss, so I’ll likely re-read this one when my teetering #TBR pile isn’t quite so high.