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. ( )

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. ( )