What if unlocking the secrets of an ancient puzzle could take you on a thrilling journey across continents? Welcome back to The Bookshop Podcast, where we sit down with New York Times bestselling author Danielle Trussoni to uncover the mysteries behind her latest novel, The Puzzle Box. As the second installment in the Mike Brink series, this book showcases Danielle's meticulous research and the fascinating world of savant puzzle-solving. Follow along as we explore Brink's adventure from New York to Japan, unraveling enigmatic characters and deadly puzzles.
Danielle takes us behind the scenes of her character development process, particularly focusing on Dr. Gupta and Ume. From taking classes on cryptocurrency and encryption to drawing inspiration from historical female warriors known as onna-bugeisha, Danielle's dedication to authenticity is nothing short of impressive.
Danielle Trussoni is the New York Times bestselling author of the novels The Ancestor, Angelology, and Angelopolis, all New York Times Notable Books, and the memoirs The Fortress and Falling Through the Earth, named one of the ten best books of the year by The New York Times Book Review. She writes the monthly horror column for the New York Times Book Review. A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and winner of the Michener-Copernicus Society of America Fellowship, her work has been translated into more than thirty languages.
The Puzzle Box, Danielle Trussoni
The Puzzle Master, Danielle Trussoni
Angelopolis, Danielle Trussoni
The Woman in the Window, A.J. Finn
The Bookshop Podcast
Mandy Jackson-Beverly
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You're listening to Episode 270 .
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Danielle Trussoni is the New York Times bestselling author of
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the novels the Ancestor, angelology and Angelopolis all
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New York Times notable books and the memoirs the Fortress and
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Falling Through the Earth, named one of the 10 best books of the
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year by the New York Times Book Review.
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She writes the monthly horror column for the New York Times
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Book Review and is a graduate of the Iowa Writers Workshop and
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winner of the Missioner Copernicus Society of American
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Fellowship.
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Her work has been translated into more than 30 languages.
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Hi, danielle, and welcome back to the show.
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Hi, mandy, thank you for having me back.
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Oh, of course, anytime.
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Well, first of all, before we get into the interview, I loved
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book two in the Mike Brink series, the Puzzle Box.
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I tend to read fiction right before I'm going to bed, and
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your book had me up to the wee hours of the morning, which is a
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good thing, right.
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Speaker 2: Oh dear.
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Well, that's the sign that it was a success or it's doing what
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I want it to do, but I'm sorry that you may have lost sleep.
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Speaker 1: You are forgiven because it's a wonderful read.
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I just loved it.
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What have you been up to since we last spoke about the Puzzle
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Box?
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Speaker 2: Well, I was writing that book.
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Actually, usually it takes me a few years to write a book at
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least two and this one I wrote really fast for me.
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I wrote it in one year.
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So since we spoke last, I was head down writing this book,
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revising this book, doing the research for this book, which
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was very extensive, and, generally speaking, just sort of
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away from the world and working .
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Speaker 1: Well, all that work has paid off, because you've
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written a fabulous book, the Puzzle Master and your latest
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novel, the Puzzle Box, were bought in a two-book preempt by
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Random House, what initially drew you to your protagonist,
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mike Brink, the world's greatest puzzle master.
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Speaker 2: I was drawn to that character by his brain.
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I'm something of a cerebral person, I think, and you know I
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didn't realize that until people read these books and were like,
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wow, these are really kind of brainy thrillers.
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You know, the biggest draw to that character was what his
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brain can do.
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And for those who haven't read either of those books, he
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suffers from something called savant syndrome.
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He was a regular person like you and me, and then he had an
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accident that damaged the left hemisphere of his brain, which
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resulted in a very rare but actually real condition called
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savant syndrome, where the left hemisphere of the brain sort of
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compensates for the damage and people who have this condition
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develop an unusual and almost supernatural skill.
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Um, so, you know, people who have this have suddenly been
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drawn to play the piano and within a couple of months were
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composing concertos, that sort of thing.
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Well with, well, with Mike Brink it's, you know, that damage,
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that condition, brought him to puzzles and patterns and solving
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things.
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So for me, that ability said fiction, fiction, you know,
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really like it, just like was very, very clear to me that he
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would be a great hero for a book where there's a mystery.
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And also I think that I'm always, as a writer, drawn to
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characters who let us explore consciousness, in a way, and
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what the human mind and what we as humans are capable of doing,
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and he was kind of this perfect vehicle.
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So, yeah, when I wrote about him, my editor at Random House,
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andrea Walker, recognized that this could be a really good
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series, and so she did buy two books and hopefully there will
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be more.
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Speaker 1: Oh, I hope so.
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That was going to be my next question.
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What I love about the character Mike Brink is that he is so
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interesting and intelligent and he has this endearing charm
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about him that comes through with his little dog Conundrum.
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But he also draws interesting people to him and I found that
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fascinating with this book.
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Now in the puzzle box, you quickly place Mike Brink in a
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life or death situation, leaving the reader unable to stop
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turning pages.
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When you first conceived the idea of setting the story in
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Japan, was it difficult figuring out how to get Brink from New
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York to Tokyo.
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The way you got him there was reminiscent of the hero's
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journey, that invitation, without giving too much away.
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Can you tell us a little bit about this invitation?
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Speaker 2: Of course.
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So the invitation that you mentioned is actually a kind of
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puzzle, and it's the opening puzzle of the novel, I suppose,
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and it's brought to him by a young woman, a young Japanese
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woman, who was sent by the emperor of Japan to invite Mike
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Brink to open the deadliest, most difficult puzzle box ever
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created.
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It's been locked up in the Imperial Palace, or so they say,
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for 150 years.
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So Mike Brink, of course, with a challenge like that, what can
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he do?
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Of course he decides to go.
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But yes, you know, getting a character from point A to point
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B and into the action for a writer is probably the hardest
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part of a book.
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As you said, I started right away and I do that with that
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puzzle.
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But, yeah, there were many drafts where there were other
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openings that I cut down, and what this book for me is is it's
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a diversion, it's a lot of fun, it's a way to escape for me as
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a writer, but also, I hope, for the reader, into this other
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world of Japanese puzzles and danger and excitement and
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questions about Mike Brink's own abilities and what those mean,
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and so the sooner I could get to that, the happier.
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Speaker 1: I was, and in our previous conversation you said
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you lived in Japan from 1998 to 2000 and often imagined writing
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a story there.
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Why this story?
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Why Mike Brink and why now?
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Speaker 2: Well, it's true, I lived in Japan.
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I was a teacher in a tiny, tiny village in the southern part of
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Japan, and it really changed who I was as a person.
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I went at a very formative time in my life in my mid-20s, and
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so I've held on to this idea that I would love to write about
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that place, but I could never find a story that that could do
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it justice.
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I didn't want the setting or the country to be secondary, and
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so the idea of an elaborate puzzle box that's intimately
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connected to Japanese history because as you read, you learn
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about Japanese history as he opens the box and discovers this
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mystery that's just seemed perfect, a perfect way to use
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both my experiences and sort of an inside look at Japanese
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culture, and a story that would bring other people into Japan
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who maybe haven't experienced it in the same way I have.
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So I was waiting.
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It took 20 years to get there.
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Speaker 1: Well, it was definitely worth waiting for,
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and Japan is such a beautiful country with beautiful people,
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the gardens, the creativity, the history.
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It's a magical, magical place and the perfect location for
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Mike Brink to be in.
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Now in the puzzle box you feature Dr Gupta, one of Brink's
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oldest and most trusted friends .
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Gupta is an MIT retired mathematics professor and one of
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the original cyberpunks, a small group of men and women in
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San Francisco in the 90s who developed early digital
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technologies to protect individual liberties.
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Who did you lean on for the technological information used
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in the story and did you dream up what you needed and then ask
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for professional advice, or did you research the information
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before writing?
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Speaker 2: A lot of it came with the first book with the Puzzle
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Master, because I knew that if I were to include a character
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like Dr Gupta, who is so complex and layered and is so brilliant
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, really like just a genius, I had to get him right and I had
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to get the research right.
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I personally have very little knowledge of the tech world or
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the history of technology, but I did do a lot.
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I did, as you say, a lot of research.
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I actually took a class about cryptocurrency and the history
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of encryption and I took this.
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It was an online class and I met every week with groups of
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people who were studying this topic and we read books and we
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read articles and I was watching videos on YouTube about the
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cypherpunks and I watched interviews actually with people
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who were part of that early movement, and so all of those
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details I transposed to Dr Gupta .
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Also, I really thought it was important that Mike Brink, who
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lost his father early in his life, as a character had a
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mentor and Dr Gupta, as a character, comes back in the
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puzzle box and I've heard from readers that he's one of their
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favorite characters because he just sort of comes in and he has
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all the answers and you know, for me he's just a really fun
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character.
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Speaker 1: And I love that you have these characters popping up
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again in the stories.
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It reminds me a little bit of a James Bond book, you know.
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Speaker 2: That's such a compliment because I love James
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Bond movies.
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Speaker 1: Yes, me too, and I love the books.
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I've actually just started collecting the books by Ian
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Fleming.
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They are so fun and they're really good for short reads.
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I love them.
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So that's my latest collection of books.
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Oh, those look amazing.
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Yeah, aren't they wonderful?
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Just these old paperbacks.
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You can slip them in your purse or your back pocket.
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They're kind of fun.
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Okay, back to Japan.
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My family and I studied Aikido for about five years in Los
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Angeles and that's how we came to be in Japan, because we went
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with our Aikido group and our sensei to meet another sensei
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over there, our sensei to meet another sensei over there, which
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was just a fantastic journey.
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So I was extremely interested in the relationship between Ume
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and Sakura and the history of Onobugesha, a group of
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pre-modern female warriors as deadly and powerful as their
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male counterparts.
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So what led you to initially create these two fantastic
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female characters?
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Speaker 2: Well, first of all, Ume had a very minor role in the
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Puzzle Master.
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Yes, that's right.
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Speaker 1: I remember her.
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Speaker 2: But she was a character that was working for
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Sedge as his chief security person and I really loved that
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character and I wanted to bring her back.
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So that's one of the elements.
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Also, she's Japanese and the book is set in Japan.
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But the real drive to include this history of the Ono Bugesha
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is that when I lived in Japan I would go and visit historical
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monuments and a lot of them had to do with the samurai or that
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era when there were basically that there were samurai they're
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not working but they were protecting um castles and that
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sort of thing um, and inevitably be um a little tiny mention of
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a woman who was part of that samurai clan or there.
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There would be, you know, just sort of a secondary history,
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sort of, after all, of the you know, you see, the armor and the
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swords and all of the implements that the samurai used
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.
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There would inevitably be some little thing about the women who
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were in that family.
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And so I started digging and I found that there was this rich
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history of women being trained alongside men, and it was always
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women in the family, right, they weren't sort of brought in
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from outside, but often when the male samurai left, they would
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defend the home or they would defend the castle, and so I
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thought that that was incredibly interesting and not something
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that anyone talks about.
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When I was at the Samurai Museum in Kyoto just last year,
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when I was doing research for this book, I asked the curator
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and the guide about them and there was not a display in that
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museum about them, and he said oh, you know, I really don't
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have that much information about them.
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It took a lot of digging to find more information about
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these women.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, that is a little sad.
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However, in some ways I can understand why.
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At the time anyway, because I don't want to give anything away
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in the book, but because they were female, no one expected
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them to be these brilliant warriors.
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So in some ways I can kind of see why they kept that secret.
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But now, yes, I wish we knew more about them.
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Of course you had me down a rabbit hole of Google.
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I was down that rabbit hole for a couple of hours just
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researching the Onnabugesha.
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What an interesting group of women.
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Speaker 2: This was the moment that I wished I spoke Japanese
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better, because I think there's probably a lot more in Japanese
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if I, if I, could read Japanese.
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Speaker 1: Yes, I agree, language is often the key to
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research.
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Danielle, are you going to be doing a book tour for the Puzzle
00:15:20
Box and, if so, where can listeners get their books signed
00:15:23
?
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Speaker 2: I am doing a book tour.
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I'm doing 11 cities actually.
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It's kind of an extensive book tour.
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People can find out the times and places on my website I'm
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going to be posting that or on social media, my Instagram
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account.
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I have it pinned to the top of my social media accounts.
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But I'm starting.
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I'll just do a very quick rundown.
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I'm starting in the Midwest.
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I'll be in Madison, wisconsin, then I'm going to Poison Pen in
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Arizona and then to Houston, texas, mystery by the Book and
00:15:55
then I'm waiting another week and then I'm doing a sort of
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East Coast sweep.
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So I'll be at the Morristown Festival in New Jersey and then
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a couple of stops in New York and then Boston Will you be at
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the Mysterious Bookshop in New York.
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This time I'm not.
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I did that last week For the last book for the series launch.
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I did it there and it was amazing.
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That's my favorite customer in New York.
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Speaker 1: Yes, they are.
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I had Otto Penzler on the show and my goodness, he is just a
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wealth of information about mystery books.
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He is incredible.
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Speaker 2: They're wonderful.
00:16:28
But this time I'm doing an event at a store called PT
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Knitwear I don't know if you know it.
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It's in the Lower East Side and it's a little bit bigger.
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It's a nice bookstore as well.
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It's not mystery and thriller, you know, based, but that's fine
00:16:46
.
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Speaker 1: And the other bookshop you mentioned, the
00:16:48
Poison Pen with Barbara G Peters .
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She's wonderful.
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She's also been on the show.
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Speaker 2: I'm so excited.
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This will be the first time I actually go to the store.
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Speaker 1: Let's talk books and authors.
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What do you enjoy about writing thrillers and who are some
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thriller writers that you admire ?
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Speaker 2: So my first book I don't know if I mentioned this
00:17:07
to you when we talked before, but my first book was a memoir
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and you know, my first impulse as a writer was to write about
00:17:15
me and my life and once I did that I never wanted to do it
00:17:20
again.
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So the really wonderful thing about thrillers for me is that
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it's other people's lives, it's situations and stories that are
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elevated, exciting world events, you events taking elements of
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history and taking the most dramatic and high stakes
00:17:41
elements of the world and using them in a story.
00:17:45
But I find that when I do that, when I have a sort of
00:17:49
architecture like that, I'm a little bit more free to fill in
00:17:53
the things like Mike Brink's consciousness or like these sort
00:17:57
of weird elements that I had in the Puzzle Master.
00:18:00
You know about religious mysteries or you know there was
00:18:05
a character, as you probably remember, who had a terrifying
00:18:09
kind of supernatural experience in an old house, like those
00:18:13
sorts of things.
00:18:14
I think if you didn't have a really strong plot and a very
00:18:19
high stakes structure would fall flat.
00:18:21
So for me it's really structural.
00:18:23
It allows me the freedom to do what I want as a writer and also
00:18:27
keep my readers turning the pages and coming along with me,
00:18:31
and it's also an escape for you too.
00:18:34
Completely.
00:18:34
It's not about me, which I find delicious and really, you know,
00:18:39
and fun, and for me at this point in my career, in my life I
00:18:43
read for pleasure, I read to learn about the world and I read
00:18:50
to investigate new characters and interesting people I'm not
00:18:54
really at the point for me where I want to write about my own
00:18:58
experiences.
00:18:59
So, yeah, it's perfect.
00:19:01
Speaker 1: And who are some thriller writers you admire.
00:19:04
Speaker 2: So in the past I've always read thriller writers who
00:19:08
kind of walk the line between literary fiction and mysteries
00:19:13
and crime, like Tana French or Anthony Horowitz or you know
00:19:17
sort of people who have very layered novels.
00:19:20
But recently I've been reading I'm kind of into locked room
00:19:25
mysteries and more classic, classic detective fiction.
00:19:29
I'm reading a lot of Agatha Christie.
00:19:31
Speaker 1: I don't think you can go wrong with an Agatha
00:19:33
Christie novel.
00:19:34
Speaker 2: I know, and you know, sort of going back and looking
00:19:38
at the structure of those books, it's really ingenious.
00:19:41
And so, yeah, I have a wide range of thriller and mystery
00:19:45
writers that I like, but I think I've sort of moved over to more
00:19:51
classic writers lately.
00:19:53
Speaker 1: Well, like you, I love a good Agatha, me too, and
00:19:56
one of my favorites is the Mirror Cracked.
00:19:58
Speaker 2: I just finished and there were none for like the
00:20:01
third time.
00:20:01
Speaker 1: And you know, I'm a big rereader too, and I'm always
00:20:04
surprised when people tell me they don't reread books.
00:20:07
Speaker 2: Oh, it is strange.
00:20:08
I'm someone who, if I love an author, I'll reread everything.
00:20:12
Speaker 1: Yeah, same here.
00:20:13
And also I think when I reread a book, no matter how many times
00:20:17
I reread it, I always find something that I haven't found
00:20:20
before.
00:20:21
It's comforting rereading a book that you love Completely.
00:20:24
You've been the chair jurist for the Pulitzer Prize in
00:20:27
Fiction.
00:20:28
What does this entail?
00:20:46
Speaker 2: So this I was actually a jurist for two years.
00:20:49
The first year I was not the chair, I was just a jurist.
00:20:52
There are five jurists and those people hardcover books
00:20:55
sitting on your porch, on your front stoop, so we were all you
00:21:01
know.
00:21:02
All of these books were delivered to us and then we met
00:21:04
and sort of divided them up.
00:21:06
We met on Zoom, actually, to divide them up or over email,
00:21:11
and then each of those jurists sort of took a section of them
00:21:16
and we didn't read all of those books, but we read the ones that
00:21:19
were in our area we read all of , and the other ones we could
00:21:24
read the first couple chapters and see if we liked them, and
00:21:26
then everyone came up with a list and then we just talked and
00:21:30
it really, you know, for me as a writer myself, it really made
00:21:35
it clear how subjective these prizes are and everything with
00:21:42
writing and with criticism.
00:21:44
I was also a columnist for the New York Times Book Review and
00:21:47
every choice that is made by a critic is subjective.
00:21:51
It's about what we've experienced, what books we like,
00:21:54
what we're in, just in the mood for that day actually.
00:21:58
So you know, that was the biggest takeaway for me from,
00:22:01
you know, being a judge for the Pulitzer is that there were so
00:22:04
many good books and so many worthy authors, actually, and
00:22:09
those were the books that were the finalists, you know, that we
00:22:12
chose were the ones that we just it, just that moment it all
00:22:15
clicked together, yeah.
00:22:16
Speaker 1: And I think you're right.
00:22:17
I think, as with any contest, it is subjective, depending on
00:22:21
the jurors.
00:22:21
Okay, let's talk books.
00:22:23
What are you currently reading?
00:22:24
I see you've got a little pile there ready to go.
00:22:27
Speaker 2: Yes, I do so.
00:22:28
As I said, I've been reading, rereading Agatha Christie, which
00:22:31
has been fun.
00:22:31
I'm currently reading a novel called Exposure by Ramona
00:22:36
Emerson.
00:22:37
This is her second book and her first book.
00:22:39
What was it called?
00:22:41
It was called Shutter, thank you, but I read it and loved it,
00:22:45
even though I can't remember the name.
00:22:46
And I'm going to be doing an event with her online for Soho
00:22:51
Crime and I believe it's being hosted by Mystery to Me in
00:22:56
Madison, wisconsin, so if anyone out there wants to go and see
00:22:59
that, it would be great to have you there.
00:23:01
I'm also reading a novel by Ivy Pakoda called Sing Down.
00:23:07
Speaker 1: You cut out a little bit, but that novel is Sing Her
00:23:10
Down.
00:23:12
Speaker 2: It's a thriller and it won the Los Angeles Times
00:23:16
Book Prize for for thrillers this year.
00:23:19
And I'm also reading I don't know if you remember the Woman
00:23:23
in the Window I'm reading AJ Finn's End of Story.
00:23:26
It's the new one by him, so you're reading a lot of
00:23:29
thrillers.
00:23:30
I know, I know it's clearly that's where my interests are
00:23:35
these days.
00:23:36
Speaker 1: Yes, and have you met Ivy Pakoda?
00:23:38
I have.
00:23:39
We were at a conference, Isn't she lovely?
00:23:42
I met her at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books this
00:23:46
year.
00:23:46
She was signing books and I just went up to the booth and
00:23:49
chatted with her and she just seems so lovely natural
00:23:53
Wonderful person and also a wonderful writer.
00:23:56
Speaker 2: It's great when those two things sort of come
00:23:58
together.
00:23:59
Speaker 1: Yes, it is a great mix.
00:24:00
Now, didn't you recently have another book published?
00:24:04
Speaker 2: Yeah, so I wrote a novel about 10 years ago called
00:24:08
Angelology and it is a completely different kind.
00:24:12
It's a supernatural thriller series.
00:24:15
There's a couple of books in that and my Spanish.
00:24:18
Actually my Spanish publisher just did a completely new
00:24:21
translation and reissued it.
00:24:23
So I've been posting about that and you know that might be a
00:24:27
little confusing, I guess, but it's in Spanish.
00:24:30
Speaker 1: That's exciting, congratulations.
00:24:32
Speaker 2: Yeah, it is, it's nice.
00:24:33
It's really fun for me to be able to see a different kind of
00:24:37
demographic of readers, and I've done events where I go on and I
00:24:41
speak to them.
00:24:42
Obviously, I have a translator and it's just, it's so rewarding
00:24:46
Danielle.
00:24:47
Speaker 1: Congratulations on yet another wonderful thriller,
00:24:50
the Puzzle Box, and maybe we'll get to say hi in person when I'm
00:24:58
in San.
00:24:58
Miguel de Allende in January.
00:24:59
That would be wonderful.
00:25:00
Please, please do.
00:25:00
And that reminds me do you have the dates set for the San
00:25:04
Miguel Writers Conference 2025?
00:25:07
Speaker 2: I do, and it's going to be amazing this year.
00:25:09
I really encourage you to come.
00:25:11
It's February 11th or the 12th is actually the opening keynote
00:25:16
speaker until the 16th.
00:25:18
Speaker 1: Okay, so to confirm February the 11th through the
00:25:22
16th, 2025 San Miguel Writers Conference.
00:25:26
Speaker 2: Yes, and there are incredible writers coming.
00:25:29
This year it's the 20th anniversary, so they are
00:25:33
throwing a huge party and I think it's going to be like
00:25:37
probably the best one.
00:25:38
Speaker 1: I think I'm going to be there two weeks before, darn
00:25:41
it.
00:25:42
Speaker 2: Maybe you can stay.
00:25:44
Speaker 1: Maybe I can.
00:25:45
Danielle, thank you for being a guest on the show.
00:25:48
I love chatting with you and I absolutely love the Mike Brink
00:25:52
books.
00:25:53
They're wonderful.
00:25:53
All the best of luck on your book tour.
00:25:56
Speaker 2: Well, thank you, talk to you soon.
00:25:57
Bye, mandy.
00:25:59
Speaker 1: You've been listening to my conversation with
00:26:01
Danielle Tressoni about her latest novel, the Puzzle Box.
00:26:04
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00:26:16
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00:26:26
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00:26:35
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00:26:45
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00:26:49
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00:26:50
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00:26:54
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00:26:54
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00:26:59
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00:26:59
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