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Clayton Stumper is just 26, but he’s been raised by a group of elderly people, so he knows little about pop culture and has no friends his age. He was left as a baby in a hatbox at the door of the country manor that houses the members of the Fellowship of Puzzlemakers. Clayton is perfectly happy with his unusual life. But when the woman who was his mother figure dies, he is set on a journey to find out where he came from and what his future can be.
Pippa Allsbrook founded the fellowship in the ’70s as a place for fellow enthusiasts to gather, and over the decades it grew from a club to a family. She was one of the few females among the group, but she could certainly hold her own among the men (some of whom, of course, tended to be more well-known than she). Pippa’s strong suit was creating crosswords, though she came up with a few other little inventions over the years.
Pippa’s last puzzle is the most complex and most important. Clayton follows one clue to another in hopes of finding his birth mother, but he learns so much more than the secret of his parentage.
The Fellowship of Puzzlemakers is a charming book. The characters are all so endearing, and it’s a delight to learn about them as the story goes between present and past. The book is undeniably sentimental, so it could easily turn saccharine, but I never felt it did. It was hard to resist. And the cherry on top of the sweetness is that it’s fairly clean reading: just a mild.
Rated: Mild. Profanity includes one instance of moderate profanity, one use of mild language, 6 instances of the name of Deity in vain, and about 7 or 8 uses of British profanity not considered so in the US. Sexual content is mild; there are a few kisses; one reference to a popular novel having erotic content; a reference to some old nude stickers on a phone booth; and a brief mention of a nude man being walked in on in a room.
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