The Seed of the Story: A Guest Post by Danielle Trussoni
The author of The Puzzle Master returns with another brain-teaser for Mike Brink — one that could kill him in the process. Danielle Trussoni has penned an exclusive essay on the inspiration for The Puzzle Box and why she’s always wanted to set a story in Japan, down below.
Hardcover $30.00
The Puzzle Box: A Novel
The Puzzle Box: A Novel
In Stock Online
Hardcover $30.00
Puzzle connoisseur Mike Brink returns to solve a legendary problem, one that comes with a fatal price.
Puzzle connoisseur Mike Brink returns to solve a legendary problem, one that comes with a fatal price.
My new novel The Puzzle Box has many inspirations, but the seed of the story took root in my twenties, when I lived in Japan for two years as a high school English teacher in a village called Yoshii-machi in Fukuoka prefectures in Kyushu, on the southern-most island Japan. I taught English as part of JET program, an educational program that places native English speakers in Japanese schools so that students would have a chance to hear English on a regular basis. Teachers are placed everywhere in Japan, and I found myself in an extremely rural area. I was assigned ‘teachers housing,’ a small apartment in a building next to a rice paddy. My village had a grocery store, an onsen public bath (which I used all the time because my apartment had no hot running water), a small tea shop, a pachinko parlor, and a few small restaurants. It was 45 minutes by bus to the nearest medium-sized town.
I’d never been to Japan– it was extremely different from anyplace I’d been before—and I loved it the minute I arrived. My primary job was to interact with Japanese kids, and through them I learned an enormous amount about Japanese culture—the small, daily things that you don’t see in movies or in guidebooks. I was interested in learning a martial art, and soon I was studying wa-do in the school dojo every afternoon. I was learning Japanese calligraphy, Ikebana, Japanese language. These years were transformative. I still feel a deep connection to the people and experience I had there.
I’ve wanted to write about Japan for two decades, but it wasn’t until Mike Brink came along that I found the right character and story for a novel. Mike Brink’s talents as a puzzle genius seemed the perfect vehicle to incorporate my experiences with a propulsive, panoramic story. I knew I wanted to incorporate elements of Japanese culture and history that I’d discovered while living in Japan—Shinto religion, the Onna-Bugeisha female samurai, and the Imperial family’s drama of succession. And so, I did a lot of reading about these subjects, reading everything I could get my hands on.
Still, I am the kind of writer who likes to actually see the places I write about, and so I went back to Japan in the spring of 2023 (during cherry blossom season!) to do more on the ground research. I visited many of the places that you’ll find in The Puzzle Box—the grounds of the Imperial Palace in Tokyo, the famous forests of Hakone, and many locations in Kyoto. And I’m so glad I did! The experience of being in Japan allowed me to write with more immediacy and make Mike Brink’s adventure feel as vivid as if you’re there.
