Puzzle House by Duncan Ralston, Narrated by Joe Hempel

One part Cube, one part Saw, one part The Ninth Gate, and a dash of House On Haunted Hill, Duncan Ralston’s Puzzle House is an excellent book for fans of those movies. If you’re the kind of person who enjoys escape rooms, puzzles, and character studies–you’re in for one hell of a treat. When a mysterious puzzle master dies, his will brings together an assortment of strangers (all but his ex-wife, unfamiliar with the deceased as well)…but that is only the beginning of the mystery.

These people find themselves called to a house that has become something far more sinister, a series of escape rooms with a hefty toll to be paid and life-or-death consequences riding on the solutions. As they struggle to survive the sadistic gauntlet from which the only way out is through, secrets are revealed that connect these apparent strangers in ways that can’t be a coincidence. Somewhere at the core of it all is a mysterious organization with occult origins, and the rats in this maze are battling not only the clock but their own preconceived notions of what is–or can be–real. But will they be able to solve the puzzles that await them, and who will survive the journey into the Puzzle House? And is everyone who they seem to be? You’ll have to dare entry on your own to find out.

This one has one hell of an ending, and it leaves you wishing that you could stay with the story just a little bit longer–to find out what happens next. Ralston does a great job of leaving you hanging but feeling satisfied just the same–forced to decide how you, as the reader, might proceed.

Joe Hempel’s narration of the audiobook is spectacular as always…which should go without saying. He successfully brings the characters to life and pulls the story from the page, leaving the listener immersed in the nightmare environment.

https://www.audible.com/pd/Puzzle-House-Audiobook/B0CGXWP9WN?action_code=ASSGB149080119000H&share_location=pdp