Fresh from a shattered kneecap after a raid in Newark, investigator Gideon March is counting coins for rent when Eliza Voss steps into his office with a tale that doesn't add up: her uncle, Renzo Voss, eccentric craftsman behind the Last Puzzle Box, and founder of Voss Mechanical, was found beneath the stairs of his SoHo loft. The NYPD says accident; Eliza won't buy it. Following the trail drags March through auction houses, speakeasy basements, and collectors' salons, and tempts him with coded favors, counterfeit loyalties, illusions, and dangerous desire.
Sleek concept, uneven execution.
March is an investigator built on scar tissue, and the kneecap injury keeps his choices cautious in a way that makes sense. Eliza Voss is icier, her poise hiding grief and a survivor's calculation.
Their conversations spark, then stall. Some monologues chase metaphor when a plain question would do. I liked the wary respect that grows between them, even if the romantic pull feels more like a test than a necessity.
As much a meditation on making as a case file, this novel turns gears of loyalty, labor, and desire until the teeth catch. The broken knee, the broken stairs, the broken machine shop history - each fracture reflects how people remake themselves to fit a city that prizes reinvention. I loved how the currents of deception keep recasting relationships as transactions until a small act of trust feels momentous, a refusal even more so. And the motif of "ciphered favors" gives the investigation a moral algebra that lingers after the last page.
The chapters click like gears, each scene locking into the next without wasted motion. March's voice is bruised; the sentences often land with a dull ache. I admired how the structure mirrors the puzzle box, with clues nested inside society parties, basements, and auction rooms. The SoHo backdrop feels tactile without turning into a travelogue. A couple transitions blur time a bit, and the final mechanism of the solution feels slightly too neat, but the craft carries real ballast.
A wounded PI chases a death among collectors and the hunt moves fast until the last act fumbles its clues.
