THE TREE OF KNOWLEDGE

A debut thriller full of puzzles and political intrigue that centers on the notion of a life-changing principle that binds everything together.

What if you could predict everything in your life by using a series of calculations and visualizations that makes it easy to manipulate people and outcomes? Some people, predictably, would use it to take over the world. In this novel, such figures make up the nefarious Society, and as the story opens, math genius Eva Fix, one of the Society’s operatives, steals a book from a safe-deposit box in the Bank of Princeton in New Jersey but leaves a dead body behind as well as a mysterious clue to her identity. The only people who can decipher the clue—a piece of paper with a “logic tree” on it—are three Princeton University academics: tenured mathematics professor Albert Puddles; his assistant, doctoral student Ying Koh; and Puddles’ mentor, professor Angus Turner. Before long, Turner teaches Puddles the principles behind something called the Tree of Knowledge and reveals the existence of the Book Club, an informal organization that works to counteract the Society’s earth-shaking plans. Miller’s fast-paced, series-starting thriller has an intriguing, fun premise that allows for thought-provoking puzzles and riddles, and fans of such games are sure to get a kick out of them. But as the tale progresses, the densely academic aspect of the work becomes more evident due to the enormous amount of exposition throughout. The stilted dialogue (“He just said that…there was some evidence that they thought you might be able to shed some light on”), mawkish character development (“All he wanted was to sleep and dream, dream of a place where the Tree of Knowledge never existed”), and predicable plot twists also make for a disappointing read.

A novel with a compelling setup and clever puzzles but awkward execution.