There is no rest for celebrated puzzle master Mike Brink, as Danielle Trussoni’s new novel “The Puzzle Box,” the sequel to her best-selling “The Puzzle Master,” makes clear. This time Brink must solve an ancient puzzle to save his life, with the clock running no less. Trussoni is also the author of “The Ancestor,” “Angelology,” “Angelopolis,” as well as two memoirs, including “Falling Through the Earth.” She wrote the New York Times Book Review column “Dark Matters” on horror and mysteries for five years, and now directs the annual San Miguel Writers’ Conference and Literary Festival in Mexico. She joins a panel of mystery writers at the Boston Book Festival at 1:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 26, at the Church of the Covenant at 67 Newbury St.
BOOKS: What are you reading?
TRUSSONI: “The Winner” by Teddy Wayne. The writing is crystalline, and I love the setup: a young and very attractive law school grad is hired as a tennis coach on an exclusive retreat where he gets involved with an older, wealthy woman. It’s a little bit racy.
BOOKS: What was your last knockout read?
TRUSSONI: There are so many it’s hard for me to choose. I really, really loved Katy Hays’s “The Cloisters,” which came out last year. Recently I read Catherine Steadman’s “Look in the Mirror,” which is great. She’s a British author and actress who was in “Downton Abbey.”
BOOKS: How did you become a mystery reader?
TRUSSONI: One of my great inspirations as a writer has been Wilkie Collins, the 19th-century novelist who is credited as having written the first detective novel. “The Moonstone,” which I first read in college, is gorgeously written and it changed me as a reader. After that I wanted both plot and great writing in books. I just reread it and found the novel as great as the first time I read it. I also just reread Agatha Christie’s “And Then There Were None,” which is brilliant. For excellent plot and writing, I’ve also read Richard Price. His new book “Lazarus Man,” will be out soon. His dialogue is so honed and precise.
BOOKS: Do you have some favorite authors you discovered through your Times column?
TRUSSONI: Silvia Moreno-Garcia, who wrote “Mexican Gothic.” Grady Hendrix. He’s hilarious. It was kind of a shock to me that you can have funny horror, but it really works. Paul Tremblay, whose books are truly scary and good.
BOOKS: Have you ever found a book too scary to read?
TRUSSONI: There were some that felt gratuitously violent. There has to be something more elevated, some kind of thematic element that lifts the story out of violence.
BOOKS: Are you a fast reader?
TRUSSONI: I am but I’m not a speed reader. My friend the novelist Jean Kwok can read a book in an hour. I can get through a book in a day or two.
BOOKS: How did you manage all the reading for the column?
TRUSSONI: The honest answer was that I didn’t. I stepped away for that reason. Reading became a job. I had no time for pleasure reading. I read a lot but not the kind of reading that was magical or inspiring. As a writer I need that. It’s also hard to review fellow authors. I know how hard it is to write these books, and what you learn quickly is that reading tastes are subjective.
BOOKS: Who are the authors who have inspired you?
TRUSSONI: Patricia Highsmith. Joan Schenkar wrote “The Talented Miss Highsmith,” this amazing biography about her. Highsmith lived such an extraordinary life, and she created a character who is so unlikable but so magnetic. Shirley Jackson is inspiring in another way. She was such a workhorse. She raised four kids while she was churning out articles and books. Ruth Franklin wrote a really good biography of her, “Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life.”
BOOKS: Who inspired you to become a reader?
TRUSSONI: I grew up in a home that didn’t have books but my mother loved to read. She took us to the library every Saturday morning. It was like paradise. We could go anywhere in the building. We could go crazy and check out as many books as we wanted. It just instilled a love of reading. I’m always surprised to hear there are kids who don’t go to the library.
Follow us on Facebook or Twitter @GlobeBiblio. Amy Sutherland is the author, most recently, of “Rescuing Penny Jane” and she can be reached at amysutherland@mac.com.