Mathematical Mysteries 1 &2 by Jonathan Pinnock

It has been a while since I had this book on my virtual shelves and although I found the writing entertaining, something always seemed to come in the way and I did not get around to reading it last year. This year though, I found out that the second book was releasing and thought of reading (and reviewing ) them together.

1. The Truth about Archie and Pye

Tom is not a very nice guy(he is not a bad guy either) and his day, and possibly the next few weeks/his life are get very complicated just because he gets curious about the wrong thing. On the plus side, Tom’s erratic behaviour gets funny for those who are reading from the safety of their homes and not in the crazy situations he find himself. As the title mentions, there is a bit of math involved but it is mostly to stress the importance of the life’s work of a pair of twins who died a decade before our story begins. It starts off with a conversation between our leading protagonist and another man on a train and the whole thing goes on at a hectic pace involving conspiracies, mysterious men, online communities and a whole lot of other things. If I had not read the second book soon after this one, I would have rated it differently because at the ending of the book does not wrap up the story completely but just to the point that Tom can feel like his life is not in immediate danger.

I am not sure if the randomness of the conversations and pat dialogue delivery would be everyone’s thing but a within a few chapters you will know if you will like the book. It is different in terms of the storyline and the very realistic protagonists introduced to us. Some of the jokes/language did not completely appeal to me but given the bigger picture of the tale at large I could go past it (especially since the characters are introduced to being people who are more comfortable with such behaviour)

2. A Question of Trust

This book follows closely at the heels of the previous one but I liked it much better. It is lighter on math but involves cryptocurrency and some remaining unsolved issues from the previous book. It was easier to ignore the cursing in this book because the situations our ‘hero’ Tom finds himself in, although there was quite a lot more of it in this installment than the last one.

Tom made a couple of allies by the time he took a breath at the sort-of end of his last escapade. The story begins by dropping us right into the midst of a situation that is unexpected, especially as a follow-up to the successful survival at the end of the previous installment. Then things get murkier as Tom finds newer things that do not directly concern him but he tries to get to the bottom of (for the greater good and to find missing things/people). I know that this series would make for a very entertaining movie since there are chases, guns and shooting , impersonations and lots of planning. It will take a lot of physical stamina for Tom to come out at the other end, still in one piece. I highly recommend reading the first before getting here because the seriousness that conspiracy theories in Tom’s world are dealt with, will make more sense only with the prior knowledge that reading the series in order will provide.

I received both books as an ARC thanks to NetGalley and the publishers. The review is completely based on my own reading experience.

Affiliate links to purchase via Book Depository:

• The truth about Archie and Pye
• A Question of Trust