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Puzzleman_Part-04_A Snake By Any Other Name...
A young sculptress despondently searching for understanding after the tragic death of her infant son...
A professor of history and a beautiful French vintner, still longing for the love they shared during World War II...
A legless man seeking retribution and escape from a horror worse than death...
A retired detective itching to get back in the game...
Disparate lives, yet each meticulously woven together over time to play a special part in the Puzzleman’s twisted vision of eternal life.
Into the black Cathedral Fleur du Sang and into the pipes they must go –– into a terrifying world of grumemonsters, where the inaccuracies of accepted history and the gruesome future of mankind are laid bare.
For Amanda Zimmerman, Professor John Rainbow, Jeannette Orfèvre, the legless man, and Detective Ben Henfry, the Puzzleman is a personal demon awakened into a living nightmare –– and it’s up to them alone to wage their fight for sanity and salvation. A fight that swells into a harrowing escape, spanning two continents and the supernatural perversion of time and dimension. Welcome to the Pipeworld.
Welcome to truth and eternity.
Welcome to the world of the Puzzleman.
A professor of history and a beautiful French vintner, still longing for the love they shared during World War II...
A legless man seeking retribution and escape from a horror worse than death...
A retired detective itching to get back in the game...
Disparate lives, yet each meticulously woven together over time to play a special part in the Puzzleman’s twisted vision of eternal life.
Into the black Cathedral Fleur du Sang and into the pipes they must go –– into a terrifying world of grumemonsters, where the inaccuracies of accepted history and the gruesome future of mankind are laid bare.
For Amanda Zimmerman, Professor John Rainbow, Jeannette Orfèvre, the legless man, and Detective Ben Henfry, the Puzzleman is a personal demon awakened into a living nightmare –– and it’s up to them alone to wage their fight for sanity and salvation. A fight that swells into a harrowing escape, spanning two continents and the supernatural perversion of time and dimension. Welcome to the Pipeworld.
Welcome to truth and eternity.
Welcome to the world of the Puzzleman.
67 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 30, 2014
About the author
Christopher Alan Broadstone
17 books16 followersBorn in Oklahoma City and raised in Dallas, Texas, Christopher Alan Broadstone toured and recorded independent records and CDs (during the 1980s and 90s) with his bands “About 9 Times” and “The Judas Engine”. He is also the author of the macabre-thriller “Puzzleman”; the collection “Suicide The Hard Way: And Other Tales From The Innerzone” (short stories, screenplays, lyrics/poetry); the collection “Notes-To-Self: Accumulated Thoughts, Transferred Into Word Form” (early short stories, screenplay, lyrics/poetry); and the novella “A Catch In Time” (a dark alternative-history thriller), of which the relative short film “A Catch In Time: Chapter One” is available on the “Human No More” (Trash-Can Virus Limited Edition) Blu-ray. His most recent novel, the macabre-thriller “Heather’s Treehouse”, is now available in eBook and Trade Paperback (June 6, 2025). Also, Broadstone has written & directed the feature film “Human No More: A Macabre Thriller” and the feature-length “Human No More: A Making-of Documentary: Reinventing Perspective”. All are available via Amazon and Texas POĒtrope (Books - Films - Music) @ www.poetrope.com
Serving as writer and director, C.A. Broadstone previously produced three award-winning short films: “Scream For Me” (Best Short Film: NYC Horror Film Festival, Best Underground Short: B-Independent.com), “My Skin!” (Best Horror Short: Shriekfest Film Festival [L.A.], Creative Vision Award: International Horror & Sci-Fi Film Festival [Phoenix, AZ], Best Film/Director: Cinema Edge Awards), and “Human No More” (Best Horror Short: The Indie Gathering Film Festival [OH]). Also, he has completed two feature length screenplays, “Color Of Flame”, an erotic ghost story, and, with actor/writer John Franklin (Isaac from “Children of the Corn”), “R” (Best Horror Feature Screenplay: Shriekfest Film Festival [L.A.]). In total, C.A. Broadstone's films have been showcased on several horror compilation DVDs, have screened at 30 international film festivals, and have won 15 'Best Of' awards. All three films are currently available on the anthology DVD, “3 Dead Girls!” from Texas POĒtrope (Books - Films - Music) @ www.poetrope.com
Serving as writer and director, C.A. Broadstone previously produced three award-winning short films: “Scream For Me” (Best Short Film: NYC Horror Film Festival, Best Underground Short: B-Independent.com), “My Skin!” (Best Horror Short: Shriekfest Film Festival [L.A.], Creative Vision Award: International Horror & Sci-Fi Film Festival [Phoenix, AZ], Best Film/Director: Cinema Edge Awards), and “Human No More” (Best Horror Short: The Indie Gathering Film Festival [OH]). Also, he has completed two feature length screenplays, “Color Of Flame”, an erotic ghost story, and, with actor/writer John Franklin (Isaac from “Children of the Corn”), “R” (Best Horror Feature Screenplay: Shriekfest Film Festival [L.A.]). In total, C.A. Broadstone's films have been showcased on several horror compilation DVDs, have screened at 30 international film festivals, and have won 15 'Best Of' awards. All three films are currently available on the anthology DVD, “3 Dead Girls!” from Texas POĒtrope (Books - Films - Music) @ www.poetrope.com
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
August 29, 2024
3.5 - 4 stars
This very dark and twisted thriller will have fans of the Twilight Zone & Freddie Kruger jumping in to read. Christopher Alan Broadstone pulls out all the stops in this macabre tale. He uses suspense, tension, and excitement to engage the audience to evoke strong emotional responses. His use of Greek mythology is interesting but better used when dispersed throughout the tale. It pulls the reader from the main game of engagement.
The Puzzleman is graphic, viscous, lurid, and gruesome, and the thing nightmares are made from. You will be pulled from one extreme to another and often feel like you have been in a car crash.
There is a cast of many and a lot happening in this book and at times would have been better spent with a few less words. I think you will either love it or hate it, but true lovers of this genre will love it.
Read if you dare!
This very dark and twisted thriller will have fans of the Twilight Zone & Freddie Kruger jumping in to read. Christopher Alan Broadstone pulls out all the stops in this macabre tale. He uses suspense, tension, and excitement to engage the audience to evoke strong emotional responses. His use of Greek mythology is interesting but better used when dispersed throughout the tale. It pulls the reader from the main game of engagement.
The Puzzleman is graphic, viscous, lurid, and gruesome, and the thing nightmares are made from. You will be pulled from one extreme to another and often feel like you have been in a car crash.
There is a cast of many and a lot happening in this book and at times would have been better spent with a few less words. I think you will either love it or hate it, but true lovers of this genre will love it.
Read if you dare!
June 25, 2024
3 – 3.5 Stars
“….The pained-man slept restlessly on his fetid sleeping bag, the heroin taking him deeper and deeper into the abyss of his dreams.
Soon he had gone so deep the void became heavy...then compressed like the space sucked into a black hole. It grew so dense it reversed itself, turning from nothing into something. It became solidified oblivion––consciousness––then finally the darkest part of existence and the source of all nightmares: the unified core of the human psyche. Within moments the pained-man was slithering his way through this collective mind, like a worm slithering through wet earth. It was the puzzleman who had taught him this little trick––how to make a dreamcall––and he had always used it as instructed: for the betterment and evolution of the pipes.
Well not tonight, big brother.
It was finally time to use the dreamcall against the puzzleman. The grinning freak loved to play games and he loved to barter for fresh flesh, so the pained-man was going to conduct a real bargain this time. There would be no facades or playful haggling for the fun of the trade. He was going to collect a stable of victims, not just one or two, and then lay down some rules of his own at the bargaining table. The puzzleman could either pay what he asked ––
My legs. My freedom.
–– or he would spend the rest of what remained of his miserable life draining the living blood out of every human he could sink his claws or jaws into.
The pained-man chomped his teeth.
Although the puzzleman jokingly called himself Conundrum, and was most certainly an eternal enigma, there was a glitch in his character as clear and indelible as a placard carved into his forehead: he didn’t like to lose. Anything. Ever. He would never be able to bear the agony of letting so much living flesh slip through his fingers. Especially not to someone who had escaped his glorious pipes, legs lost or not.
So you can pay up, Conundrum, or I won’t feed your fuckin’ sewer anymore. The pained-man pushed his arrogance one step further. I might even start my own bloody little cesspool.
Worming upwards, he butted his head against the hard skull of the collective mind. Fuck!
He slithered off and tried again and again.
Gotta find it, gotta find it, gotta find it...
There was a lucky soft spot ahead––he could almost smell it––a place where he could break through this dark world and into the singular subconscious of some fatigued, unsuspecting sleeper…..”
Puzzleman by Christopher Alan Broadstone is a graphic and twisted horror/thriller with all kinds of disturbing details that made for a bit of an intense read. But that’s what you should expect from a well woven horror story, right.
Infused with plenty of tension, suspense, mystery, intrigue, supernatural elements, gore, macabre details, gruesome sadistic + gut-churning elements, and a touch of the bizarre- plus a very original premise, definitely made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.
As this is the first book of Mr. Broadstone’s that I have read, I really didn’t know what to expect from his storytelling- but after reading this there is now no doubt in my mind of what Mr. Broadstone’s mind is capable of.
I do love a good horror story though, which probably stems from my teenage years, growing up thorough the 80’s- where my friends and I would watch every scary horror movie we could get our hands on. And there were some great horror movies to come out during the 80’s- which I think this book gives off those ‘vibes’, in spades. In fact, I can see this making a great horror movie too.
I will mention that the transitions were a little abrupt - which gave the story a bit of a disjointed, and choppy feel. And the story was a little ‘wordy’ in parts- which interrupted the flow and pulled me out of the storyline. Which affected my overall rating of the book. I think with a little ‘tweaking’ though, this book could be more of a stellar read!
Be warned, Puzzleman and Mr. Broadstone’s pipeworld is hellish in the extreme! This is not a light and fluffy read- it is not ‘easy’ reading, it is graphic and disturbing - so if that is not your vibe, then this is probably not the book for you.
Otherwise, Happy Reading…
Thank you, Christopher Alan Broadstone!
“….The pained-man slept restlessly on his fetid sleeping bag, the heroin taking him deeper and deeper into the abyss of his dreams.
Soon he had gone so deep the void became heavy...then compressed like the space sucked into a black hole. It grew so dense it reversed itself, turning from nothing into something. It became solidified oblivion––consciousness––then finally the darkest part of existence and the source of all nightmares: the unified core of the human psyche. Within moments the pained-man was slithering his way through this collective mind, like a worm slithering through wet earth. It was the puzzleman who had taught him this little trick––how to make a dreamcall––and he had always used it as instructed: for the betterment and evolution of the pipes.
Well not tonight, big brother.
It was finally time to use the dreamcall against the puzzleman. The grinning freak loved to play games and he loved to barter for fresh flesh, so the pained-man was going to conduct a real bargain this time. There would be no facades or playful haggling for the fun of the trade. He was going to collect a stable of victims, not just one or two, and then lay down some rules of his own at the bargaining table. The puzzleman could either pay what he asked ––
My legs. My freedom.
–– or he would spend the rest of what remained of his miserable life draining the living blood out of every human he could sink his claws or jaws into.
The pained-man chomped his teeth.
Although the puzzleman jokingly called himself Conundrum, and was most certainly an eternal enigma, there was a glitch in his character as clear and indelible as a placard carved into his forehead: he didn’t like to lose. Anything. Ever. He would never be able to bear the agony of letting so much living flesh slip through his fingers. Especially not to someone who had escaped his glorious pipes, legs lost or not.
So you can pay up, Conundrum, or I won’t feed your fuckin’ sewer anymore. The pained-man pushed his arrogance one step further. I might even start my own bloody little cesspool.
Worming upwards, he butted his head against the hard skull of the collective mind. Fuck!
He slithered off and tried again and again.
Gotta find it, gotta find it, gotta find it...
There was a lucky soft spot ahead––he could almost smell it––a place where he could break through this dark world and into the singular subconscious of some fatigued, unsuspecting sleeper…..”
Puzzleman by Christopher Alan Broadstone is a graphic and twisted horror/thriller with all kinds of disturbing details that made for a bit of an intense read. But that’s what you should expect from a well woven horror story, right.
Infused with plenty of tension, suspense, mystery, intrigue, supernatural elements, gore, macabre details, gruesome sadistic + gut-churning elements, and a touch of the bizarre- plus a very original premise, definitely made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.
As this is the first book of Mr. Broadstone’s that I have read, I really didn’t know what to expect from his storytelling- but after reading this there is now no doubt in my mind of what Mr. Broadstone’s mind is capable of.
I do love a good horror story though, which probably stems from my teenage years, growing up thorough the 80’s- where my friends and I would watch every scary horror movie we could get our hands on. And there were some great horror movies to come out during the 80’s- which I think this book gives off those ‘vibes’, in spades. In fact, I can see this making a great horror movie too.
I will mention that the transitions were a little abrupt - which gave the story a bit of a disjointed, and choppy feel. And the story was a little ‘wordy’ in parts- which interrupted the flow and pulled me out of the storyline. Which affected my overall rating of the book. I think with a little ‘tweaking’ though, this book could be more of a stellar read!
Be warned, Puzzleman and Mr. Broadstone’s pipeworld is hellish in the extreme! This is not a light and fluffy read- it is not ‘easy’ reading, it is graphic and disturbing - so if that is not your vibe, then this is probably not the book for you.
Otherwise, Happy Reading…
Thank you, Christopher Alan Broadstone!
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews