The Fellowship Of Puzzle Makers by Samuel Burr

Oh Samuel, how I love your brain, your heart, your Clayton. It was like you wrote a book just for me. Quirky old characters, a lost soul, a commune, jigsaws, cryptic clues... a quest! So clever and funny and special. Going to be huge and I'm so glad I got to read early so I can be all 'I told you so' about it. Pure joy.

From the back

Clayton Stumper is an enigma.

He might be twenty-five years old, but he dresses like your grandad and drinks sherry like your aunt.

Abandoned at birth on the steps of the Fellowship of Puzzlemakers, he was raised by the sharpest minds in the British Isles and finds himself amongst the last survivors of a fading institution.

When the esteemed crossword compiler, Pippa Allsbrook, passes away, she bestows her final puzzle to him: a promise to reveal the mystery of his parentage and prepare him for his future.

Yet as Clay begins to unpick the clues, he uncovers something even the Fellowship have never been able to solve - and it's a secret that will change everything...