Synopsis

Under Lock & Skeleton Key layers architecture with mouthwatering food in an ode to classic locked-room mysteries.

An impossible crime. A family legacy. The intrigue of hidden rooms and secret staircases.

After a disastrous accident derails Tempest Raj’s career and life, she heads back to her childhood home in California to comfort herself with her grandfather’s Indian home-cooked meals. Though she resists, every day brings her closer to the inevitable: working for her father’s company. Secret Staircase Construction specializes in bringing the magic of childhood to all by transforming clients’ homes with sliding bookcases, intricate locks, backyard treehouses, and hidden reading nooks.

When Tempest visits her dad’s latest renovation project, her former stage double is discovered dead inside a wall that’s supposedly been sealed for more than a century. Fearing she was the intended victim, it’s up to Tempest to solve this seemingly impossible crime. But as she delves further into the mystery, Tempest can’t help but wonder if the Raj family curse that’s plagued her family for generations—something she used to swear didn’t exist—has finally come for her.

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Review

I have read some of Gigi’s Jaya Jones mystery series and was thrilled to see Sanjay in this series too.

Tempest Raj is an illusionist and it is a path that runs in her family. All is going well and she has a show in Vegas until a new performance goes awry which causes her to lose her show, her house, and all she has worked for to get to this point. So she returns home and is trying to get settled when a dead body is discovered and someone is gaslighting Tempest.

This book is all about misdirection when it comes to this mystery. How did the stunt double end up in a wall that has been closed up for 50 years? Where is that music coming from? What is the key that Tempest has found go to? All good questions and they are all answered by the end of the book. I was glad of that because nothing worse (to me) than having to wait until the next book to get the answer to some of my questions. But the mystery was engaging and I had no idea what direction to look or who to suspect. I was surprised by the revelations and never expected these characters to be involved, but maybe I should have.

I loved the business that her dad has and wonder if I could make a secret room somewhere in my own home right now. I would love a secret passage or a hideaway reading nook where I could escape when I wanted to be alone.

I also enjoyed all of the dishes that Ash prepared for the family and chuckled when Tempest checked her father’s refrigerator and it was basically empty except for a few items. I am going to have to give the cardamon cookies a try because I do love a good shortbread and this is a bit of a mashup and sounds delicious.

This was a good start to an intriguing new series. We give it 4 paws up.

About the Author

Gigi Pandian is a USA Today bestselling and Agatha Award-winning mystery author, breast cancer survivor, and accidental almost-vegan. She’s the child of cultural anthropologists from New Mexico and the southern tip of India, and spent her childhood traveling around the world on their research trips. She now lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and a gargoyle who watches over the garden.

Gigi’s novels have been described as a cross between Indiana Jones and Agatha Christie. She writes the Jaya Jones Treasure Hunt mystery series (Artifact, Pirate Vishnu, Quicksand, Michelangelo’s Ghost, The Ninja’s Illusion, and The Glass Thief), the Accidental Alchemist mysteries (The Accidental Alchemist, The Masquerading Magician, The Elusive Elixir, and The Alchemist’s Illusion), and locked-room mystery short stories (many are collected in The Cambodian Curse & Other Stories).

Her debut novel was awarded a Malice Domestic Grant and named a Best of 2012 Debut by Suspense Magazine, and her mysteries have also been awarded the Agatha, Rose, Lefty, and Derringer awards.

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