Under Lock and Skeleton Key by Gigi Pandian

Item: Under Lock & Skeleton Key
Rating: 4
Author: BaronessMom

Posted March 9, 2022 by BaronessMom in Mystery, Review, Series / 1 Comment

I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy from NetGalley. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Under Lock & Skeleton Key

by Gigi Pandian

Series: Secret Staircase Mystery #1
Series Rating:

Published by Minotaur on March 15, 2022
Genres: Cozy Mystery
Pages: 352
Format: Kindle
Source: NetGalley
Goodreads
BookBub
Get Your Copy at: Amazon
Also in this series: A Midnight Puzzle

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.

Under Lock and Skeleton Key by Gigi Pandian is a marvelous start to a new series.

Will Tempest figure out who killed her doppelganger before she is next?

Tempest Raj

An Illusionist or magician is the best way to describe our sleuth, Tempest Raj. She comes from a long line of magicians, but there is a curse on the family, and it seems that her time may have come. Tempest is dealing with the failure of her Las Vegas act and moving back with her family in their strange little house in the San Francisco Bay Area. In some ways, she is happy. In others, the whole failing at her craft really stings.

I like Tempest and her family. Her dad is such a sweetheart, and her grandparents are wonderfully caring. Tempest doesn’t have many friends, but the ones that she finds back home are true friends. Tempest saw some character growth during this first installment.

I look forward to seeing which love interest she picks for herself.

The Mystery

Ms. Pandian does a fantastic job of keeping us guessing and using ‘misdirection’ much as Tempest uses in her act. She kept me guessing; I picked the culprit at first but then fell for her red herrings and misdirection. I totally thought it was one of the red herrings. Although, it honestly seems as though karma got the best of Cassidy.

I also liked the hidden rooms and the key parts. They are extremely ingenious. Hopefully, the mystery of Tempest’s Mom’s disappearance will be solved in a future installment.

Four Stars

My rating for Under Lock and Skeleton Key by Gigi Pandian is four stars. The concept of the sleuth, her family, and the Secret Staircase Construction company is fresh and intriguing. I enjoyed the whole story but found that some parts could have been reduced. Even with that said, I recommend this book to all you cozy fans out there.

Thank you for dropping by! I hope you enjoyed this review of Under Lock and Skeleton Key by Gigi Pandian.

Until the next time,

About Gigi Pandian

Gigi Pandian is a USA Today bestselling and award-winning mystery author, breast cancer survivor, and accidental almost-vegan. The child of cultural anthropologists from New Mexico and the southern tip of India, she spent her childhood being dragged around the world on their research trips and now lives outside San Francisco with her husband and a gargoyle who watches over the garden. Gigi writes the Jaya Jones Treasure Hunt Mysteries, the Accidental Alchemist Mysteries, and locked-room mystery short stories. Her debut novel, Artifact, was awarded a Malice Domestic Grant and named a “Best of 2012” Debut Novel by Suspense Magazine, and her fiction has received Agatha, Anthony, Lefty, and Derringer Awards, and been nominated for the Sue Grafton Memorial Award. Along with Kellye Garrett and Walter Mosley, she’s one of the co-founders of Crime Writers of Color.

Gigi’s locked-room mystery short story “The Locked Room Library” appeared in the July/August 2021 issue of Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, the latest Accidental Alchemist novel, The Alchemist of Fire and Fortune, was published in October, 2021, and her first Secret Staircase mystery, Under Lock & Skeleton Key, is coming from Minotaur Books in March 2022.