Under Lock and Skeleton Key by Gigi Pandian

 

Reviewed by Jeanne

Tempest Raj is a stage magician from a long line of magicians. She headlined her own show in Vegas, packing them in, before a nightmarish accident closed the show and nearly killed Tempest. She left Vegas and came home to California to recover.

Tempest’s father owns Secret Staircase Construction, a firm that specializes in adding fantasy elements to structures: a hidden room, a magnificent treehouse, or yes, a secret staircase.  Tempest’s mother used to help before she died, and the business has struggled since. Tempest tries to help, but her heart isn’t really in it.

Instead, she keeps pondering the mishap in Vegas. What happened should not have happened; it had to be sabotage.

Unless it was the family curse:  the eldest child dies by magic.

But Tempest doesn’t believe that curses are real, nor are ghosts. So why does she think she hears her mother’s fiddle music in the night?

And there's the body of Tempest's lookalike former assistant found inside a wall. . . .

This is a dandy new mystery series that totally delighted me.  Tempest is a wonderful character who is clever, determined, and devoted to her family.  I loved the mix of cultures—Tempest’s grandfather is from India, her grandmother from Scotland, and other friends and co-workers come from varied backgrounds.

The descriptions of the special rooms and ornaments were wonderful: dragons, keys, castle ramparts, stained glass. I wanted to win the lottery and hire Secret Staircase Construction to do a makeover on my house. And it’s not just the things the company does, but other locations described in the book.  I was especially enchanted with the Locked Room Library.  It’s a library/museum with a suit of armor, a reading nook like a train car, librarians in 1940s fashions, and all the classic detective novels.  (Pardon me while I swoon.) I love that the characters name drop Golden Age authors, especially John Dickson Carr, who was known for his locked room mysteries.

Back to the book itself, the plot has its own nifty locked room murder (or rather, cobwebbed walled up room with a fresh body) mystery, magical misdirection, engaging characters, a touch of the supernatural, treasure, and maybe even a bit of romance.  I’m already looking forward to the next in the series, due out in March, 2023.