Artifact by Gigi Pandian

 

Reviewed by Jeanne

Professor Jaya Jones has found her niche as a tenure-track history professor in California, but her life is about to get a bit more complicated.  Shaken by the news that former boyfriend Rupert has died in a car accident in Scotland, she arrives home to find a package containing a heavy gold anklet with a large ruby.  It’s obviously very old, and appears to be Indian.  But it’s the note that throws her for a loop:  it’s from Rupert.  He says that he’s sending her the item for safekeeping because there’s no one else he can trust.

The postmark is the same day as his fatal accident—if it was an accident.

The trouble is that Jaya’s expertise isn’t Indian history, but rather the East India Company and colonial India.  She’s going to have to find someone else who knows about Indian history, specifically jewelry, to figure out exactly what Rupert has sent her and if it got him killed.

With a possible killer on the loose, Jaya accepts the help of graduate student Lane Peters whose specialty is Indian art. But like Rupert, Jaya has to ask herself the question:  who can I trust?

I started reading Gigi Pandian with her delightful Secret Staircase Mystery series, and soon discovered that she had other books.   Jaya Jones was her first series and Artifact is the first book in that series.  Like some of her other heroines, Jaya is mixed race: part Asian Indian and part European as is Pandian herself.  It makes for an interesting cultural backdrop, which I enjoyed, and plays into the mystery too. Jaya is big-hearted, action-oriented, and deeply loyal, not to mention smart and brave.

The mystery is fast paced, with a lot of twists and turns as Jaya drops everything and heads to the UK to try to find out not only what happened to Rupert but how he came across such an unusual and valuable artifact.  It’s obvious that Pandian knows the territory well, both the historical and geographic.  While there were a few plot threads I may have had doubts about, it didn’t stop me from having a lot of fun with this book. I also was aware that this was not only a first in series book, but a debut novel.  With that in mind, I felt she handled a complex plot and characters quite well. It’s quite the page turner.

 I’ll be reading more of Jaya’s adventures as well as dipping into another of her series about an alchemist.

The Raven Thief by Gigi Pandian

 

Reviewed by Jeanne

Former stage magician and current designer for Secret Staircase Construction Tempest Raj is invited to a recent client’s home for a housewarming of sorts.  This particular housewarming is more than a bit atypical:  Lavinia Kingsley wants to celebrate by having a séance to banish the spirit of her soon-to-be ex-husband Corbin.  Corbin isn’t dead, just obnoxious but that’s a minor detail.  She’s enlisted Tempest’s friend and fellow magician Sanjay to perform a symbolic séance complete with some appropriate illusions, to be followed by the burning of some of Corbin’s papers.  Lavina’s book club members will be in attendance along with a few others, including Tempest and her grandfather, Ash. 

As the séance begins, the group is gathered around the table, holding hands in the dark. There’s a sudden crash. The flickering light reveals a body in the center of the table.

Now they can do a real séance, because Corbin Kingsley is actually dead.

Someone in the room had to have killed him—but how?

This is the second in Pandian’s wonderful Secret Staircase Mystery series and I enjoyed it just as much as the first one.  It’s a classic locked room mystery series, and there are many references to Golden Age mystery authors such as John Dickson Carr and Agatha Christie. The illusion element is a fine addition:  as a magician herself, Tempest is well aware of misdirection and she doesn’t believe for a moment that anything supernatural has occurred.  The problem is proving it, a task that becomes more difficult as it turns out that the victim had apparently been in two places at once.

Pandian has created a cast of memorable characters, not to mention some truly wonderful settings.  The Secret Staircase Construction Company specializes in creating hidden rooms, sliding bookcases, and such, but more than that, they create a story. Gardens with gnomes, gates with dragons, or illusionary waters are all their stock in trade, but there are other wondrous places as well. My personal favorite is the faux train car that serves as a library for classic mystery fans.  All of which is to say that I found it wonderfully atmospheric.

While this one can be read and enjoyed as a standalone, there is an ongoing plot thread about the mysterious disappearance of Tempest’s mother and the family curse:  the eldest child will die by magic.

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.