Under Lock and Skeleton Keyby Gigi Pandian
Rating: ★★★½
isbn: 9781250804983
Series: Secret Staircase Mystery #1
Publication Date: March 15, 2022
Pages: 343
Genre: Fiction, Mystery
Publisher: Minotaur Books
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.
I have enjoyed Gigi Pandian’s work ever since I first picked up a Jaya Jones mystery, but it’s always been a hard-won enjoyment. There’s just something about her writing that I can’t quite put my finger on, whether it’s characterisations, or tone, I don’t know. Usually, by the mid-way point I’m over it and enjoying the story. This one was more of a struggle from beginning to end.
Some stream of consciousness thoughts: I love the premise of secret passageways, hidden rooms … who doesn’t? I’m not so much a fan of the stage magician stuff. I love magic and illusions, just not the usually seedy backstage stuff. I found the ‘curse’ in the Raj family a non-starter; I just didn’t buy into it from the start and the drama Pandian tried to build out of it just continued to fall flat. I like the cross-over of characters that takes place between this series and Jaya Jones and I liked most of the new characters too. The ‘tension’ between the two BFF’s also felt manufactured. Basically, whenever Pandian tried to drum up drama in the story, it backfired (for me). I thoroughly enjoyed the veiled references to gargoyle’s (Adrian!), and the introduction of an escape-artist bunny called Abra was a nice change of pace as a series mascot.
The plot was very well done, if maybe a tad … I don’t know; I just know when the denouement came I felt nothing. Not surprise, not annoyance, not disbelief. Just … nothing. But it was well crafted, and I had no hint of where things were going. Her use of a magician’s misdirection in the plot was a tad heavy handed, but really only in retrospect.
Overall, it’s not a bad mystery, even though I’m making it sound like it might be. This is, I think, Pandian’s first mainstream, big-publisher book, and perhaps I feel like she tried a tad too hard, but in spite of that, I will gladly read the second book in the series.
I liked this one more than you did–but I get what you’re saying. Particularly about the BFF-tension. Am hoping to start the sequel this week, hoping it’s as clever as this one, just maybe with better character work.
I’m planning on ordering the sequel this week – as I said, my history with Pandian has always been one that required patience, which always paid off. I’m hoping this one was just first-book jitters and the characters will gel in the next book. There’s a lot to like here.