{"id":4879,"date":"2023-03-14T06:36:55","date_gmt":"2023-03-14T13:36:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/?p=4879"},"modified":"2023-03-14T06:36:55","modified_gmt":"2023-03-14T13:36:55","slug":"gigi-pandian-the-raven-thief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/gigi-pandian-the-raven-thief\/","title":{"rendered":"Gigi Pandian: The Raven Thief"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Tempest Raj returns for an impossible mystery in The Raven Thief<\/em>, the second in Gigi Pandian\u2019s Secret Staircase series. A stage magician, Tempest is living in her childhood home after a scandalous debacle involving her career. A natural storyteller, Tempest is now working at her father\u2019s construction company making sure their fantastic creations have a solid narrative, too. She is in the process of planning her final show throughout the book, and has barely started to consider it when Secret Staircase Construction\u2019s latest client invites her to a s\u00e9ance.<\/p>\n

It’s not exactly your average s\u00e9ance (if such a thing can be called average) either. The client Lavinia, soon to be ex wife of a famous author, is holding it to banish the memory of her still living spouse. In addition, the s\u00e9ance is being held by Tempest\u2019s childhood friend Sanjay, a current stage magician. Lavinia plans to burn some of Corbin Colt\u2019s papers to truly cleanse the place of his energy. Her book club will also be in attendance, and it\u2019s meant to be a light hearted affair.<\/p>\n

But this, of course, is a mystery novel. Somehow, during the s\u00e9ance, Corbin turns up dead on the table. Due to past run ins with the unpleasant man, Tempest\u2019s grandpa Ash immediately becomes a suspect in the murder simply for attending. Tempest is left to use her puzzle solving skills to clear Ash\u2019s name – whether he asked her to help or not. But things are, somehow, still more complicated than just a flashy locked room mystery with no clear solution.<\/p>\n

Tempest is haunted by the unsolved death of her mother, and the murder of her aunt, from many years before. She\u2019s also being followed by a mysterious figure, who appears to be obsessed with her and had something to do with the previous case. And, more simply, she is reconnecting with old friends and trying to build her life. There even seems to be the possibility of a love triangle on the horizon.<\/p>\n

Put simply, this is a fun read. The mystery will keep you guessing, and Pandian laces just enough of the myth arc throughout to let you know the series is going places. The reader will want to stay with the story to the end to find out who-done-it, but also to fit more pieces into place concerning Emma Raj\u2019s disappearance. Pandian presents us with a tight knit, quirky cast anyone would want to follow – and Tempest herself is a force to be reckoned with. \u2013 Margaret Agnew<\/em><\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a><\/em>Margaret Agnew is the Director of the\u00a0Cahokia Public Library<\/a>\u00a0in Cahokia, Illinois.\u00a0 A graduate of Ripon College and Indiana University, she has been a mystery fan and an avid reader from an early age.\u00a0 She was also a reviewer for Mystery Scene Magazine.<\/p>\n

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Tempest Raj returns for an impossible mystery in The Raven Thief, the second in Gigi Pandian\u2019s Secret Staircase series. A stage magician, Tempest is living in her childhood home after a scandalous debacle involving her career. A natural storyteller, Tempest is now working at her father\u2019s construction company making sure their fantastic creations have a … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[800,401,1108,100,1045,803,1107],"class_list":["post-4879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-gigi-pandian","tag-locked-room","tag-magicians","tag-minotaur-books","tag-seances","tag-secret-staircase","tag-the-raven-thief"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4879"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4879\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4887,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4879\/revisions\/4887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}