{"id":5583,"date":"2024-03-15T06:27:55","date_gmt":"2024-03-15T13:27:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/?p=5583"},"modified":"2024-03-15T06:27:55","modified_gmt":"2024-03-15T13:27:55","slug":"gigi-pandian-a-midnight-puzzle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/gigi-pandian-a-midnight-puzzle\/","title":{"rendered":"Gigi Pandian: A Midnight Puzzle"},"content":{"rendered":"

Secret Staircase #3<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>In the third book in Gigi Pandian\u2019s locked room series her heroine, magician Tempest Raj, seeks the answer to a devastating question: who killed her mother?\u00a0 A supposed \u201ccurse\u201d decrees that the eldest born child in the family will die while performing magic. It may sound ridiculous but Tempest\u2019s aunt and mother both passed that way, and Tempest herself has already suffered a narrow escape.\u00a0 The killing that opens the book is that of the wealthy bully who has been suing Tempest\u2019s family construction company, insisting that the staircase that collapsed and put his wife in a coma was the result of shoddy construction.<\/p>\n

The litigant tells Tempest to meet him at midnight in the deserted theater she\u2019s rented for her farewell show,\u00a0 but when she heads over she finds him skewered with a sword on the front door. The booby trap that killed him somehow seems to be spreading, nicking a paramedic and injuring another person in Tempest\u2019s orbit, and\u00a0 the internet is soon seething with the idea that Tempest\u2019s mother has come back from the dead to seek revenge.<\/p>\n

The book is grounded in Tempest\u2019s rich family and friend group, and she herself is a novel mix of Indian and Scottish. Her grandfather, who cooks for everyone, provides mash ups of traditional recipes\u00a0 and several are shared at the end for the reader to try.\u00a0 The family runs a construction company that adds magical architectural details to their restoration of old homes. Tempest’s own home is on the family compound where each member has their own little unit, outfitted with unique secret architectural details.\u00a0 Her grandparents, for instance, live in a treehouse which is the de facto family kitchen.<\/p>\n

Working for a \u201cLocked Room Library\u201d that caters to readers of classic mysteries, Tempest\u2019s buddy Ivy has the ideal job for a mystery reading book lover. Her \u201ccrew\u201d includes librarian Ivy, magician Sanjay, and the woodworking artist Gideon.\u00a0 All of them use their various skills to help Tempest unravel the mystery, which includes a sealed hidden stage at the theater and a body that has materialized in a way that seems impossible.<\/p>\n

Pandian freshens the many classic tropes she employs with her use of young, interesting and diverse characters, most especially Tempest herself, and her family\u2019s company allows some fantastical elements to be included in more traditional plot lines.\u00a0 These books are not what you would call fantasies but they have an almost otherworldly, fey feel to them that makes them utterly charming. —\u00a0Robin Agnew<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Secret Staircase #3 In the third book in Gigi Pandian\u2019s locked room series her heroine, magician Tempest Raj, seeks the answer to a devastating question: who killed her mother?\u00a0 A supposed \u201ccurse\u201d decrees that the eldest born child in the family will die while performing magic. It may sound ridiculous but Tempest\u2019s aunt and mother … 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":[1587,800,1119,100,1589,1276,803,1588],"class_list":["post-5583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-a-midnight-puzzle","tag-gigi-pandian","tag-magic","tag-minotaur-books","tag-recipes","tag-robin-agnew","tag-secret-staircase","tag-tempest-raj"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5583","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=5583"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5583\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5585,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5583\/revisions\/5585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}