Under Lock & Skeleton Key

After a couple of disappointing mystery reads this month, I enjoyed this one! The “secret staircase” conceit was appealing because I love those kinds of secret rooms. Character and relationship development was minimal, but the characters didn't depress or annoy me at least. I'd read another one in this series, just to see what happens to them all next.

A bit of a slow start with lots of character building - picks up toward the end. Good mystery that's tricky to work out before the reveal.

This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.

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WHAT'S UNDER LOCK & SKELETON KEY ABOUT?

Tempest Raj was an illusionist whose star was on the rise—until a new illusion went awry during a performance. We don't get a lot of details, but it was bad—injuring people and property. Tempest herself might have died. Her career did.

Her career in tatters, she goes back home to lick her wounds and decide her next steps. Magic's all she's known—it's a family business and has been for generations, but her grandparents and father never wanted her to go into it in the first place, and are hoping that she won't return to it.

Instead, they're hoping she'll join the family business—Secret Staircase Construction. The company makes things like secret staircases, hidden rooms, and treehouses that you can double as residences. Tempest stops by their worksite one day when a large sack is found in the existing wall—inside that sack is a body. Not just anybody, but Tempest's stage double.

The questions that leap to mind are: Who killed her? How did the body get in the wall (it's a move worthy of her father's or Tempest's skills)? Why hide it there? Was it a case of mistaken identity—was that supposed to be Tempest? The police land on a quick answer, but Tempest doesn't buy it.

So Tempest looks into things on her own, while she tries to come to terms with her life, rebuild some friendships she abandoned when she left home, and deal with some other personal stuff that we don't have time to get into.

ILLUSIONIST AS DETECTIVE

A few years ago, didn't ABC have a series where a stage magician acted as a police/FBI consultant? Sort of a Mentalist/Castle/Instinct thing. I'm pretty sure I watched an episode of it and resented the time lost.

That said, reading this makes me think they were onto something with the Magician-turned-Detective. The way that Tempest thought about some of the aspects of this work because of her background/career is perfect for this kind of thing. She's better equipped to tackle investigative work than a lot of amateur sleuths.

OH, THE FOOD...

So, Tempest's grandfather is spending most of his retirement cooking (or at least that seems to be pretty much what he does). He moved from India to Scotland as a teen and only moved to California a few years before the novel. His food seems to be a combination of traditional Indian flavors and Scottish dishes.

Really, all I know about Scottish cuisine comes from So I Married an Axe Murderer, and I have a beginner's appreciation for Indian food, but, boy howdy the food in Under Lock & Skeleton Key sounds great. The descriptions of all the food Grandpa Ash puts together just kept making me hungry. Thankfully, there are a couple of recipes at the end of the book that will help with the cravings the text induced (and more on the author's website).

SO, WHAT DID I THINK ABOUT UNDER LOCK & SKELETON KEY?

The character work—not just with Tempest, but all the characters she comes into contact with--is the best part of the book, I want to spend more time with these people and to get to know them better (even the killer!). They're a great batch of personalities, backgrounds, and interests—a cast unlike any series I can think of.

The book as a whole is like a course in classic mysteries (think early 20th Century), especially in the vein of locked room/closed circle mysteries. And that's before one character actually starts lecturing Tempest in classic mystery structure (I loved that section of the book and would've willingly suspended the action for a little longer for that section to be 2-3x as long as it was).

I'm not entirely certain that the mystery was as good as the writing and characterization would lead the reader to expect, and the solution was a little bit of a letdown. The reveal of that solution, on the other hand, was exactly what I wanted. Everything else about the novel more than makes up for the slight disappointment I experienced.

I see this is the first of a series, but it feels like a stand-alone to me. Also—how often can you find a body on the premises of a remodel? How many times can an author get away with these characters coming across a murder that's magic-adjacent? I really don't think I care. I'll buy whatever weak excuse Pandian can come up with for at least another one or two of these.

I'd recommend this for die-hard mystery readers or even those who only occasionally pick one up--the premise and characters for this novel/series are fresh, intriguing, and entertaining.

The setting was so whimsical and the plot was very well structured. There were several twists and turns, so I was constantly guessing. I love Tempest and the Secret Staircase crew. I liked the tension between a curse or logical explanations. And there are some mysteries left for the next one. This is a great beginning to a series.

Gigi Pandian is a new author to me, and I'm so glad to have found her! Under Lock & Skeleton Key is a well-written, thoroughly engrossing mystery that I could barely put down.

Tempest Raj is a magician, from a family of magicians. The alleged family curse, that the eldest child dies by magic, didn't keep her from following in the footsteps of other family members. But now she's come back home in disgrace after an illusion goes horribly wrong, facing lawsuits and the possibility of never performing again. She finds comfort in her grandfather's home-cooked meals and in the quirky house her parents designed and created. She also finds her family determined to protect her from what they see as the curse at work.

But when the body of Tempest's former assistant, Cassidy, is found seemingly walled up at the latest job site for her father's construction company, and when she thinks she sees and hears the ghost of her mother, Tempest knows she's got to figure out what's really going on. Is it the alleged curse? Was she meant to be the dead body, or was Cassidy's body put there for her to find for some reason?

I love Tempest! As her name implies, she's headstrong and often quick to jump into action. This sometimes gets her in trouble. Thankfully, she's got friends and family who have her back.

And I want to move in with her family. Grannie Mor is delightful, and I want to eat some of Grandpa Ash's home cooked meals. I think it's wonderful that he goes around delivering lunches to people on his bicycle. And a house with all those secret rooms and nooks and crannies! That would be such a neat place to live.

If you're a fan of the locked-room mystery, you will love, love, love this book. It pays homage to several masters of the genre, and Pandian does a fine job setting up her own locked-room puzzle. I certainly didn't see the reveal coming. Since this is #1 in a series, I hope we'll see more of Tempest and her friends and family.

Disclaimer: I received an advance review copy from NetGalley and Minotaur Press. All opinions here are mine, and I don't say nice things about books I don't actually like.