While this is the second book in the series, I found it worked fairly well as a standalone story. I'm sure there are things that I missed, having not read the first book yet, but I enjoyed it all the same.

Tempest Raj is called upon to solve a locked room mystery with four impossibilities. (Things like, the murder victim was on a livestreamed video just moments before his murder, but at a location that was 50+ miles away.)

I found it to be an engaging storyline with interesting characters and an unusual premise, and since I really enjoy mysteries, this one was great fun. I'll certainly be looking for the first book in the series keeping an eye out for future stories.

Thank you to Gigi Pandian, Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for an advance review copy.

This is the second book of A Secret Staircase Mystery and I actually liked it better than the first book. It held my attention more.

Its a locked room mystery that had 4 impossibilities! This was great for me because I love a mystery where I can't obviously figure out whodunit from the beginning.

The premise of the story is that Lavinia (owner of the Veggie Magic Cafe) decides to hire Sanjay to perform a fake séance for ex-husband even though he's not dead. Someone is murdered during the séance and none of clues on the surface make any sense.

Thank you Netgalley & the publisher for copy of this ARC audiobook. These are my honest opinions.

Book Title: The Raven Thief
Series: Secret Staircase Mystery # 2
Author: Gigi Pendian
Narrator: Sonella Nankani
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
Genre: Mystery Thriller
Pub Date: March 21, 2023
My Rating: 4 Stars!

I read and loved "Under Lock and Skelton Key" which was the first in the Secret Staircase Mystery series.
I got my love of mysteries when I was eight years-old and read the Trixie Belton series then moved on to Nancy Drew. So this series sounded perfect for me! 

Story stars when out protagonist Tempest Raj was in a disastrous accident on stage in Vegas. This accident has certainly put a halt to her career. When she leaves Vegas, Sanjay Rai aka “the Hindi Houdini” (he thinks of himself as an escape artist ;his illusions blend Eastern and Western magic ) is Tempest’s friend who believes her innocence, in fact he offered her a job as his assistant; which doesn’t go well with Tempest. She is actually insulted.
Tempest returns to her childhood home in northern California.
Her father has offered her a job in his design company “Secret Staircase Construction”. His company and designers brings hidden staircases and other magic into homes as well as backyard treehouses.

In this story Tempest’s friend Sanjay, another magician, is dismayed when a local woman, Lavinia, asks him to come to her place (newly renovated by SSC) to hold a séance banishing the bad vibes of her ex. He agrees, but everyone is shocked when there is a murder and Tempest's grandfather is the #1 suspect. Ignoring all advice, Tempest decides to investigate to try and clear her grandfather.
Narrator Sonella Nankani did a fab job in her performance of ALL the characters.

I always love reading the author’s ‘Acknowledgements and or Notes’. In most cases aren’t included in audiobooks but mush to my delighte4d included in this story. [author: Gigi Pandian] tells us her inspiration for writing this story and also tells us she has plenty of more stories for Tempest Raj!
Another thing that is included in this audiobook is the recipes!
Enjoy!

Story was a tad different that other mysteries of this type. It was an interesting fun read.

Want to thank NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for granted me the pleasure of listening to this early eGalley.
Publishing Release Date scheduled for March 21, 2023

Thank you Macmillan Audio for this ARC of The Raven Thief, by Gigi Pandian. This was truly an exceptional book, narrated well. I would not hesitate to recommend this to a young adult all the way up to a much older audience. The descriptions of hidden staircases, sliding bookcases, tricks galore! I loved all the characters especially Tempest Raj, Lavinia ex-Corbin, and I got a real sense of who and how Clyde operated. It’s a shame he met his demise, no pun intended. Gideon Torres the stone mason seemed to be quite interested in Tempest. His stone carvings were so well described I could picture them in my minds eye! Of course, who wouldn’t love Abracadabra, a 14 lb. rabbit? This book had a great mystery as a plot which was solid, magical and mystical themes. It was all-around exquisitely done. Many thanks to Gigi Pandian for a very special book which I will never forget! It brought me back to my youth and my love of reading. I’m predicting this will be an extremely popular read.

This is the delightful second book in the series - featuring Tempest Raj now working at the Secret Staircase construction company.

Construction has been completed on a home renovation, and the client wants to celebrate by holding a fake seance to banish her former husband Corbin's spirit from the home. Tempest's friend Sanjay (a magician) is called on to perform the seance. During the seance, while all present were holding hands, Corbin's body crashes onto the table. After checking to see if Corbin was really dead, Grandpa Ash becomes the main suspect.

Tempest and her friends and family immediately start to investigate the murder - trying to crack the 4 impossibilities of the scene. They use a mixture of magician's tricks and illusionist's misdirection, along with investigation, as they start to suspect most of those present at the seance, one by one.

The characters in this novel are quirky and fun, and the hidden rooms, secret hidey holes, and mysterious architecture of the locations all help add to the fun of this tale.

There is a thread throughout both books surrounding the disappearance of Tempest's mother, and I suspect that will continue through the next books in the series.

It's a modern twist on the classic locked room mystery and is very well done. I enjoyed the light, quick read. I look forward to reading the next book in this series.

The narrator did an excellent job with the book - her voicing of the different characters made it easy for me to know who was involved, and she was able to help me visualize all of the quirky architectural details of the locations described.

Oh my brain… this was soooo good! I say brain because I could not for the life of me figure out the whodunnit. This was my first in the series and I’m a strict must read the series in order gal but I went for it and I’m so glad I did and I will definitely be checking out the first one…

Our leading lady Tempest’s family owns a Secret Staircase construction company and I’m here for it!!! This book SCREAMS magic & mystery! With a hidden mystery not shared and I’m assuming the first book may share about it as well so I’m more than eager to continue the series!

THE RAVEN THIEF is the second book in the Secret Staircase Mystery series by Gigi Pandian. Filled with an intricate and cleverly executed locked room murder, the story captured my attention from the very first. I loved how the protagonist, Tempest Raj, uses her expertise as an illusionist/magician to unravel the four impossibilities of the crime that occurred during a fake séance. I was happy to follow along and enjoy the ride as Tempest hunts down the clues and figure out how it was done and who the murderer was.

Adding to the enjoyment is Tempest’s Grandpa Ash (her grandmother is traveling, so didn’t feature in this book much). I appreciated their close relationship and the way her grandfather feeds everyone mouthwatering food to show his care. There are even a few recipes at the back of the book. Alongside the closed room murder is the unsolved disappearance of Tempest’s mother, which was mentioned in book one as well as a mysterious figure Tempest calls Moriarty. It’s still unknown whether he’s friend or foe. The disappearance of her mother was seamlessly woven into the current murder, which added another level of intrigue. I, for one, am eager for the next book and hope to find out more about Tempest’s mother and hopefully find out what happened to her!

Many thanks to Macmillan Audio for providing an advance copy. I thoroughly enjoyed Soneela Nankani as the narrator. She did an excellent job in capturing Tempest’s voice, along with making it easy to differentiate the various characters. Between the talented narrator and the captivating story, I listened to the story in one day.

This is a very interesting murder mystery.
Tempest must work very hard to find the murderer and help out her grandpa. There are several moving characters and the mystery was very unique. I enjoyed listening to the narrator, Soneela Nankani did a wonderful performance portraying the many characters and Tempest.

recipes, closed-circle-mystery, cozy-mystery, friendship, family-dynamics, family, famous-author, murder-investigation, murder, law-enforcement, cultural-assimilation, cultural-differences, cultural-exploration, illusionists, small-business, small-town, smoke-and-mirrors, carpentry, amateur-sleuth, verbal-humor, relatives, relationships, legerdemain, suspense, unputdownable, pet-bunny*****

The murder is real, but all else is legerdemain.
The Secret Staircase is a niche construction company run operated by family who live in a tree house.
Enter the Hindi Houdini to give the illusion of a fake séance and Tempest has to prove that her grandfather is not a murderer. The publisher's blurb is pretty good so I won't repeat that. I loved this masterful mystery with all of its quirky characters!
Soneela Nankani is marvelous in her work as voice actor.
I requested and received a free temporary audiobook copy from Macmillan Audio via NetGalley. Thank you!

Another good mystery with plenty of intrigue,twists.suspects,suspense.
Tempest and frien are paretake in a fake seance to expell the spirt of exfiance from a house when he ends up dead in the middle of the table with 8 suspects who all had a reason to end his life.
Good supense mystery really like the series and Tempest and he freinds.
Voluntarily reviewed.

After reading the first book, I was excited to get back into this world and catch back up with the characters I fell in love with there. Gigi Pandian weaves a wonderful mystery always, with her I know I'm going to get a good story and well fleshed out characters, along with at least a few surprises.

This book left me with more questions sure, and hoping (again) for a sequel, but absolutely start to end completed a story and built upon the first book which I love. I hope she keeps going with this series, her Accidental Alchemist series is another favorite that you will probably like if you like this one!

I listened to this as an audiobook and the narrator is lovely and pretty perfect for the role, she does the different voices well and has a great range, nice voice, and is fun to listen to. All around a win for a fun and relatively cozy paranormally tinged mystery!

Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for providing me with an advance review copy of this book for free in exchange for my honest review.

I enjoyed this book. The mystery is a complex and multi-layered version of a locked room whodunnit. The characters are fun and interesting, especially Tempest and her cultural mashup of a family.

I love Lavinia’s Lair! I want one just like it, complete with secret reading nook. Please and thank you.

The audiobook is narrated by Soneela Nankani. I enjoyed her performance and thought she did a great job bringing Tempest and her adventure to life.

The Raven Thief (Secret Staircase Mystery #2)
Gigi Pandian
Tempest Raj was a famous magician in Las Vegas until the accident that almost destroyed her career. She returns to northern California and joins her father’s company. The Secret Staircase Construction company designers add unusual elements to homes such as secret staircases, hidden drawers, hidden doors, etc. Tempest and the Secret Staircase Construction Company recently remodeled the home of Lavinia, her ex-husband was a cheating scoundrel; she was glad to have Corbin Colt out of her life. Lavinia asks Sanjay Rai, a friend of Tempest and an escape artist to plan a fake seance to assist in ridding her home of any bad vibes or traces of her ex-husband Corbin Colt. She planned a party and invited her friends; she also planned to burn his manuscripts. The night of the party everyone was having fun until the dead body of Corbin Colt landed on the table with a bang. The guests all sat around the table holding hands, how could any of them be guilty and yet one of them must be the murderer. (Doctor) Grandpa Ash tried to revive the dead man and got blood on his hands. When the police arrived, suspicion fell on Grandpa. They arrested him with very little evidence. Determined to prove Grandpa’s innocence, Tempest falls back on her talent for magic to investigate the crime.
The Raven Thief is a twist on a Locked Room mystery. I have a few criticisms for this tale.
1. It was too long, this tale could and should be tighter.
2. I wanted to know more about Tempest’s mother, I realize the desire to know more will encourage people to purchase upcoming releases, but I would have liked more information.
3. The police were useless, with very little investigation they arrested Ash..
I like Tempest and believe this series has great potential. I like the mention/tribute of other mystery authors and their books. At the end of this book there are a few recipes.

What starts as a fake seance held to celebrate a mystery enthusiast’s divorce from her cheating husband turns into a locked room murder case in this second cozy mystery in Gigi Pandian’s Secret Staircase series.

Tempest Raj, magician and recent addition to the Secret Staircase Construction team, puts her sleuthing skills to the test as she and her friends try to prove her grandfather’s innocence.

Pandian also includes clues as to the series mystery of what happened to Tempest’s aunt and mother. We get a hint of romantic feelings between Tempest and Sanjay and between Tempest and Gideon. And Tempest’s own version of the mysterious Moriarty, who claims he is there to help, not to hurt, returns.

I enjoyed puzzling out the different clues along with Tempest and her friends, how they solved the impossibilities, the various personalities involved, and the unusual creations made by the family construction business.

This one was a low violence, high on the fun escape for me. I look forward to the next chapter in Tempest’s story.

I listened to the audiobook and thoroughly enjoyed Soneela Nankani’s narration. I enjoyed her vocal choices for the characters and her pacing. I was easily able to keep up with the twists and turns at 1.75x speed.

Make sure to stick around to the end of the book for some of Ash’s recipes.

I received an advance copy of the audiobook from Macmillan Audio and NetGalley. All review opinions are my own.

Gigi Pandian has done a tremendous job of creating such good atmosphere that the locked room mystery (long a genre that hasn’t been great in contemporary settings) has finally moved successfully into the new millennium.

The use of architecture in this series is so clever and creates such an exceptional sense of place. I wish this book used that element of the story as much as the first book in the series did, but there’s still a lot to enjoy about Tempest’s family business and home in this installment.

The mystery itself is complex and kind of all over the place like it was in the first book in the series, and it didn’t work quite as well this time around. Because the setting is so good and the characters are wonderful, that didn’t matter as much as it does in some mysteries, but it’s something to note.

I also don’t love approaching a solve by having characters make a significant number of incorrect accusations to eliminate suspects. There’s a better way to do this, and it’s the only part of this book that really bugged me.

This series continues to translate very well to audiobook format, and the narrator is excellent.

Tempest is, of course, an absolute delight, as are her family, friends, and the rest of the cast. I hope this series continues for a long time.

Tempest Raj has recently joined Secret Staircase Construction - her family's business - and been part of the most recent build for a newly divorced woman who is ready to start her new life. Of course what one does to celebrate a new phase in life is to naturally host a séance to rid one's new space bad vibes. What one doesn't account for is their recently divorced spouse to appear out of seemingly nowhere dead. When Tempest's grandfather becomes the number one suspect, Tempest steps in the solve a mystery with four impossibilities.

I really enjoyed the first book in the series for all that at times I felt a bit turned around at the twists in the narrative. But I think this is a series that benefits from familiarity. Being familiar with the characters, what to expect out of the mystery, as well as Gigi Pandian's writing, I found myself enjoying this book more than the first.

Listening to the audiobook, I thought the narrator did a great job of giving Tempest a voice. I have listened to audiobooks read by this narrator before and she has a distinct voice that I recognized immediately. Overall, I enjoyed the performance and I thought she did great with the multiple characters, but there were a few moments of over-enthusiastic exclamations that I didn't think always fit the situation.

I think that the main mysteries of the two books are similar in that they're both considered "locked room" and I enjoyed seeing Tempest, with her knowledge of illusions and slight of hand, put her skills to use in order to solve a seemingly unsolvable mystery. It just really makes sense that a stage magician with all their knowledge of how to present "magic" on stage would be able to piece together the inconsistencies to look beyond what the eye can see.

Gigi Pandian couples this with the ongoing mystery surrounding Tempest's mother's disappearance. For me, that was the more interesting mystery of the two, I think, simply because it's the more intriguing of the two. However, I have appreciated up to this point that Gigi Pandian has been able to make the mysteries very personal (in the first book Tempest was trying to clear her name and this time around it's her grandfather's) without making it feel like a cookie-cutter rinse and repeat type story.

Overall, I'll say you'll probably not be able to guess all the twists and turns in this one, but you'll enjoy following the clues along with Tempest. These two books have been enjoyable reads and I look forward to the continuing series and learning more about the characters.

Earlier this year I read Gigi Pandian’s “Under Lock and Skeleton Key” so I was excited to read the sequel, “The Raven Thief.” I think that the second book in this series is even better than the first one, which bodes well for a series that mystery lovers can really get into (I was definitely thrilled to hear the author state at the end of the book that she has many future mysteries for illusionist Tempest Raj to solve)! What I love most about this series is that each book focuses on a murder that Tempest works to solve—with the help of a rather eclectic group of people including her family, friends, and the “Secret Staircase” construction company—but there is also the lingering mystery of her mother’s death and the Raj family curse that is often discussed but not yet solved. This aspect is vital to making readers feel invested in the series as a whole and it is a fascinating element. I can’t wait for the next book and more of Tempest’s adventures, and perhaps her return to the stage?! Plus, the food cooked by Tempest’s grandfather always sounds delicious and there are recipes at the end! Thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the opportunity to review this audiobook.

I was over the moon to return to the world of Tempest Raj and this book defiantly delivered and built itself well on the last book. Gigi Pandian did an amazing job taking her reader on another adventure but then she connected this adventure to a classic mystery-The Raven. This was a brilliant effort and a grand addition to the locked room cozy mystery genre.
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One murder. Four impossibilities. A fake séance hides a very real crime.

Secret Staircase Construction just finished their first project with Tempest Raj officially a part of the team—a classic mystery novel-themed home interior. Their client is now ready to celebrate her new life without her cheating ex-husband, famous mystery author Corbin Colt. First up, a party, and Tempest and Grandpa Ash are invited to the exclusive mock séance to remove any trace of Corbin from the property—for good. It's all lighthearted fun until Corbin's dead body crashes the party.

The only possible suspects are the eight people around the séance table—a circle of clasped hands that wasn't broken. Suspicion quickly falls on Grandpa Ash, the only one with actual blood on him. To prove her beloved grandfather’s innocence, Tempest must figure out what really happened—and how—or Ash will be cooking his delectable Indian and Scottish creations nevermore.

The first book in this series fell a little flat for me but I was hoping that a second book would help with the lack of character development that I struggled with because the premise of the The Secret Staircase Construction Company was solid. Unfortunately, after book two I'm still struggling with the same challenges. I don't know the characters any better and I don't find myself connecting with them any more than I did in the first book.

Unfortunately, this might be the last attempt at this series for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for the opportunity to review this book ahead of publication. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.

This is the second in the Secret Staircase mystery series and fits nicely in the cozy mystery genre!

Tempest Raj is back living with her parents and working for her father's construction company. Tempest had a major show in Las Vegas and is a very talented illusionist but a horrible accident occurred during her last show which resulted in the death of her stand-in double. Her career is on hold, at least for now. More about this was described in the first book.

The Secret Stairway construction company is unique as it designs homes for owners who want hidden staircases, bookcases that slide open to reveal nooks and crannies, even entire rooms. They have just finished the lower level remodel for their customer Lavinia Colt. She has recently divorced her husband, Corbin Colt, a well known mystery writer.

Brief synopsis from the blurb “First up, a party, and Tempest and Grandpa Ash are invited to the exclusive mock séance to remove any trace of Corbin from the property—for good. It's all lighthearted fun until Corbin's dead body crashes the party.

The only possible suspects are the eight people around the séance table—a circle of clasped hands that wasn't broken. Suspicion quickly falls on Grandpa Ash, the only one with actual blood on him. To prove her beloved grandfather’s innocence, Tempest must figure out what really happened—and how ?”

PROS:
I really enjoy learning about this unique company which sounds like a great concept for discerning customers who also want some fun in their surroundings!

Tempest herself is still a young woman trying to figure out her life. She is determined and clever and some of her insights are interesting to read about.

The mystery is a classic locked room mystery which I enjoy.

CONS:
The police are portrayed as completely incompetent, idiotic and apparently holding a grudge against Tempest for solving a prior crime that they did not!! I thought this was somewhat overdone and OTT.

There was too much dialogue, I think a lot of the ruminating could have been eliminated and would make for a quicker and more exciting reading experience.

All in all this was still an enjoyable 2 day read and I applaud the author for her creation of this unique series!!

I received an ARC of this novel from the author through Edelweiss. It was my pleasure to read and review this title.