What a fun read!

Fans of Flavia de Luce and Finlay Donovan will find this book incredibly entertaining. A bit of mystery, a bit of sass, some moments of laugh out loud. This book is full of endearing characters and colorful writing.

This was my first book by Gigi Pandian. I was a bit nervous to read this since it is the 3rd book in the Secret Staircase series, that I would be lost. But, surprisingly, I enjoyed this book despite missing out on previous happenings. There were references to things that I'm sure had happened in the previous two novels, but I don't think it detracted from the enjoyment in this book. Gigi Pandian did a great job giving background to the characters so that this novel can be a stand alone.

The narrator was fabulous. I enjoyed the voice changes between characters and the emotion she brought to the book. Narrators can make or break the audio listening experience, and in this case, I think she enhanced it.

I will look forward to more novels in this series!

DNF at 55%. I really enjoyed the first book in this series and was excited to get resolution to some ongoing series questions - but I just found myself bored. This story is moving too slowly and I think maybe I’m just not a cozy mystery reader. Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the free ebook and audiobook to review.

Thank you Macmillan Audio for allowing me to audibly read and review A Midnight Puzzle on NetGalley.

Published: 03/19/24

Stars: 2.5

This was a difficult read. The biggest problem audibly was the narrator. She has the voice and performance skills perfect for a children's librarian. She has a kind, friendly, and happy voice; it's sugary sweet, clear and precise. Early on, by 25%, Secret Staircase Construction had been said so many times I thought I was being spun like a top. Also, the repetitive lines regarding her mother, figuratively I threw my hands up. This was in addition to Tempest being said so many times I didn't think I would finish.

With regards to the storyline I have no words. The architectural puzzles built into homes sounded incredible and fresh. Unfortunately all I heard was water dripping while I watched grass grow as I inched through the book.

Tempest is the main character. I didn't like her, nor have I ever enjoyed anyone with her traits. She undermines law enforcement, twists words to her advantage placing innocent people in harms way and she argues childishly in serious situations. That's not entertainment.

Credit: I don't recall any profanity.

A Midnight Puzzle is the third book in the Secret Staircase Mystery series. Tempest Raj, a former stage magician, finds her family’s construction company, Hidden Staircase Construction, is under attack. One of their clients is suing them with false claims about their construction. When this client turns up dead, Tempest has to do everything in her power to make sure the police get the right person.

I have loved this series since the very beginning and this was a great new addition to the series. Tempest is a great main character and I love following along with her friends and family as Tempest uncovers the secrets around her. This book is full of twists and turns that I didn’t see coming. The way this book wraps up at the end is perfectly done and I loved how everything fit together to answer the questions revolving around the murder as well as the secrets Tempest had been trying to unravel for years. I fully enjoyed this book and really hope this isn’t the end of the series! If you are a fan of magic mixed with mystery, give this series a chance!

An interesting story coupling Now You See Me with Christie-like settings, I enjoyed this read thru, though the prose of the book was very simple. Dialogue was stilted. Emotions transparent. Kinda basic cozy mystery, honestly.

Still enjoyed it, though!

The narrator did a great job of giving the characters life, as well, keeping the tempo upbeat and drawing you in.

My thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for a copy of this pre-published, endearing read!
This is a fast paced YA Mystery.
As someone who loves puzzles, I was quickly drawn in.
Tempest solves the hardest puzzles there are, mysteries. This book describes her solving current murders while also solving the cold case of her mom's murder.

The visualization through the story told made the book wvwn more enjoyable.

The narrator had a hard role using a Scottish accent and an Indian accent. She sometimes used a Scottish accent for Indian characters and vise versa. I think this made the book even more enjoyable.

You you brought along on this maze of an adventure. Enjoy the read!

Is this when we learn about what actually happened to Emma Raj along with some others I shall not name here to avoid spoilers?! YES! Are we happy and sad to learn about the Raj curse? YES! Did Tempest outdo herself? YES!

Tempest decided to work with her papa and his construction crew. She was using her stage building skills to give people unique spaces. This was supposed to be Tempest's way to move away from trouble. But nope, they were still in trouble but legal kind this time. Someone took a fall because of their "faulty" construction and now, the husband was suing them. Story would be too anticlimactic if this was the only trouble they were in. Don't worry there was always more where those troubles come from

While Tempest was not the teenager, I think she finally grew up during this story. Figuring out the mysteries surrounding her past, present, and future. and understanding what people were capable of in their own self-preserving ways turned her into the woman her mother would be proud of. Now that major question marks are gone, I wonder what will come next

Tempest finally finds out what happened to her mom after 5 years of wondering. I really enjoyed following tempest through her journey in her book with her friends and family and discovering what happened to not only her mom, aunt and the character Julian in this book who died.

I really enjoyed the magical aspect and fun adventure that GiGi put her characters through.

This book is told in present day, past and different characters perspectives which did confuse me a little since I was reading this book as an audiobook.

My only other issue is there are so many characters, it seemed like even Tempest didn’t want to talk to all the characters mentioned in the book. There were several scenes where it seemed like a character was mentioned and then they just didn’t show up or they just were forgotten by the main character.

But I am interested to see if GiGi continues this series and where it would go from here now that the big mystery is solved. If we would get more of an Ivy perspective or if the love triangle would ever be solved. But I would recommend and can’t wait to see what GiGi does next

A Midnight Puzzle is such an interesting read/listen. I enjoy the narrator. Tempest is preparing for her final performance as a magician and growing in her role as designer for secret staircase construction. Secret Staircase Construction is being sued by a home owner who says their work was shoddy ending in harm to his wife. Then the homeowner ends up dead.
This truly is a puzzle and I enjoyed following the pieces laid down by the author to the complete picture.
The characters have grown on me. I look forward to seeing what comes next for Tempest and friends.
Thanks to Netgalley and MacMillan Audio for the chance to follow Tempest’s latest adventure.

🎧🔲A MIDNIGHT PUZZLE by Gigi Pandian and read by the amazing Soneela Nankani is the next adventure in The Secret Staircase series.

⭐⭐⭐⭐💫

I love these stories. I love the idea of a construction company that specializes in building secret spaces in fun and whimsical ways. I love the extended family ties, spanning continents of origin with perfect ease. I love the clever "locked-room" mysteries that surprise me every time. I love the friendships that give support. What I really loved in this one was the deeper dive into Tempest's mom's disappearance, an on-going mystery through the books.

Tempest Raj is an illusionist who has come back to work in her family construction company, Secret Staircase Construction. Recently, a horrible man tried to kill his wife by tampering with a project and then blaming the company. When he is found dead by a particularly odd mechanism at a theater, Tempest thinks booby-trap, and it won't be the first one! She has to find this killer and protect her family name.

I love getting to pair these stories with the audio! As the grandparents are Indian and Scottish, the accents are just so much fun and better than I could do in my head. The recipes in these books are also extremely tempting and the descriptions of the foods in the books always make me drool. I wish these people were real and lived next door.

I absolutely recommend this book for a stand-alone, but do go and check out the series too! This one comes out on March 19th, and for cozy mystery readers, this will be a great read.

Thank you @netgalley @macmillan.audio & @minotaur_books for this delightful reading experience!

Tempest Raj and her family have a unique business called Secret Staircase Construction. They create rooms that are referred to as architectural misdirection. The family business is under attack. Could the company's most recent construction be responsible for the death of one of their clients?

This series is written from Tempest's POV. I love her character! She is smart-mouthed, but insanely clever and talented. The idea of architectural puzzles is really cool and it was fun to imagine being in a room that had such a clever design. Of course, this book has a serious edge since there was a death, and this death had to be investigated. Of course, Tempest felt it was up to her to find the person responsible.

I so love this series. It is a literal case of locked room mysteries, and the first two book, Under Lock & Skeleton Key and The Raven Thief. In each book there is a unique construction that factors into the current mystery. In this book, A Midnight Puzzle, the family is in dire straits and I love how this book came along. It was a thoroughly enjoyable read.

Many thanks to Minotaur Books and to NetGalley for this ARC for review. This is my honest opinion.

I have been impatiently waiting for this audiobook to be released. I was excited when I learned that I could review the eALC for NetGalley.

First, let me tell you how I learned of this great series. I am a HUGE fan of the narrator. I absolutely love the work of Soneela Nankani and I was wanting something to read, but really didn't feel like tackling my TBL pile. Well, I did a search to see what books Soneela Nankani narrated and came across this series about a stage magician, locked room mysteries and hidden rooms. I was intrigued.

Let me tell you that Soneela doesn't disappoint with her voicing of the characters. From creating the accents for the Indian grandparents to the Scottish grandmother to her American friends, Soneela seems to manage it all without skipping a beat.

As for the story, most cozy mysteries you can skip around in the series without an issue. However, in this particular book, I advise that you read the first 2 books before reading this. Thankfully, you have over a month to get that done before this one is published. The reason that I say this is because the first 2 lay out some much-needed groundwork for the main mystery that takes place in this book.

Tempest Raj's family has been under the impression that there has been a family curse that takes the lives of some of the stage magicians in her family. First her great uncle, then her aunt and finally her mom, all while performing on stage. However, she feels that the deaths of her aunt and her mom may not really be a curse, but murder and she is out to prove who killed them.

Tempest Raj works for her dad's construction crew at Secret Staircase Construction. This is one of the coolest construction companies around. If you want to have a secret room built into your home, then they would be the ones to call. If you want to have some other secret feature built, they would be the one to call. In each of the books, they would describe some of the different features and my mind would go into overdrive dreaming up the elaborate designs. I have always wanted to have cool things like that. In fact, when I was a kid, me and my next-door neighbor wanted an underground tunnel built between our pools. That way we could swim between the two. This would be the company that would be called to build such a tunnel.

However, one of their recent clients has brought a lawsuit against them and has called their very reputation into question. Tempest goes to work with her friends to find out the truth behind the allegations. In doing so, she finds out much more than she bargains.

Once again, Gigi Panian has written a wonderfully constructed story of murder, mystery and magic. I was easily lost in the story and felt that I was right there alongside Tempest as she uncovered all the hidden clues to solve not only the case involving the recent client, but also the murder of her mom and aunt.

It was so nice to see all of the returning characters who have become like family. And I really hope that this series continues. There are so many more adventures that they can take us on.

Thank you NetGalley and MacMillan Audio for providing me with a free copy of the audiobook in exchange for an open and honest review.

I could be an outlier, but for me this book had too many characters and too many subplots. I read this as a standalone, so maybe part of my disinterest in the characters' shenanigans was due to the story reliance on a connection that was established in earlier books.

A Midnight Puzzle is Book number 3 in the Secret Staircase Mystery series. I was unaware this book was part of a series when I started it, and although it worked fine as a standalone, I do think I would have appreciated it more having more of a background story on Tempest and some of the other side characters. Tempest is a former stage magician but now works for her father's construction company, Secret Staircase Construction. SSC is being targeted in a lawsuit involving a suspicious death and more mysteries and murder follows. I thought the mystery was solid and kept me guessing throughout. I loved the creepy and ominous theater as a setting. I do wish there had been more *puzzle* solving to the plot. But overall a fun and entertaining cozy mystery with a cast of eclectic characters. I enjoyed the narrator and recommend this one read via audiobook.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for providing me an ALC in exchange for my honest thoughts.

I received a complimentary copy of A Midnight Puzzle. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
This is the third book in this series. I have not read the first 2, but I do want to go back and read them now. I absolutely loved this book. I think the characters are interesting and fun. I loved the Secret Staircase company. I want a secret staircase and hidden library! I loved the description of the food and the house. I think Tempest's job (well former job)was fun, fresh, new and exciting. The mystery kept me guessing. I just adored this book. The narrator did a fabulous job. While, this is not one I will be purchasing for my high school library, I do highly recommend it if you love fun cozy mysteries.

No writing tips but I really enjoyed this book. I would 100 percent recommend to anyone. A fantastic story captivates you to the very end.

The cozy mystery series of my dreams!

Obsessed.

I started kind of not liking cozy mysteries as genre because the main characters don’t seem like they need to continue to meddle in investigations. But this series is not like that. Tempest being an illusionist and still searching for her missing mom makes this series make sense and you continue to really like the main characters.

Gobsmacked by the end of this one. Some things were easy to guess but some things-my jaw was on the floor.

This is book 3 and definitely has to be read in order there are a lot of characters but they are easy to keep track of.

If you are looking for a cozy mystery series with illusions/ stage magic and fun characters. This one is enjoyable.

Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for an advanced copy.

A fun storyline but I do felt like this book was too easy to put down. This book had a few too many characters and storylines to follow easily, though I did not realize this was the third book in a series so maybe it would’ve made more sense to me if I had read the previous novels. Overall an enjoyable story!
I really enjoyed the narrator and her knack for storytelling and accents.

A Midnight Puzzle is the third in the Secret Staircase series, and I do think they are best read in order. Tempest, a former stage magician, is enjoying her work with her father’s Secret Staircase Construction company. So, when a customer who is filing a lawsuit against the company is murdered, Tempest decides she has to investigate to save the family business.

This time around the connection to Tempest’s family is clear. The man is murdered by a booby trap at the theater Tempest is renting for one final show, the theater where Tempest’s mom disappeared. I’ll be honest, this overarching mystery about the family curse has not been my favorite part of the first two books. I’m glad we get a solution here, but for me, this book just wasn’t as fun as the last one. And I did guess the killer before it was revealed, although there were a couple of decent twists before we got there.

I listened to the audiobook. The book is from Tempest’s point of view and the narrator does a great job. The characters are well-differentiated and I appreciated the variety of accents.

I do still love how close Tempest and her family and friends are. And the food her grandfather cooks sounds absolutely delicious. I also like the nods to Golden Age mysteries.

Readers/listeners, decide which way you would like to access this latest Secret Staircase mystery or, like me, alternate between the two. I often do this so I can continue a story while I go on a walk or do chores.

This is the third book in this modern locked room series that pays tribute to the best classic mysteries and, I think, maybe to Nancy Drew. All of my favorite characters are here again, even those who are missing (Tempest’s mother).

In my opinion, this latest can be enjoyed without having read the earlier books but readers may want to read all three just for the fun and pleasure. There is backstory but enough is told so that someone new to the series can follow along.

Things are looking bad for the Secret Staircase company. There is a lawsuit and then, to make things worse, there is murder. Enjoy the magic, the detecting and the all around fun of this entry in the series. It was a good read and listen.

Many thanks to St. Martin’s Press for the book and to Macmillan Audio for the listen. And, of course, thanks to NetGalley for both of these. All opinions are my own.