Wow! I requested this audiobook on NetGalley because it gave off Nancy Drew vibes and I was a huge fan of Nancy Drew growing up. I went into this mystery knowing nothing about this author or book and Gigi’s story did not disappoint! I wish I had known this book was part of a series! You could definitely read this as a stand alone, much like the Nancy Drew books, however I’d highly recommend reading the other books first to appreciate the character development Gigi includes. The story is a great mix of mystery, family, and food! My favorite part, the mystery within a mystery. I loved the additional mystery surrounding her mother and aunt and how it was interwoven within the main mystery regarding Julian Rhodes. I also enjoyed the recipes at the end of the book and plan to pick up my own hard copy, so I can make the recipes myself!

The audiobook was narrated by Sooneela Nankani, and it was very well done. I’m no dialect expert, but Sooneela’s Indian and Scottish accents felt genuinely authentic.

Thank you NetGalley, MacMillian Audio, and Gigi Pandian for early access to this superb mystery!

A Midnight Puzzle by Gigi Pandian is the 3rd book in the Tempest Raj and Secret Staircase series. I feel like I enjoyed the first 2 books a bit more but this one was also pretty good. However, it felt like the main mystery got solved in this book? I hope the series is not coming to an end just yet as I loved the characters and all the interesting flavors of the rich heritage of the main characters. Gigi Pandian is such a talented writer and I really like the Secret Staircase books. But maybe Tempest needs to pirouette a bit less - it's just weird. Literally nobody does it that much unless they are 6 years old. The audiobook version was great as always.

Thank you Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for providing me with an early copy of this audiobook.

A run romp of a mystery, part of a 3 book series but feel free to dive in here as I did. The mystery centers on a family of magicians, the Raj’s, and a reputed family curse that leads the eldest child to be killed by magic. Tempest Raj, the current eldest child of her father’s family, has seen this supposed curse in action in the death or disappearance of relatives on stage.

Tempest herself has taken leave of stage magic to join her father’s construction business and has transitioned into a talented designer of magical, whimsical, hidden elements in home construction: from hidden doors and staircase to secret entrances to tucked away rooms. Tempest delights in the work, but not in their latest client, the antagonistic Julian Rhodes who has a pattern of harassing and suing his contractors, the Rajs included.

Working late night on a project, Tempest gets a text to meet her client at an old theater she’s leased and where she’s hoping at some point to stage a one-woman production about her family curse tracing back to Edinborough. But when Tempest gets there, along with her mentor and long-time family friend Nicodermus the Necromancer, they find former client Julian Rhodes impaled and dead on the theater’s front door. Even worse, there’s a note on the door in Tempest’s handwriting inviting him inside.

Turns out there’s a whole cast of characters around the Raj family and Julian Rhodes who all are worthy suspects, even including the police investigator who’s worked on previous attacks targeting the family.

As Tempest delves more into their back stories, she emerges the prime investigator into Rhodes’ death and uses her intuition and knowledge of stage illusions to cleverly sort out the murder.

Soneela Nankani, a classically trained theatre performer as well as current managing director of the Sojourn Theatre, narrates the audiobook with upbeat energy alongside strong voices and authentic accents for the various key characters. Her talent in bringing this audiobook to life shines through, and it’s no wonder that she’s won numerous awards for her narration work.

Thanks to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for an advanced reader’s copy.

I love this series, I love this author, and this is a great 3rd (kinda 4th?) book. I'm excited to see where it all goes next! The mystery here was excellent and a great culmination of all the ongoing questions in the series. There was so much misdirection, even though all the clues are there, and I loved it! I knew who it was early on, but didn't understand the full extent of why until the end of the book. Excellent surprises. :)

This book was great and I highly recommend it.

This continues to be a fun series with a wonderful cast of characters, but here in the third installment, the plot has really begun to go off the rails.

I love spending time in the Secret Staircase universe, so I expect these will always be fun to read regardless of the quality of the mystery in any particular installment. The first two books in the series were notably well-plotted in this regard, but this one felt rushed and messy with a solve that fails to satisfy.

I’m not sure the broader mystery that has been extant all throughout the series needed to be solved at this point either, unless the series is unexpectedly ending here. It just felt rushed and like a plot point that got shoe-horned in to match up with the mystery at the center of this book. There’s also an element of real sadness to one component of the mystery and it’s solve that felt out of place and really inconsistent with both the tone and the content of the series.

Perhaps this series was just never fit to be a lo g-running one, but I still hope that perhaps it can bounce back if there’s another installment in the future.

Tempest Raj is closing in on the answers to questions about her family and “the Raj Family Curse” that she’s been asking for years (well two previous books lol) Will she be able to solve the mystery of her mom’s disappearance before the curse claims more lives?

I’ll be honest, I don’t know how I feel about this series. I like most of the characters, the magic-themed mysteries, and the overarching story about the murder and disappearance of Tempest’s aunt and mother, but Tempest herself is just awful. She’s so self absorbed and rude that it amazes me that she inspires such loyalty among her friends and family. Yikes. I also feel that even though this seems like the series conclusion, it’s the weakest of the three books. Pacing was weird, ending seemed rushed and scattered (even though there was plenty of time for Tempest to pirouette in her red shoes). Eh. But if you’ve read the first two, you may as well finish the series up!

I received a free audiobook copy from NetGalley in exchange for a fair review.

My thanks to Net Galley and MacMillan for this arc but after I downloaded this I attempted to play this twice and got "foremat not supported ".

I read "Under Lock and Skeleton Key", the first one in this series. I really enjoyed it! Personally though, I could not get into this one. The same characters are in it but I just couldn't finish it.

Puzzles and illusions drive the story here. Tempest has some unresolved tragedy in her life and things start happening that brings it all to a head. This is book 3, but a lot of background is given so you are not lost if you have not read the first two. There is some violence, it is a murder mystery after all, but nothing is too gruesome.

Amateur sleuth Tempest Raj is back in Gigi Pandian’s A Midnight Puzzle. When a former client, who blamed Secret Staircase Construction for the “accident” that nearly killed his wife, turns up dead at the Whispering Creek Theater, Tempest and her close circle of friends decide to track down the killer. It is indeed that Whispering Creek Theater, by the way—the one where Tempest’s mother disappeared years ago and the one Tempest herself has rented to put on one final show.

If you’ve been following along since the beginning of the series, you definitely want to pick up this one because we finally get an answer to what (or who) is behind the Raj family curse and learn more about the mysterious Moriarty. Don’t worry, though, there are more stories to come in this series.

One of the subplots did get a bit distracting for me, but overall this one was an enjoyable read.

As always, I enjoyed seeing this friendship group / found family in action, and the descriptions of the food made my mouth water.

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

I enjoyed Soneela Nankani’s audiobook narration. It was easy for me to keep track of which character was speaking based on her inflection and accent, and her pacing was easy to follow.

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

Tempest Raj’s career as an illusionist went up in literal flames. She now works for her father’s company designing hidden and unexpected elements for homes. Tempest and her friends are drawn into an investigation when the man suing her father’s company is found dead at Tempest’s leased theatre.

This third entry in the Secret Staircase series continues to delight with unique details of magic and illusion design. Descriptions of Grandfather’s food had my mouth watering (and there are 2 recipes at the end). I like the tight knit, multicultural family. Elements of backstory from earlier books are well covered, so this can be read as a standalone. Narrator Nankani deftly voices multiple characters and accents. Her inflections and pacing add to the enjoyment of the story. With the mystery of her mother’s disappearance during a performance now solved, I was relieved to hear there will be more in this engaging and unique series. Highly recommended!

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an advance review audio. All opinions expressed are my own.

This reads very YA. The main character kept mentioning her age, and it surprised me every time because even though I knew she was in her twenties, it felt like at any time she might mention needing to get to class.

As with most serial detective/not really a detective stories, you don’t have to have read the other books in the series to enjoy this one. But I wish I had a little bit more context on some of the ongoing storylines/characters.

It wasn’t the best story I had ever read, but I was interested and was curious, so if young, low stakes, happily ever after mystery is your style, you’ll probably love this.

I know a lot of people want to read more works from Bipoc authors, and if that is you, this is a great cozy mystery series to start with!

This is the third installment in the Secret Staircase series and while it could possibly be read as a standalone, I do think you'll get way more out of it if you read the other two. They're about 300ish pages (I believe- it's been a while since I read the first two) so not terrible.

We really build on some of the open questions left from the last two books and I was so excited for this! I don't know how many more books are in this series, but this is such a fun cozy mystery series with an EXCELLENT cast of characters. Outside of our main character Tempest, my favorite character is her best friend Ivy who loves to solve mysteries by reading classic mystery novels. There's a bit of romance, and overall just a kick-ass mystery!

Can't wait to read the next one!

Fantastic! There was so much going on that I didn’t want to put this one down. So many questions finally answered. So much creativity goes into the mystery with the booby traps and I had so much fun keeping up with Tempest as she tries to clear the family name and get to the bottom of the family curse. Great pacing, plenty of possible culprits, this was a fun mystery that I couldn’t get enough of. Can’t wait for the next one!

This story has a murder mystery set in the world of UK theater and professional magic (magician style, not fantasy). It sets itself apart from similar mysteries by having a family angle (they're all in the business), an unresolved murder from years ago, and a Indian-British amateur sleuth at the heart of it. All great things!

Even so, I'm afraid this one just wasn't really for me. It was very easy to put down and hard for me to get really invested in... I'm not sure why. It's well-written, I just didn't get invested in any of the characters.

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. That said, I often start mid-series without trouble.

📚 Series or Standalone: Series
📚 Genre: murder mystery
📚 Target Age Group: adult
📚 Cliffhanger: no

✨ Will I Reread: no
✨ Recommended For: fans of magicians and puzzles

💕 Characters: 3/5
💕 Writing: 4/5
💕 Plot: 3/5
💕 Pacing: 3/5
💕 Unputdownability: 1/5
💕 Enjoyment: 2/5
💕 Book Cover: 3/5

Thanks, NetGalley and Minotaur, for the gifted ARC in exchange for an honest review.