Book Review: A Midnight Puzzle by Gigi Pandian (Secret Staircase Novels #3)

Stars: 4 out of 5

Pros: Characters, setting

Cons: Plot works, but it does have some flaws

The Bottom Line:

When customer dies

Tempest must clear family

Uneven but good

Litigious Customer Murdered

I have really been enjoying the Secret Staircase novels from Gigi Pandian.  They put a modern spin on the classic locked room mystery with a magician main character.  So I was looking forward to sitting down with A Midnight Puzzle, the latest entry.

As I mentioned, Tempest Raj was a stage magician, which is something of a family business, until she got blamed for a huge accident in her new show.  Since then, she’s started working at the other family business – Secret Staircase Construction – which specializes in building in fun things like hidden rooms or puzzle walls into the homes of their clients.

I mean, right there, seriously, how fun is this?

Unfortunately, this book finds Secret Staircase Construction the subject of a lawsuit from a former customer.  He claims the accident that put his wife in a coma is the result of their shoddy workmanship.  Tempest and her family think he is really trying to profit off an attempt to kill his wife, but they have no way to prove it and fear that going to court will bankrupt them.

Then the man is murdered.  Unfortunately, he was killed at the theater Tempest had rented to prepare for her farewell show – a theater that has a connection to the Raj family.  While the police aren’t looking at them, Tempest fears it is a matter of time before they turn their attention to the Raj family.  Can she figure out what happened before that happens?

Before you pick up this book, you really need to read the first two entries in the series.  Why?  Because Tempest has a complicated backstory.  We’ve been introduced to it in the previous books in the series, so it is easy to jump in here and follow what is happening.  We get enough background here that you could follow what is happening, but the more you know, the more you’ll appreciate what happens here.

That’s important because the story here actually does tie in to the longer story of Tempest trying to solve some mysteries from her family’s tragic past.  I’m not completely sure that I buy it all coming together like it did in the end, but I’m also not sure I would have been satisfied to any of the wrap up to the overarching mystery.  However, I can buy it enough that my curiosity about it is satisfied.  That’s not to mean the mystery that starts the story is short changed.  It is resolved as well.

I think part of the problem is the uneven pacing.  We spend some time spinning our wheels in the middle of the book, so that makes the climax more rushed than it should be for us to fully absorb the ending.

Now, if any of this is sounding like I didn’t enjoy the book, let me set the record straight.  I absolutely enjoyed it.  The puzzle (and yes, there are impossible crime elements to the story) was quite good, and I got caught up in that.  Between the magic and the fun construction, I really enjoy these books.

And the characters are charming.  That includes Tempest’s father, grandparents, and friends.  They all add something to the story, and I just love slipping in to visit them.

Tempest’s grandfather has been indulging his love of cooking since retiring, so we get a couple of Indian inspired recipes at the end.

This book wraps up the arc that Tempest has been on for the first three books in the series.  Fortunately, I know book four is coming.  If you’ve been enjoying the earlier books, you’ll want to read A Midnight Puzzle and find out what Tempest uncovers.

Be sure to check out the rest of the Secret Staircase books.