Book review of The Raven Thief by Gigi Pandian

Tempest Raj, writer Gigi Pandian’s magician/sleuth, has an intriguing new locked-room thriller to resolve in The Raven Thief.

Tempest remains to be getting used to working for her household’s enterprise, Secret Staircase Construction, when she’s invited to a shopper’s residence for a mock seance. Lavinia Kingsley employed the corporate to redo her residence and erase all traces of her dishonest ex-husband, thriller author Corbin Colt. To have a good time the work’s completion and her new life as a single girl, Lavinia has a seance to purge Corbin from her life. Tempest, her grandfather Ashok “Ash” Raj and her magician good friend Sanjay Rai are among the many eight visitors when catastrophe strikes. With everybody seated round a desk and holding palms, Corbin’s physique actually crashes the occasion, seemingly falling from the ceiling onto the desk under.

The police deduce that Corbin was alive solely moments earlier, so the one suspects are the seance attendees. When it involves gentle that Grandpa Ash had a historical past with Corbin, Tempest’s beloved grandfather turns into the prime suspect. She and her pals shortly get to work to clear his identify and discover the actual killer.

The Raven Thief is a worthy sequel to Under Lock & Skeleton Key, with all of the magic, misdirection and intrigue that followers are hoping for. Tempest is an thrilling, partaking lead whose information of stagecraft, magic and traditional whodunits, mixed along with her devotion to her household and pals, permit her to resolve a seemingly unimaginable crime. Genre followers will admire Pandian’s many nods to golden age mysteries and their writers, and there are even some delectable recipes on the guide’s finish.