Under Lock & Skeleton Key (Secret Staircase Mystery, #1)

Under Lock & Skeleton Key (Secret Staircase Mystery, #1)

Gigi Pandian

Enjoyment: 3.0Quality: 3.5Characters: 3.5Plot: 4.0

Under Lock & Skeleton Key layers architecture with mouthwatering food in an ode to classic locked-room mysteries.An impossible crime. A family legacy. The intrigue of hidden rooms and secret staircases.After a disastrous accident derails Tempest Raj’s career, and life, she heads back to her childhood home in California to comfort herself with her grandfather’s Indian home-cooked meals. Though she resists, every day brings her closer to the inevitable: working for her father’s company. Secret Staircase Construction specializes in bringing the magic of childhood to all by transforming clients’ homes with sliding bookcases, intricate locks, backyard treehouses, and hidden reading nooks.When Tempest visits her dad’s latest renovation project, her former stage double is discovered dead inside a wall that’s supposedly been sealed for more than a century. Fearing she was the intended victim, it’s up to Tempest to solve this seemingly impossible crime. But as she delves further into the mystery, Tempest can’t help but wonder if the Raj family curse that’s plagued her family for generations—something she used to swear didn’t exist—has finally come for her.


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  • abookiesbooks
    Aug 13, 2024
    Enjoyment: Quality: Characters: Plot:

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  • Rlaurie
    Apr 18, 2025
    Enjoyment: 3.0Quality: 3.5Characters: 3.5Plot: 4.0

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  • imzadi481
    Mar 11, 2025
    Enjoyment: Quality: Characters: Plot:

    When Tempest, a Vegas stage magician, loses her contract after a trick gone wrong, she finds herself back home. While helping her father out with his business, a construction company specializing in hidden rooms and trick locks, she stumbles upon a locked-room mystery.

    I wanted to love this a lot more than I actually did. It turns out that magic doesn't translate well to the written word. Seeing a magic trick performed in-person is fascinating. Reading about it in multiple page-long descriptions is confusing and quite boring. 

    The mystery was still fun to follow and I quite liked Tempest and her family. The story is a bit farfetched, but it's not a deal breaker.

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