From The Publisher:

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.

My Thoughts:

What an excellent start to a new series! We have a family with a historic connection to magicians, with both Indian and Scottish heritage. We have a cool family business, Secret Staircase Construction, which specializes in creating secret nooks, hidden bookcases, etc. (I just love this! It made me think of the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, CA, which we visited several years ago.). And we have a grandfather who cooks delicious-sounding foods which combine both Indian and Scottish traditions (such as cardamom shortbread cookies). The main character, Tempest Raj, is a magician/illusionist who nearly died in a magic “trick” gone terribly wrong. She is now living back at her family home, which is filled with all kinds of quirky features, thanks to her parents’ business. Is there a family curse, by which the “eldest dies by magic” or is it all an illusion meant to make Tempest think she’s going crazy? How did a dead body fall out of a wall that hadn’t been touched in decades? It’s a classic locked room mystery, set in the San Francisco Bay area. And what about Tempest’s unusual charm bracelet given to her by her mother before she disappeared five years earlier? In addition to a clever mystery with lots of twists and turns, I loved the emphasis on family and friendship. In addition to Tempest herself, there were several terrific side characters: her dad, Darius, her friend Ivy, and her magician friend, Sanjay, to name a few. This is my first book by this author and I am definitely going to check into her other books now.

Don’t miss the recipes at the end of the book, if you were as intrigued as I was by the food served throughout this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for the opportunity to read an advance readers copy of this book.