Pandian (the Accidental Alchemist mysteries) is in top form in this thoroughly enjoyable series launch starring 26-year-old Tempest Raj, a Las Vegas, Nev., magician, who returns home to California after a stage accident--engineered, she's sure, by her stunt double, Cassidy Sparrow--destroyed her career. Tempest's family runs a business, Secret Staircase Construction, which specializes in constructing houses with secret passageways, sliding bookcases, and hidden entrances, and on the site of her father's latest job she discovers Cassidy's body inside a wall that's been sealed for decades. Could Tempest have been the intended victim? As Tempest struggles to solve the puzzle of Cassidy's death, she reconnects with her family--largely through her grandfather's cooking and a host of lovingly described plant-based recipes that will make even a non-vegan's mouth water. Pandian negotiates the fine line between the magician's pledge not to reveal their secrets and the mystery writer's equally important promise to play fair with the reader by keeping most of the magic tricks offstage. Never mind that the solution of the impossible murder isn't more central to the story. Lovers of traditional mysteries with quirky characters will be well rewarded. Agent: Jill Marsal, Marsal Lyon Literary. (Mar.)

Tempest Raj, headliner of her own wildly popular Las Vegas magic show, returns home to Hidden Creek, California, broke and disgraced after a dangerous stunt in her new show goes horribly wrong. While the magic community considers Tempest at fault, Tempest believes her doppelganger and former stage double, Cassidy Sparrow, sabotaged the show. Or is it the family curse? Over the generations, the curse says that "the eldest child dies by magic," and it has proven true so far, most recently with the death of Tempest's aunt, and then with her mother's disappearance. While working at her father's business, Secret Staircase Construction, Tempest and her father find Cassidy's body hidden behind a wall that hasn't been opened in years. With the help of her best friend, Ivy, Tempest attempts to determine who killed Cassidy and how she was placed behind the wall. Tempest solves the mysteries while pondering her future in this satisfying story with numerous plot twists, vividly drawn characters involving close family relationships, delicious food (recipes are included), and a fresh magic frame interspersed with details about classic mystery books.

A stage magician solves a locked-room puzzle. Tempest Raj had a glorious career. The child of five generations of Indian magicians, she followed her half-Indian, half-Scottish mother into a profession that allowed her to thrill rapt audiences with baffling illusions. But that was then. Now, still in her 20s, she lives with her grandparents in their Bay Area treehouse with her rabbit, Abracadabra, her closest confidant. Her mother is gone, disappeared and presumed dead by suicide. Her father is busy running his business, Secret Staircase Construction, a specialty firm dedicated to creating hidden staircases, secret rooms, and concealed gardens. Her successful Vegas show has been closed after an accident almost took her life and prompted a series of ruinous lawsuits against her. At the end of her rope, she agrees to help her dad with his latest project, the installation of a hidden room in multimillionaire Calvin Knight's mansion. Her first look at the project is almost her last, though, since her initial inspection dislodges the body of her stage double, Cassidy Sparrow, the very person she holds responsible for her career-halting accident, from a hidden space with no windows or doors. Things get even more baffling when Tempest sees the ghost of her mother playing her signature tune on a violin. Impossible as it seems, Tempest feels pressed to solve the enigma, because--thanks to a family curse on the eldest of each generation--she doesn't know whether Cassidy's killer was aiming for her double or herself. The real problem: All that nonstop enchantment makes magic seem pretty boring. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

This latest from Pandian (The Glass Thief) is an excellent choice to liven up cozy mystery sections. Tempest Raj returns to California after her popular magic show in Vegas came to an early and disastrous end. She hails from a long line of stage magicians but doesn't believe in the curse that is said to fall on the eldest child in each generation--she believes that her show was sabotaged by her former stage double, Cassidy. While visiting her father's latest construction job, a wall that supposedly was untouched for a century reveals Cassidy's dead body to Tempest and the rest of the crew. Was Tempest the intended victim? How did Cassidy's body get into that wall? Tempest feels that this is all the result of misdirection, a technique used by magicians like herself, but how? This "Secret Staircase" series starter is a fresh and magical locked-room mystery filled with fascinating and likable characters, incredible settings, and Tempest's grandfather's homecooked Indian meals (recipes included). VERDICT Readers will enjoy not only figuring out the mystery but also learning how the magic tricks are done.--Sarah Sullivan