#1 Under Lock & Skeleton Key
An impossible crime. A family legacy. The intrigue of hidden rooms and secret staircases.
After a disastrous stage 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.
Available now!
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#1 The Accidental Alchemist
A chance for a new beginning in Portland, Oregon. A stowaway from Paris who's slowly turning to stone. Can alchemist Zoe Faust unravel the secrets of an ancient book in time to save her new friend? Includes recipes!
Winner of the Left Coast Crime Lefty Award.
"Filled with magic, intrigue, and humor, this series is sure to delight fans of cozy mysteries and urban fantasy." ―Bookriot
"A whimsical and charming supernatural mystery." ―Mystery Scene
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#2 The Masquerading Magician
A murder, missing loot from a famous heist, and an ancient book that could spell life or death for alchemist Zoe Faust’s favorite gargoyle.
Deciphering an ancient alchemy book is more difficult than alchemist Zoe Faust bargained for. When she gives herself a rare night out to attend a classic magic show that reminds her of her youth, she realizes the stage magicians are much more than they seem. A murder at the theater leads back to a string of unsolved robberies and murders in Portland’s past, and a mystery far more personal than Zoe and Dorian the gargoyle ever imagined.
Includes recipes!
“People who enjoy character driven stories with mystery, magic, supernatural creatures, and historical intrigue will greatly enjoy this inventive, well-written tale.” ―Portland Book Review
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#3 The Elusive Elixir
An unsolved crime from 1942. A dangerous secret linked to Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. And a woman threatening to expose alchemist Zoe Faust’s own secrets.
Dorian Robert-Houdin, the three-and-a-half-foot gargoyle chef who fancies himself a modern-day Poirot, is slowly turning into stone. From Paris, France, to Portland, Oregon, can Zoe Faust unlock the Elixir of Life a second time to save her best friend Dorian? When they discover that a long-lost stone gargoyle with a connection to Dorian has reappeared in Europe, the stakes become even higher.
"Pandian's imaginative third Accidental Alchemist mystery will please those who like their cozies filled with magic." —Publishers Weekly
Includes recipes!
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#4 The Alchemist's Illusion
A perilous painting leads Zoe Faust and Dorian Robert-Houdin on an alchemical adventure in Portland, Oregon, in search of Zoe's missing mentor—Nicolas Flamel. Includes recipes!
Winner of the Anthony Award for Best Paperback Original and shortlisted for the G.P. Putnam’s Sons Sue Grafton Memorial Award given out at the Edgar Awards.
"The Alchemist’s Illusion is filled with beauty... Pandian paints a lovely picture of relationships throughout the book's mystery of greed and violence." —New York Journal of Books
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#4.5 The Lost Gargoyle of Paris
Alchemy and an art heist in Paris are on the menu in a new Accidental Alchemist novella.
Alchemist Zoe Faust and her impish gargoyle sidekick Dorian Robert-Houdin travel to Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris to investigate a mysterious discovery found in the wreckage of the tragic fire: a long-lost gargoyle illustration drawn by Victor Hugo himself, which vanishes under impossible circumstances.
The Lost Gargoyle of Paris is an Accidental Alchemist Mystery eBook novella and is less than half the length of the novels in the series. It stands alone, but if you want to read more about Zoe, Dorian, and their misfit friends back in Portland, Oregon, check out the first four books in the series (and more to come!).
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#5 The Alchemist of Fire and Fortune
The Goonies meets Charade in the fifth Accidental Alchemist Mystery
A blackmailer obsessed with gold. A boyfriend who’s more than he seems. And a treasure hidden on the Oregon coast.
A Kings River Life Best of 2021!
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#1 Artifact
When historian Jaya Jones receives a mysterious package containing a jewel-encrusted artifact sent by a murdered man, she discovers the secrets of a lost Indian treasure may be hidden in a Scottish legend. Can Jaya figure out which of the scholars vying for her affections might be the love of her life—and which one is a killer?
The USA Today bestselling novel was awarded a Malice Domestic Grant and named a “Best of 2012″ debut novel by Suspense Magazine.
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#2 Pirate Vishnu
A century-old treasure map of San Francisco’s Barbary Coast, sacred riches from India, two murders a century apart, and a love triangle…Historian Jaya Jones has her work cut out for her.
Winner of the Left Coast Crime Rose Award.
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#3 Quicksand
A thousand-year-old secret room, a sultan’s stolen treasure, and an invitation to Paris to rekindle an old flame leads to historian Jaya Jones finding herself on the wrong side of the law during an art heist at the Louvre.
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#4 Michelangelo's Ghost
A lost work of art linking India to the Italian Renaissance, a killer hiding behind a centuries-old ghost story, and a hidden treasure in Italy’s macabre sculpture garden known as the Park of Monsters, lead Jaya and her brother to the heart of Italy.
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#5 The Ninja's Illusion
A fabled illusion performed by a stage magician who claims to possess real supernatural powers and a treasure from the colonial era leads Jaya and her best friend Sanjay, aka The Hindi Houdini, to Kyoto, Japan.
Long-listed for the ALA (American Library Association) 2018 Reading List.
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#6 The Glass Thief
A locked-room mystery at a Paris mansion. A supposed ghost haunting a French family who looted treasure from Cambodia. A reclusive thriller author writing a novel in honor of historian Jaya Jones—is it a work of fiction or a devious device to lure Jaya into solving a chilling mystery?
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The Locked Room Library: An Impossible Crime Story
Originally featured in the July/August 2021 issue of Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine.
Short-listed for four major mystery awards: the Edgar, Agatha, Anthony and Macavity Awards.
The story is now available as a free download when you sign up for my email newsletter.
The Cambodian Curse & Other Stories
A collection of nine short stories.
A treasure trove of nine locked room mysteries, with an Introduction from New York Times bestselling author Laurie R. King and a Foreword from impossible crime mystery historian Douglas G. Greene.
Appearing here for the first time, Derringer Award-winning novelette The Cambodian Curse.
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The Diamond Vanishes
Gigi's locked room mystery short story “The Diamond Vanishes” appears in Midnight Hour: A Chilling Anthology of Crime Fiction from 20 Authors of Color, published by Crooked Lane Books.
A cursed diamond, a midnight séance, and an impossible crime...
Stage magician Sanjay Rai, aka The Hindi Houdini, reluctantly agrees to perform a fake séance as part of his act. But when one of the participants vanishes from a locked room, he and Jaya Jones must unravel a dark deception connected to India’s legendary Koh-i-Noor Diamond.
The Haunted Typewriter
The locked-room mystery short story “The Haunted Typewriter” appears in Super Puzzletastic Mysteries: Short Stories for Young Sleuths from Mystery Writers of America, published by HarperCollins, June 2020.
In “The Haunted Typewriter,” 11-year-old Tara Chandran and her best friend Kevin Byrne have just formed a detective agency to solve a theft in their apartment building. But now they have an even bigger mystery to solve—an old fashioned typewriter sealed in a locked room begins typing coded messages.
With the help of the stage magician who lives next door (The Hindi Houdini), Tara and Kevin must crack the code to discover whether the typewriter is truly haunted.
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The Curse of Cloud Castle
“The Curse of Cloud Castle” appears in the Asian Pulp anthology, published in July 2015 by Pro Se Productions. It also appears in the short story collection The Cambodian Curse & Other Stories.
“The Curse of Cloud Castle” is a locked-room mystery featuring Sanjay Rai, the Indian-American stage magician who performs as The Hindi Houdini. Sanjay is invited to perform his show at an old friend’s birthday party on a supposedly haunted island off the coast of California, and “the curse of cloud castle” plays out when one of the guests is murdered. But is the culprit a ghost, or an ingenious person who has pulled off the perfect crime?
Tempest in a Teapot
“Tempest in a Teapot” appears in Ladies Night, the Sisters in Crime Los Angeles Chapter anthology, published by Down & Out Books in June of 2015. It also appears in the short story collection The Cambodian Curse & Other Stories.
“Tempest in a Teapot” is an impossible crime mystery featuring a new character from the Jaya Jones world: Tempest Mendez, a magician friend of Sanjay’s.
The Haunted Room
“The Haunted Room” appears in Murder at the Beach: The Bouchercon 2014 Anthology, published by Down & Out Books in October 2014.
“The Haunted Room” is an impossible crime story featuring Jaya Jones and her landlady Nadia solving a seemingly impossible series of thefts from San Francisco’s history. It also appears in the short story collection The Cambodian Curse & Other Stories.
A Dark and Stormy Light
“A Dark and Stormy Light” appears in the Malice Domestic Murder Most Conventional anthology.
Jaya Jones is attending a history convention at a hotel where a mystery convention is also taking place. Can Jaya and a famous mystery novelist solve the impossible crime that baffles the guests at the hotel?
“A Dark and Stormy Light” is also available in the short story collection The Cambodian Curse & Other Stories.
The Hindi Houndini
The locked-room mystery short story “The Hindi Houdini” was short-listed for Agatha and Macavity awards for Best Short Story of 2013.
The story originally appeared in Fish Nets: The Second Guppy Anthology, 22 More Tales of Murder and Mayhem from the Rising Stars of Mystery, published by Wildside Press in April, 2013.
In “The Hindi Houdini,” magician Sanjay Rai, aka The Hindi Houdini, solves a locked room mystery at the Napa Valley winery theater where he performs.
If you’re reading the Jaya Jones series, you’ll recognize Sanjay, Jaya’s best friend. A magician and escape artist, Sanjay chose the moniker “The Hindi Houdini” because it paid homage to his Indian heritage and his favorite illusionist—and because he liked the rhyme better than Hindu Houdini.
You can read “The Hindi Houdini” in the short story collection The Cambodian Curse & Other Stories.
The Shadow of the River
The short story “The Shadow of the River”appears in FISH TALES: The Guppy Anthology, 22 tales of murder and mayhem by the rising stars of mystery.
“The Shadow of the River” is a locked-room mystery featuring Jaya Jones. It takes place before she was a history professor, back when she was a graduate student.
This was my first published short story. It is now available in her short story collection The Cambodian Curse & Other Stories.
Fool’s Gold: A Jaya Jones Treasure Hunt Mystery Novella
All historian Jaya Jones wants is a relaxing vacation in Scotland before starting her first year teaching college. But when a world-famous chess set is stolen from a locked room during the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Jaya and her magician best friend, The Hindi Houdini, must outwit actresses and alchemists to solve the baffling crime.
A prequel to Artifact!
Note: The book is out of print, but you can read “Fool’s Gold” in THE CAMBODIAN CURSE & OTHER STORIES
The Mystery Writer's of America Cookbook
This cookbook includes my recipe for Caramelized Onion Dahl.
#2 The Raven Thief
One murder. Four impossibilities. A fake séance hides a very real crime.
Tempest Raj, returns in The Raven Thief, where sliding bookcases, trick tables, and hidden reading nooks hide something much more sinister than the Secret Staircase Construction crew ever imagined.
“A true standout. . . Pandian has done it again: The Raven Thief conjures up the perfect balance of magic, mystery, and mayhem. I couldn’t stop reading!” —Juliet Blackwell
“An enchanting locked room mystery with a delightfully unique premise.” —Elle Cosimano
“Both Pandian and her protagonist, Tempest Raj, are forces to be reckoned with.” —Mia P. Manansala
Read an excerpt on CrimeReads.
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#6 The Alchemist of Riddle and Ruin
A riddle, a game, and a clue in the garden.
When Zoe Faust sees the ghost of a murdered young woman, is it really a spirit—or a flesh and blood woman who stopped aging because she’s a fellow alchemist?
Sixteen years ago, high school student Ridley Price discovered a secret she planned to reveal through a party game—but someone killed her first. The baffling crime was never solved. Zoe’s friend Heather has always wondered: which of the seven guests at the party killed Ridley? When the newly-appeared ghost turns dangerous, threatening people they love, Zoe teams up with her gargoyle roommate Dorian to unmask the supposed specter.
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The Christmas Caper: A Secret Staircase Mystery Short Story
Tempest Raj’s latest puzzle is wrapped in a festive, Scottish Yuletide package. The Christmas Caper is a locked-room mystery short story, and includes two holiday recipes!
A baffling art heist. A mysterious Christmas Market. A thief in the shadows of Edinburgh Castle.
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The Rose City Vampire: An Accidental Alchemist Short Story
Portland's residents are grappling with a frightening and confounding mystery: attacks by a vampire within their securely locked homes. The vengeful vampire is boasting that its deeds are targeting the city's sinners. Can gargoyle sleuth Dorian Robert-Houdin unravel the perplexing conundrum before the vampire’s chilling embrace claims a life?
Featured in the collection School or Hard Knox: Stories The Break Father Ronald Know’s Ten Commandments For Crime Fiction, edited by Donna Andrews, Greg Herren, and Art Taylor.