What a year! It included an Agatha Award, a trip to Scotland, two new novels, and so much more — THANK YOU to all of my readers for being part of this wild, winding, and wonderful year.
As I look back on everything that happened last year, I can’t quite believe everything I packed into the strange year that was 2025. So here goes.
Winning an Agatha Award
Two big highlights took place at Malice Domestic, the reader convention that celebrates the traditional mystery.
First, I was honored to be toastmaster at the 2025 convention. The role entails being the emcee for the convention and being interviewed by Ellen Byron, a terrific author pal who’s also in my writers group.
Second, I took home an Agatha Award for Best Contemporary Mystery for my locked-room mystery A Midnight Puzzle (Secret Staircase Mystery #3).
I have one previous Agatha Award for my locked-room mystery short story “The Library Ghost of Tanglewood Inn,” but this is the first time I won an Agatha for a novel. What a thrill! It was extra special both because I got my start as a writer at Malice Domestic when I was awarded the William F. Deeck-Malice Domestic Grant for Unpublished Writers (for my work-in-progress that became my debut novel, Artifact), and because I got to celebrate with my St. Martin’s Minotaur Books editor, who was at the convention.
spring 2025 book release: Locked-room mystery The Library Game
In March 2025, my latest Secret Staircase Mystery, The Library Game (Secret Staircase Mystery #4), was published by Minotaur Books.
This series is my love letter to classic puzzle plot mysteries—novels from the Golden Age of detective fiction of the 1920s and '30s where readers could match wits with the detective—but I wanted to put my own spin on the genre. The Secret Staircase novels are locked-room mysteries brimming with food, family, and friendship. At Secret Staircase Construction, stage illusionist Tempest Raj weaves magic into homes through ingenious architectural misdirection from sliding bookcases to hidden libraries.
In Tempest’s latest adventure, The Library Game: There’s a body in the library—and everyone is a suspect.
I was on the road during my book launch week for Left Coast Crime in Denver, Colorado, where I had a fantastic reader connection event at Denver’s Museum of Illusions. That meant the timing worked for me to celebrate book release day at the Poisoned Pen bookstore in Arizona, a mystery bookshop I hadn’t visited before—and that has gargoyle sconces outside the shop! I was interviewed by John Charles, and the replay is available here on YouTube.
autumn 2025 book release: A Gargoyle’s Guide to Murder
October 2025 was the launch of the ninth book in my Accidental Alchemist cozy fantasy mystery series about an eternally young alchemist and a living gargoyle.
A Gargoyle’s Guide for Murder (Accidental Alchemist #9) brings alchemist Zoe Faust to Oxford, England, along with her fiancé, Max, and Dorian the gargoyle. I got to research poisoned books and spend time in Oxford for this novel, and I’m delighted that so many new readers are finding it a great starting point to the series.
One of my favorite reviews: “If you told me a month ago I’d be completely smitten by a sentient stone gargoyle who moonlights as both a gourmet chef and an amateur sleuth, I wouldn’t have believed you but here we are.”
—Rishali D. on NetGalley
Summer in Scotland
My best friend and headed to the Scottish Highlands for a trip that was both a birthday celebration and a book research trip for me. I fell in love with Scotland when I first visited as a child. My debut novel and shorter fiction pieces are set there, and I’m working on a new project set in Scotland.
Hanging out with Highland cows, visiting the Isle of Lewis (book research!), and working on a new novel in my writing nook in our Edinburgh rental.
Celebrating my dad’s 90th birthday!
I had a busy year of writing, publishing, and travel, but it’s important to me that I not lose sight of what’s most important in life. I’m incredibly lucky that I get to scribble my imagined stories that get turned into books and stories, but it’s the people in my life, from family and friends to kindred spirit readers I connect with, that are most important to me.
I’m so glad I got to spend my wonderful father’s 90th birthday with him!
Two new short stories in anthologies released in 2025
My Jaya Jones flash fiction story “The Masquerade Ball” appears in the anthology Malice Domestic Mystery Most Humorous, published by Wildside Press. (“Flash fiction” means it’s under 1,000 words — this is my first story so short, and I love how the bite-size story turned out!)
My locked-room mystery “The Devil and Zephyr Devlin” is a Sanjay story that appears in Double Crossing Van Dine, published by Crippen & Landru.
the secret staircase mysteries out in japan
Japanese publisher Tokyo Sogensha released my second Secret Staircase Mystery, The Raven Thief, in Japan in 2025 (the first book in the series, Under Lock & Skeleton Key, came out in Japan in 2024), so the first two books in the series are now out in Japan in cute little pocket-size editions.
Ending the year with A 10th Anniversary Illustrated Special Edition of The Accidental Alchemist
This was a surprise book release that was also a collaboration with my mom! I wanted to do something special to celebrate the 10th anniversary of The Accidental Alchemist, since it was a book I started writing while undergoing chemotherapy for cancer. At the time, I resolved to always take time to celebrate life. Sometimes I forget to do that when life takes over, so I made myself slow down and think about how I wanted to celebrate this milestone.
The result was working with my artist mom on creating 7 original character art illustrations (of Zoe, Dorian, and Max) to go inside the special edition, and hiring amazing woodcut artist Martin Tomsky to design the cover and alchemical art.
It took longer to pull together than expected, as projects like this often do, so it ended up being a “surprise release” late in the year. It was a perfect end to 2025 to see 10th Anniversary Illustrated Special Edition of The Accidental Alchemist published.
