The Library Game, my new Secret Staircase Mystery, is my love letter to libraries and classic mysteries.
In this locked-room mystery, Tempest Raj and the Secret Staircase Construction crew must figure out who is making beloved classic mystery plots come to life in a deadly game.
Want to hear the story of how my new locked-room mystery The Library Game came to be?
I've adored locked-room mysteries since I was a kid. Books by authors like John Dickson Carr, Clayton Rawson, and Agatha Christie. Those truly baffling "impossible crime" puzzles are such fun—BUT when I became a writer, I also learned how challenging those puzzles were to write!
I began writing locked-room mystery short stories, to learn the craft. My stories went on to win Agatha and Derringer Awards, and I was having so much fun, but I also had a locked-room puzzle idea that needed a full novel to properly tell the story. The problem? I wasn’t yet ready to pull it off.
Back in 2015, I wrote a short story featuring stage illusionist Tempest Raj for a Sisters in Crime Los Angeles Chapter anthology, LAdies Night. Tempest had been mentioned in passing in my Jaya Jones Treasure Hunt Mysteries, as a friend of Sanjay’s, so the short story was just a bit of fun. But instead of getting her out of my system, Tempest had such a strong personality that she insisted I do more with her! By the spring of 2020, when I unexpectedly had free time on my hands after a book research trip was canceled, I’d written more than a dozen impossible crime short stories. This was it. I was ready to tell Tempest’s story.
I started writing Under Lock & Skeleton Key, the first book in my Secret Staircase mystery series, thinking it would be a stand-alone locked-room mystery novel. But my character Tempest Raj and her friends and family had so many more stories they wanted to tell! I knew, then, that it had to be a series.
Each of the novels stands alone with its own mystery, though there’s one big background mystery that’s solved at the end of Book 3, A Midnight Puzzle, so I had total freedom for what I wanted to do with The Library Game. The answer presented itself easily. I’ve gotten so much value from my local library in recent years, and classic mysteries inspired the whole series, so this book would be my love letter to both of them.
At the start of The Library Game, it’s a fresh start for Tempest Raj as she figures out what comes next for her in her life now that she’s solved the mystery of the Raj family curse. She jumps into solving her most baffling mystery yet—one that's not only an impossible crime, but one that's a closed circle of suspects of people she knows.
Tempest and Secret Staircase Construction are renovating a classic detective fiction library that just got its first real-life mystery. When the library’s new owner hosts a murder mystery dinner, the rehearsal ends with a locked room murder and a vanishing body. Fueled by her grandfather’s Scottish and Indian meals, Tempest and the crew must figure out who is making beloved classic mystery plots come to life in a deadly game.
The hardcover, ebook, and audiobook are now available everywhere books are sold.
The Library Game is published by Minotaur Books and Macmillan Audio, with the amazing Soneela Nankani narrating the audiobooks. I’m so grateful for my terrific publishing team at St. Martin’s / Minotaur Books and agent Jill Marsal for making Tempest’s story a reality.
The Secret Staircase Mysteries are all 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.
I hope you have fun with the new book!
There’s a body in the library—and everyone is a suspect.
