Media and Press Information
Contact Info
For press inquiries about The Library Game or any of the Secret Staircase Mysteries, please contact Kayla Janas at St. Martin’s Press.
Representation
Literary Agents: Gigi is represented by Jill Marsal of the Marsal Lyon Literary Agency.
Click to download Gigi’s high resolution headshot.
Media
High resolution headshot of Gigi Pandian (no credit is needed).
High resolution cover of Under Lock & Skeleton Key.
High resolution cover of The Raven Thief.
High resolution cover of A Midnight Puzzle.
High Resolution cover of The Library Game.
short (100-word) Bio
Gigi Pandian is a USA Today bestselling mystery author, locked-room mystery enthusiast, and fan of exploring ruined castles in the rain. She’s won Agatha, Anthony, Lefty, and Derringer Awards, and been a finalist for the Edgar Award. She writes the Accidental Alchemist Mysteries (humorous cozy fantasy mysteries), the Secret Staircase Mysteries (locked-room mysteries called “wildly entertaining” by The New York Times), and the Jaya Jones Treasure Hunt Mysteries (lighthearted adventures steeped in history). Gigi lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and a gargoyle who watches over the backyard garden.
Medium Bio
Gigi Pandian is a USA Today bestselling mystery author, locked-room mystery enthusiast, and fan of exploring ruined castles in the rain. She’s won Agatha, Anthony, Lefty, and Derringer Awards, and been a finalist for the Edgar Award. She writes the Accidental Alchemist Mysteries (humorous cozy fantasy mysteries), the Secret Staircase Mysteries (locked-room mysteries called “wildly entertaining” by The New York Times), and the Jaya Jones Treasure Hunt Mysteries (lighthearted adventures steeped in history).
The child of anthropologists from New Mexico and the southern tip of India, Gigi spent her childhood being dragged around the world on research trips, which inspired her fiction. Along with Kellye Garrett and Walter Mosley, she’s one of the co-founders of Crime Writers of Color. Gigi lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and a gargoyle who watches over the backyard garden.
LONG BIO
Gigi Pandian is a USA Today bestselling mystery author, locked-room mystery enthusiast, and fan of exploring ruined castles in the rain. The child of anthropologists from New Mexico and the southern tip of India, Gigi spent her childhood being dragged around the world on research trips, which inspired her fiction. She thought she’d become an academic herself, but while working on her PhD, she realized she was much better suited to writing about the fictional adventures of academics than being one herself. She left academia for art school and began writing a novel. Her debut novel, Artifact, was awarded the Malice Domestic Grant, which kicked off her writing career.
Gigi has won Agatha, Anthony, Lefty, and Derringer Awards, and been a finalist for the Edgar Award. She writes the Accidental Alchemist Mysteries (humorous cozy fantasy mysteries), the Secret Staircase Mysteries (locked-room mysteries called “wildly entertaining” by The New York Times), and the Jaya Jones Treasure Hunt Mysteries (lighthearted adventures steeped in history).
At age 36, Gigi was diagnosed with breast cancer. She started writing the novel that became The Accidental Alchemist while going through chemotherapy—her own Elixir of Life, which made its way onto the page through an alchemist and a gargoyle. Gigi has been cancer-free since 2012. On her post-cancer celebratory writing retreat, she began working on a novel about a character who wouldn’t stay out of her head—Tempest Raj—but it took her several years to figure out how to tell Tempest’s story. In 2020, Gigi signed a book deal with St. Martin’s Minotaur Books, at auction, to write her Secret Staircase mystery series. In 2025, Gigi signed a book deal with Storm Publishing to continue the adventures of her first heroine, Jaya Jones, in the Scottish Treasure Hunt Mysteries, coming in 2027.
Gigi has served on the national and Northern California boards of Sisters in Crime, as well as the board of Mystery Writers of America’s Northern California chapter. Along with Kellye Garrett and Walter Mosley, she’s one of the co-founders of Crime Writers of Color. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and a gargoyle who watches over the backyard garden. When not writing, Gigi can be found experimenting with new recipes in the kitchen, traveling, walking in the hills, or curled up with a cup of coffee and a good book.
Literary AWARDS
William F. Deeck Malice Domestic Grant for Artifact
“Best of 2012” Debut Mystery from Suspense Magazine for Artifact
Rose Award for Pirate Vishnu
Lefty Award for The Accidental Alchemist
Anthony Award for The Alchemist’s Illusion
“Best of 2016” Cozy Mystery from Suspense Magazine for Michelangelo’s Ghost
Agatha Award for “The Library Ghost of Tanglewood Inn”
Derringer Award for “The Cambodian Curse”
Agatha Award for Best Contemporary Mystery A Midnight Puzzle
Nominations: The Library Game was a finalist for the Lefty Award for Best Mystery Novel, Michelangelo’s Ghost was a finalist for both Left Coast Crime’s Lefty Award and Killer Nashville’s Silver Falchion Award. The Ninja’s Illusion was long-listed for the ALA (American Library Association) 2018 Reading List. “The Hindi Houdini” was a finalist for Agatha and Macavity awards. The Alchemist’s Illusion was a finalist for the G.P. Putnam’s Sons Sue Grafton Memorial Award.
Finalist for Edgar, Agatha, Macavity, and Anthony Awards for “The Locked Room Library”