Gigi Pandian books in order

A chance for a new beginning in Portland, Oregon. A stowaway from Paris. Can alchemist Zoe Faust solve the mystery of an ancient book in time to save her new friend? 

Unpacking her belongings in her new fixer-upper house, alchemist Zoe Faust can't help but notice she's picked up a stowaway. Dorian Robert-Houdin is a living, breathing gargoyle―not to mention a master of French cuisine―and he needs Zoe's expertise to unlock the secrets of a centuries-old text. Zoe, who's trying to put her old life behind her, isn't so sure she wants to reopen her alchemical past...until a crime committed on her front porch leaves her no choice.

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. 

When alchemist Zoe Faust 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. Can Zoe solve a mystery from Portland’s past and unlock an ancient alchemy book’s secrets soon enough to save her best friend from being trapped in stone forever?

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. When he and Zoe Faust discover that a long-lost stone gargoyle with a connection to Dorian has reappeared in Europe, the stakes are even higher.

From Paris, France, to Portland, Oregon, can centuries-old alchemist Zoe Faust unlock the Elixir of Life a second time to save her best friend?

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.

Centuries-old alchemist Zoe Faust is tired of running from her past. She’s finally got her life on track in Portland, Oregon, gardening and cooking in her fixer-upper house with her mischievous best friend, Dorian, the gargoyle chef. It seems like the perfect life for Zoe—until she discovers that Nicolas Flamel is missing. A mystery from 16th Century Prague may hold the key. Can Zoe find the art forger who holds the secret of what has become of her missing mentor?

A trip to Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. An art heist. And a locked-room mystery.

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.

When the work of art is stolen under impossible circumstances, Dorian must use his “little gray cells”—not to mention his culinary skills—to solve the crime and discover the true origins of where he came from.

A blackmailer obsessed with gold. A boyfriend who’s more than he seems. And a treasure hidden on the Oregon coast.

Alchemist Zoe Faust’s mentor Nicolas Flamel is back in her life, but catching up with him will have to wait. An elusive blackmailer has threatened to expose a dangerous alchemical secret. Zoe’s boyfriend is out of town protecting secrets of his own. So when rumors of a treasure map reach Zoe, she turns her back on what sounds like no more than a game.

Zoe’s mischievous living gargoyle best friend Dorian, who thinks of himself as a modern-day Poirot, is convinced the map is real—and that it’s the key to proving himself as valuable to Zoe as her human family. With the help of the neighborhood teenagers, Dorian sets out to find the treasure, risking more than he planned in the process. Rumors, treasures, and secrets intersect to unearth more than Zoe could have dreamed—and could leave her family changed forever.

Can Zoe stop the threat to the family unit she’s created?

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.

When the grand opening of enchanting tea shop The Alchemy of Tea leads to sabotage and murder, someone close to alchemist Zoe Faust is implicated in the crimes. As she and her gargoyle sidekick Dorian begin to investigate, they're plunged into an alchemical mystery at an eerie mansion high in the Portland hills, where the plants have teeth and the topiary have claws. Can Zoe and Dorian brew up a solution before it's too late to save their friends?

A treasure trove of nine locked room mysteries from USA Today bestselling and Agatha Award-winning author Gigi Pandian, all set in the Jaya Jones world.

Appearing here for the first time, novelette The Cambodian Curse:

When an ancient and supposedly cursed Cambodian sculpture disappears from an impenetrable museum, and the carving's owner is killed by an invisible assailant while a witness is a few feet away, historian Jaya Jones and her old nemesis Henry North team up to solve the baffling crime.

Stories included: "The Cambodian Curse," "The Hindi Houdini," "The Haunted Room," "The Library Ghost of Tanglewood Inn," "The Curse of Cloud Castle," "Tempest in a Teapot," "A Dark and Stormy Light," "The Shadow of the River," plus bonus novella Fool's Gold.

With an Introduction from New York Times bestselling author Laurie R. King addressing why we love locked rooms, and a Foreword from impossible crime mystery historian Douglas G. Greene, teasing out the tradition of John Dickson Carr that Pandian is following. This collection is filled with ingenious stories of magic, mystery, and history.

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?

From San Francisco to the Highlands of Scotland, Jaya must evade a shadowy stalker as she follows hints from the hastily scrawled note to a remote archaeological dig. Helping her decipher the cryptic clues are her stage magician best friend, a devastatingly handsome art historian with something to hide, and a charming archaeologist running for his life. Jaya must figure out who to trust if she wants to solve the riddle, find the treasure, and make it out of Scotland alive.

A century-old treasure map of San Francisco’s Barbary Coast. Sacred riches from India. Two murders, one hundred years apart. And a love triangle… Historian Jaya Jones has her work cut out for her.

1906. Shortly before the Great San Francisco Earthquake, Pirate Vishnu strikes the San Francisco Bay. An ancestor of Jaya’s who came to the U.S. from India draws a treasure map…

Present Day. Over a century later, the cryptic treasure map remains undeciphered. From San Francisco to the southern tip of India, Jaya pieces together her ancestor’s secrets, maneuvers a complicated love life she didn’t count on, and puts herself in the path of a killer to restore a revered treasure.

A thousand-year-old secret room. A sultan’s stolen treasure. A missing French priest. And an invitation to Paris to rekindle an old flame....

Historian Jaya Jones finds herself on the wrong side of the law during an art heist at the Louvre. To redeem herself, she follows clues from an illuminated manuscript that lead from the cobblestone streets of Paris to the quicksand-surrounded fortress of Mont Saint-Michel. With the help of enigmatic Lane Peters and a 90-year-old stage magician, Jaya delves into France's colonial past in India to clear her name and catch a killer.

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.

When Jaya's old professor dies under eerie circumstances shortly after discovering manuscripts that point to a treasure in Italy's Park of Monsters, Jaya and her brother pick up the trail. From San Francisco to the heart of Italy, Jaya is haunted by a ghost story inexorably linked to the masterpieces of a long-dead artist and the deeds of a modern-day murderer. Untrustworthy colleagues, disappearing boyfriends, and old enemies - who can Jaya trust when the ghost wails?

A fabled illusion performed by a stage magician who claims to possess real supernatural powers.

A treasure from the colonial era in India when international supremacies vied for power. A phantom trading ship lost over 200 years ago.

And a ninja whose murderous intentions in present-day Japan connect the deeds of a long-dead trader who was much more than he seemed…

When Jaya travels from San Francisco to Japan with her stage magician best friend Sanjay—a.k.a. The Hindi Houdini—for his Japanese debut, she jumps at the chance to pursue her own research that could solve a tantalizing centuries-old mystery.

With the colorful autumn leaves of historic Kyoto falling around her, Jaya soon loses sight of what’s real and what’s a deception. A mysterious ninja attempts to sabotage Sanjay’s trick, along with Japan’s most controversial magician, Akira.

Ancient folklore blurs the lines between illusion and reality when a magician’s assistant appears to be a kitsune, a mythical fox spirit.

As tricks escalate to murder, Jaya and her friends must unravel secrets hidden in the ancient capital of Japan, before one of their own becomes the next victim.

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? 

Three unsolved murders spanning seventy years have befallen the same French family, each taking place two nights before Christmas at their Paris mansion—and blamed on the family ghost. 

When Jaya realizes the truth hits closer to home than she realized, she must risk everything as she flees San Francisco for France and Cambodia to find a missing sculpture known as the Serpent King and stop a flesh and blood killer.

SNAPPY DIALOGUE, CLEVER STORYTELLING, AND CHARMING CHARACTERS...

Baggage claim can be terminal when a computer glitch mislabels identical vintage suitcases. These are the three stories of what happened after three women with a knack for solving mysteries each grabbed the wrong bag.

MIDNIGHT ICE by Diane Vallere

When interior decorator Madison Night crosses the country to distance herself from a recent breakup, she learns it's harder to escape her past than she thought, and diamonds are rarely a girl's best friend.

SWITCH BACK by Kendel Lynn

Ballantyne Foundation director Elliott Lisbon travels to Texas after inheriting an entire town, but when she learns the donor was murdered, she has to unlock the small town's big secrets or she'll never get out alive.

FOOL'S GOLD by Gigi Pandian

When a world-famous chess set is stolen from a locked room during the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, historian Jaya Jones and her magician best friend must outwit actresses and alchemists to solve the baffling crime.

An impossible crime. A family legacy. The intrigue of hidden rooms and secret staircases.

After a disastrous 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.

A baffling art heist. A mysterious Christmas Market. A thief in the shadows of Edinburgh Castle.

With Secret Staircase Construction taking well-earned time off for the holidays, Tempest Raj travels across the pond, looking forward to a renewed family tradition: celebrating Christmas in Scotland. 

Tempest’s grandmother has even booked an artist’s flat with a stunning view of Edinburgh Castle. But in the city’s snow-covered, historic Old Town, a recent museum art heist has made chilling headlines. No one can figure out how the thief pulled off the crime. When a family friend asks for help, Tempest agrees to look into the impossible theft—before the festive city’s holiday mood darkens and the Christmas lights fade for good.

One murder. Four impossibilities. A fake séance hides a very real crime.

Secret Staircase Construction just finished their first project with Tempest Raj officially a part of the team—a classic mystery novel-themed home interior. Their client is now ready to celebrate her new life without her cheating ex-husband, famous mystery author Corbin Colt. First up, a party, and Tempest and Grandpa Ash are invited to the exclusive mock séance to remove any trace of Corbin from the property—for good. It's all lighthearted fun until Corbin's dead body crashes the party.

The only possible suspects are the eight people around the séance table—a circle of clasped hands that wasn't broken. Suspicion quickly falls on Grandpa Ash, the only one with actual blood on him. To prove her beloved grandfather’s innocence, Tempest must figure out what really happened—and how—or Ash will be cooking his delectable Indian and Scottish creations nevermore.