Even though I’m a mystery writer, first and foremost I’m a mystery reader. I’ve loved the traditional mystery genre since I was a kid, and my favorites were the books with mysteries that were true fair-play puzzles (where the reader is given all the clues and could theoretically solve the crime before the detective) and had a big dollop of fun alongside the mystery.

That fun might be had by a humorous cast of characters I wanted to spend time with, a gothic atmosphere that drew me in like I was listening to an eerie ghost story, an ingenious puzzle with twists and turns that kept me turning pages, or whimsical elements that added unexpected moments of joy.

When I set out to write A Midnight Puzzle, my latest Secret Staircase Mystery with sleuth Tempest Raj, I had such fun crafting a locked-room mystery that uses so many mysterious elements I love:

🔍 A gothic backdrop.

🔍 A supposed haunting at a creepy old theater built to resemble a cathedral.

🔍 A mysteriously regenerating booby trap.

🔍 A devious impossible crime.

🔍 Lots of cozy fun with Tempest and her friends and family working together to solve multiple mysteries, both past and present.

🔍 The Secret Staircase Construction team renovating a house known as the Whispering House.

🔍 Delicious recipes from Grandpa Ash.

🔍 A treehouse.

🔍 Architectural misdirection.

My sleuth Tempest Raj faces her most baffling mystery yet: After she’s lured to the old theater where her mom vanished years ago, a deadly booby trap strikes and kills a man threatening the family business, Secret Staircase Construction. As one baffling crime leads to an impossible one, family secrets are at the heart of both a present-day murder and the truth of what really happened to Tempest’s mom when she vanished.

A Midnight Puzzle is now available from Minotaur Books.