What’s a Gothic Cozy Mystery? A guest blog by Gigi Pandian

Jenn McKinlay: Whenever I go to a conference, there is one person I look for immediately - the fabulous Gigi Pandian! Why? Well, because she's fabulous but also from the first time we met we just clicked. Seeing her is like running into a childhood friend. We just pick up right where we left off. I was fortunate enough to get an advance look at Gigi's latest mystery UNDER LOCK & SKELETON KEY (dropping March 15th) and I am here to testify that it is fantastic! Now here's Gigi to tell us more.

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GIGI: Thanks for hosting me today, Jenn!

When I began writing the book that became Under Lock & Skeleton Key, the first novel in my

new Secret Staircase mystery series, I didn’t know what to call it—until I put to words next to

each other that don’t normally go together.

Gothic Cozy.

That was it! Exactly the reader experience I was trying to create.

So… What exactly does that mean? I adore cozy mysteries—books where I love spending time

with characters I wish I could be friends with, and following the twists and turns as they follow

puzzling clues, often while cooking and eating wonderful food, and reach a happy ending. But I

also love Gothic novels and ghost stories, where I get swept up in a mysterious atmosphere. But

my absolute favorite? Books that combine the two.

In the Golden Age of detective fiction, this mashup of genres was more common (though it

wasn’t called Gothic Cozy). John Dickson Carr wrote locked-room mysteries that always had a

rational solution, but along the way the reader got swept up in eerie atmospheres like desolate

castle ruins with ghost sightings or foggy cliffs where witches were once hung, and it looks like

the only possible explanation is impossible. It must be a ghost or a curse causing the events to

transpire, because a person couldn’t have done it. But the books are mystery puzzles, and there’s

always a rational, human explanation at the end.

Yes, it’s Scooby Doo for adults!

Gigi climbing the stairs in Edinburgh!

And I love it. I’ve sprinkled plenty of spooky fun into my earlier novels, but I didn’t go all in

until now. Under Lock & Skeleton Key is a cozy locked-room mystery, and the backdrop is

Gothic architectural settings along with a family curse.

Tempest Raj is from a long line of stage magicians, but unfortunately that goes along with a

family curse: The eldest child dies by magic. It’s just a legend, right? It couldn’t possibly be real.

When Tempest’s show is wrecked by sabotage and she nearly dies, she has to wonder if it’s more

than superstition. After Tempest moves home to work for the family business, Secret Staircase

Construction—they build magic into peoples homes through architectural magic like sliding

bookshelves and secret staircases—she finds her stage double dead inside a wall that’s been

sealed for a century. It appears impossible, and also that it was meant to be Tempest herself, so

Tempest sets out to solve the impossible crime and prove the family curse doesn’t exist. All

while eating the delicious Indian and Scottish food her grandfather cooks in the extravagant tree

house in the backyard and reconnecting with old friends.

Jungle Red Writers—Gigi Pandian March 2022 for Jenn McKinlay

Readers, what do you think? Should we coin the term Gothic Cozy? What other books

would you put in the category? I’ll go first. Julia Buckley (writing as Veronica Bond) started a

new series in 2021 with Death in Castle Dark.

JENN: I LOVED Death in Castle Dark, too. Gothic Cozy should totally be a thing!

Under Lock & Skeleton Key comes out from Minotaur Books on March 15!

https://www.gigipandian.com/secret-staircase-mysteries

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

After a disastrous stage 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.

Gigi Pandian is a USA Today bestselling and award-winning mystery author, breast cancer

survivor, and accidental almost-vegan. The child of cultural anthropologists from New Mexico

and the southern tip of India, she spent her childhood being dragged around the world on their

research trips and now lives outside San Francisco. She writes the Jaya Jones Treasure Hunt

mysteries, Accidental Alchemist mysteries, and Secret Staircase mysteries. She’s been awarded

Agatha, Anthony, Lefty, and Derringer awards (and is currently an Edgar Award finalist!), and is

a co-founder of Crime Writers of Color. Her latest novel is locked-room mystery Under Lock &

Skeleton Key, out March 15, 2022.

Learn more and sign up for her email newsletter (which includes a free locked-room mystery

story and free mini cookbook) at www.gigipandian.com and connect on Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/GigiPandian/ and Instagram https://www.instagram.com/gigipandian/