Gigi Pandian's THE RAVEN THIEF

The Raven Thief

A Secret Staircase Mystery (Book 2)

Written by Gigi Pandian

Narrated by Soneela Nankani

What a fascinating concept for a crime novel: an author whose first book (about possibly shape-shifting into a raven to murder his wife) is accused of breaking into his ex-wife's basement to steal the typewriter he wrote it on. You might wonder whether he's superstitious or just wreaking petty vengeance on his newly ex wife for gutting his Poe-inspired old writing office and remodeling it into a much more fun space. Eventually you'll find out more about the typewriter, the author, the novel, and the book's title. But first....

There's a LOT of description of the remodeled space, and a great many complex setting details from both this remodel and the one where our protagonist lives: secret bookcase doors and rocking-horse door unlocking mechanisms, false-bottomed trunks etc. In print it would be easy enough to flip back over the descriptors to get them clear in your mind, but with audio it's harder to keep track of which knickknack hides or opens or unlocks or lights up what structural element. A sketch map would help. Maybe there will be one in the print version (this review is based on an audiobook ARC via #NetGalley).

There's also a fair bit of discussion in early chapters about past events and the overarching series mystery, which means a lot of references to characters who might have featured earlier in the series. Readers have a lot of names to remember and no way to tell how many of them will be important to the current story. So a cast list would help, especially if it was divided into 'current book' and 'series characters'. Or start with the first in the series, Under Lock & Skeleton Key (although, to be honest, that one spends the first 45 minutes or so of the audiobook largely in setup for Tempest's family home and her recent past that, frankly, sounds a lot more exciting than the early events of that book).

Once you get past all that, there is gradual progress on one of the crimes, and a lot of meandering about Tempest's past that may or may not impact her future. It all robs the story of momentum and although the author set up many Easter Eggs referencing classic crime fiction, they weren't enough to keep me caring who had been done wrong by whom, much less why.

The narrator's voice is pleasant to listen to, with enough emotional infection to enhance the text without overwhelming it. There's not a lot of difference between the protagonist's dialogue and the other characters' words, but enough to tell you it's a different character speaking. The text doesn't give the narrator a lot of emotional subtext to amply, sadly, but if what you enjoy about audiobooks is a human voice murmuring in the background while you're doing other things, this one will work as well as any other.

#Netgalley #RavenThief #SecretStaircase #trapdoor #cosymystery