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 sabotage on 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.
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.
Additional stories include: '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 the bonus novella Fool's Gold.
The Cambodian Curse & Other Stories includes 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.
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.
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 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? Filled with the unexpected twists, vivid historical details, and cross-cultural connections Gigi Pandian is known for, Michelangelo's Ghost is the most fast-paced and spellbinding Jaya Jones novel to date.
From USA Todaybestselling author Gigi Pandian comes the first in her action-packed Jaya Jones Treasure Hunt Mystery series.
When historian Jaya Jones receives a mysterious package containing a jewel-encrusted artifact, she discovers the secrets of a lost Indian treasure may be hidden in a Scottish legend. But she's not the only one on the trail.
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 magician best friend, a devastatingly handsome art historian with something to hide, and a charming archaeologist running for his life. When a member of the dig's crew is murdered, Jaya must figure out which of the scholars vying for her affections might be the love of her life—and which one is a killer.
