
MacRae lives with her family in Champaign, Illinois, where she recently retired from connecting children with books at the public library.
Her latest novel is There'll Be Shell to Pay.
[My Book, The Movie: Plaid and Plagiarism; The Page 69 Test: Plaid and Plagiarism; The Page 69 Test: Scones and Scoundrels; My Book, The Movie: Scones and Scoundrels;
The Page 69 Test: Crewel and Unusual; The Page 69 Test: Heather and Homicide; Q&A with Molly MacRae; Writers Read: Molly MacRae (July 2024); The Page 69 Test: Come Shell or High Water; My Book, The Movie: Come Shell or High Water]
At CrimeReads MacRae tagged a few favorite amateur sleuths with offbeat jobs, including:
Tempest Raj is a stage magician following in her mother’s footsteps as a master illusionist. She’s Gigi Pandian’s protagonist in the Secret Staircase Mysteries.Read about another entry on MacRae's list.Tempest has stepped away from her job, headlining huge shows in Las Vegas, after a disastrous accident on stage. She lost her career, and the life she built, and returned to Hidden Creek, her small hometown in California’s Bay Area. She’s returned to her childhood home and bedroom, too. The bedroom is only accessible by a secret staircase activated by a hidden lever. Tempest is now working part-time for Secret Staircase Construction, her father’s home renovation company. They specialize in architectural misdirection—secret staircases, hidden libraries and passages, sliding bookcases, etc. In her spare time, Tempest unravels puzzling crimes. Tempest is twenty-seven, half Indian, half Scottish, and she likes poori masala for breakfast as much as a bowl of porridge. Pandian is rightfully called the modern-day queen of the locked room mystery. To date there are four books in the series. They’re available in print, e-book and audiobook editions.
--Marshal Zeringue