Tuesday Mooney talks to ghosts : an adventure /

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

A handsome stranger. A dead billionaire. A citywide treasure hunt. Tuesday Mooney's life is about to change in ways she--and no reader--could never expect in this "rollicking" (Star Tribune), award-winning novel. ¶ A Kirkus Reviews Best Book · An Indie Next Pick · A Library Reads Selection · A New York Post Best Book of the Week · A Publishers Weekly Pick of the Week · A Buzzfeed Best Paperback · and more! ¶ Tuesday Mooney is a loner. She keeps to herself, begrudgingly socializes, and spends much of her time watching old Twin Peaks and X-Files DVDs. But when Vincent Pryce, Boston's most eccentric billionaire, dies--leaving behind an epic treasure hunt through the city, with clues inspired by his hero, Edgar Allan Poe--Tuesday's adventure finally begins. Puzzle-loving Tuesday searches for clue after clue, joined by a ragtag crew: a wisecracking friend, an adoring teen neighbor, and a handsome, cagey young heir. The hunt tests their mettle, and with other teams from around the city also vying for the promised prize--a share of Pryce's immense wealth--they must move quickly. Pryce's clues can't be cracked with sharp wit alone; the searchers must summon the courage to face painful ghosts from their pasts (some more vivid than others) and discover their most guarded desires and dreams. A deliciously funny ode to imagination, overflowing with love letters to art, from The Westing Game to Madonna to the Knights of the Round Table, Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts is the perfect read for thrill seekers, wanderers, word lovers, and anyone looking for an escape to the extraordinary.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Publishers Weekly Review

Rarely does a novel so suffused with death radiate as much life as this spirited--in every sense of the word--genre-bending adventure from Racculia (Bellweather Rhapsody). The games begin for volunteer Tuesday Mooney at Boston General Hospital's annual fund-raising gala when, uncharacteristically, the self-possessed loner finds herself flirting with a handsome guest who introduces himself as Nathaniel Arches, of the Brahmin megabucks clan. Then Vincent Pryce--not the Vincent Price but an eccentric, cape-draped elderly billionaire famed for his love of the macabre--collapses. In his subsequently published self-penned obituary, he invites the city to play an elaborate treasure hunt with clues inspired by his hero, Edgar Allan Poe, for a chunk of his fortune. The challenge galvanizes a host of contestants, including Tuesday, for whom the dark side has held a fascination ever since her childhood in Salem, Mass., and the never-solved disappearance of her best friend, Abby Hobbes. As suspenseful as the adrenaline-pumping race will prove, testing competitors in ways they never anticipated, the author, like Vincent, has a deeper design in mind, which only becomes apparent with the book's immensely satisfying final bombshells. Racculia should win many new fans with this inspired effort. Agent: Bonnie Nadell, Hill Nadell Literary. (Oct.)

Booklist Review

The Westing Game (1978) meets the supernatural in this high-stakes scavenger hunt through Boston. When Vincent Pryce dies (no, not Vincent Price, though both Vincents share a penchant for the extravagant and macabre), he, through his obituary, invites anyone and everyone to join in a game, which they can play by following a series of Edgar Allen Poe-inspired clues he's left in his wake. Tuesday Mooney, a professional researcher and puzzle-lover, decides to put her skills to the test. With an eclectic group of unlikely allies, she explores train tunnels, abandoned theaters, haunted houses, and more, making Racculia's latest, following Bellweather Rhapsody (2014), in many ways a love letter to the city of Boston. Though Vincent's puzzle itself is intriguing, so are the novel's characters. Some know more than they are letting on, some are keeping secrets about their past, and readers will be drawn in by their varied, personal reasons for playing, not to mention their wry interactions. A sharp, heartfelt story about loners working together for the sake of a shared adventure.--Biz Hyzy Copyright 2019 Booklist

Kirkus Book Review

A motley crew of Bostonians seeks an eccentric millionaire's fortune in an epic, citywide treasure hunt that kicks off after his untimely death.Tuesday Mooney is the best prospect researcher on Boston General Hospital's fundraising team, a "bizarro know-it-all tall girl" with the aura of a grown-up Wednesday Addams. Despite her reputation as a formidable, reclusive "woman in black," Tuesday nurtures a few friendships, albeit at arm's length. There's Dex Howard, a karaoke-obsessed financier perpetually unlucky in love; Tuesday's neighbor Dorry Bones, a motherless Somerville teen in desperate need of a role model; and Abby Hobbes, a Ouija board-wielding classmate who disappeared during Tuesday's teenage yearsand who just so happens to be haunting her in adulthood. When cape-wearing Poe fanatic Vincent Pryce keels over at a hospital charity auction midbid, Tuesday uses all the skillsand hospital databasesat her disposal to win a portion of Pryce's incredible fortune. But will Tuesday's past, and her poor judgment, catch up with her before she can win? And will her partnership with the strange but charming tycoon Nathaniel Arches sink or buoy her chances of success? Racculia (Bellweather Rhapsody, 2014, etc.) returns with a roaring adventure novel that never loses sight of adulthood's woes: Characters lament their school loan balances and worry about selling out in their careers, struggle with intimacy, and occasionally stew in self-loathing. Even as the whimsical treasure hunt picks up its pace on Boston Common and in the tunnels of the T, Racculia ensures that real livelihoodsand livesare at stake. The result is thrilling, romantic, and charming as all get out, a love letter to former witchy girls and compulsive dreamers that will make readers reassess whatand whothey value.Spooky, witty, and observant, Racculia's novel of friendship and bigger-than-life aspirations is a treasure. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Author notes provided by Syndetics

KATE RACCULIA is the author of This Must Be the Place and Bellweather Rhapsody, winner of the American Library Association's Alex Award. She received her MFA from Emerson College and works for the Bethlehem Area Public Library in Pennsylvania.