Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts - Kate Racculia

Delightful novel that sure turned out to be more than I expected or bargained for. I had to give a lot of thought about how to review it.

Tuesday Mooney is a goth loner who works as a prospect researcher on a hospital fundraising team. At one of the hospital’s fundraising events, eccentric millionaire Vincent Pryce (with a “y”) keels over dead. In his will, he leaves a chunk of his fortune to anyone who can play his game and solve his puzzle. Tuesday sets out on the treasure hunt with the motliest of crews: Dorry, her teenage neighbor and goth-in-training; Dex, her best friend and karaoke aficionado; and Nathaniel Arches, himself a mysterious millionaire who knew the deceased well. While this is a common enough theme in fiction (“The Westing Game”, “Ready Player One”, etc.), I have never seen it executed with such style and character.

But the novel is so much more than an entertaining adventure. It is also a mystery (several actually), a love letter to Boston (and Edgar Allan Poe), and an exploration of friendship, grief, and family. And it is about hope and joy. And the characters are not the cardboard cutouts they could become under less skilled hands. Tuesday is more than just the creepy tall girl who likes “The X-Files”. She still carries a deep sorrow from the disappearance of her best friend Abby when she was a teen. Dex is more than just the gay best friend. He is a financier who feels maybe he has lost his way. And Dorry is more than just the plucky teen next door. She worries about how her father is coping with the death of her mother, just as she herself is struggling with it.

Funny, suspenseful, and touching, “Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts” ticks all the boxes. Read it now.