Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts

Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts by Kate Racculia is a fun, sort of crazy and absurd new novel. 
IT is very modern day, so there are many references to relate to.  If you have lived in Boston there are references to places and if you are a reader the connections to Vincent Price and Edgar Allen Poe are terrific.  Also if you are reader who loves a puzzle or playing games.  That is what this book is all about.  Many of the games my family likes to play on a Saturday afternoon were mentioned here, Settlers of Catan, Monopoly, and Clue, just to name a few.

This book is a puzzle within a novel.  Tuesday Mooney is a fundraiser for Boston General Hospital.  She prides herself on being unmemorable and also for investigating and knowing everything there is to know about the people she wants to approach for donations to the hospital.  She is good at her job.  She has a secret from her past that haunts her.  She keeps to herself and does not make friends easily. 
One evening at a fundraising event a famous entrepreneur dies at his table.  After this Tuesday is pulled into a wild, extravagant treasure hunt that tests its participants and leads to the possibility of a large fortune as a prize. 

Tuesday is involved with a few other players in this unusual game, Dorry Bones, a 14 year old neighbor, Poindexter Howard, Dex,  who used to be a co-worker and Archie Arches who is from a wealthy family and knew the deceased.  Dorry lives with her father across the hall from Tuesday.  She and Tuesday strike up a friendship that includes takeout food and homework on Thursday nights.  Dorry also has a sad memory that haunts her.  Dex was a former co-worker of Tuesday's and also a friend who avoids friendships.  All these characters are struggling with fitting in and have something important to learn.

Vincent Pryce, who died a wealthy man and wants to leave a legacy contrives this game that has our protagonists scurrying to find the clues Pryce has left around the city of Boston.  His widow explains why, "Vince loved games," Lyle said, "And he thought too many people had forgotten how to play.  They'd been brainwashed into thinking the entire point of play a game...was to win."  ..."The point of a game is the experience of playing.  The obstacles and the choices you make to get to the objective.  The possibly of winning, the danger of loss, shapes the game. Risk and reward give the game suspense, a plot.  But winning or losing is not the whole point."

This plot idea was very appealing to me.  It was a clever idea and well executed.