Bellweather Rhapsody (Racculia)

Bellweather Rhapsody
Kate Racculia, 2014
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
352 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780544129917


Summary
A high school music festival goes awry when a young prodigy disappears from a hotel room that was the site of a famous crime, in a whip-smart novel sparkling with the dark and giddy pop culture pleasures of The Shining, Agatha Christie, and Glee.

Fifteen years ago, a murder/suicide in room 712 rocked the grand old Bellweather Hotel and the young bridesmaid who witnessed it. Now hundreds of high school musicians, including quiet bassoonist Rabbit Hatmaker and his brassy diva twin, Alice, have gathered in its cavernous, crumbling halls for the annual Statewide festival; the grown-up bridesmaid has returned to face her demons; and a snowstorm is forecast that will trap everyone on the grounds. Then one of the orchestra’s stars disappears—from room 712. Is it a prank, or has murder struck the Bellweather once again?

The search for answers entwines a hilariously eccentric cast of characters—conductors and caretakers, failures and stars, teenagers on the verge and adults trapped in memories. For everyone has come to the Bellweather with a secret, and everyone is haunted. (From the publisher.)

Author Bio
• Birth—ca. 1980
• Where—Syracuse, New York, USA
• Education—B.A., Universityof Buffalo; M.F.A., Emerson College
• Currently—lives in Boston, Massachusetts


Kate Racculia is a writer and researcher living in Boston, Massachusetts. Her first novel, This Must Be the Place, was published in 2010. Bellweather Rhapsody, her second novel, came out in 2014.

She was a teenage bassoonist. In her hometown of Syracuse, New York, she played in her high school band, the Lyncourt Summer Concert Band, the Syracuse Symphony Youth Orchestra, and various NYSSMA festivals. Her bassoon was named Nigel.

Kate studied illustration, design, Jane Austen, and Canada at the University of Buffalo. She has her MFA from Emerson College, and teaches novel and genre fiction workshops at Grub Street, Boston’s non-profit creative writing community. She has been a bookseller, a planetarium operator, a coffee jerk, a designer, and a proposal writer.

She posts many pictures of her cat on the Internet, is a total sucker for a saxophone solo, and has every intention of growing up to be Jessica Fletcher. (From the author's website.)

Book Reviews
(Starred review.) [A] rich brew of a novel.... In 1982, in Clinton’s Kill, N.Y., a new bride murdered her husband, then killed herself [at] the Bellweather Hotel. In 1997, high school drama queen Alice Hatmaker checks into the same room to perform at the statewide music festival.... Racculia thus sets the stage for a novel of dueling wills, marked by textured characterization and an ebullient storytelling style.
Publishers Weekly


(Starred review.) Part ghost story, part mystery, part coming-of-age tale, and part love sonnet to music, Racculia's second nove is dark and delightful, with memorable characters inspired by both literature and pop culture. It will grab readers and keep them with multilayered plotting and writing that ranges from humorous to poetic. —Nancy H. Fontaine, Norwich P.L., VT
Library Journal


Before you can say “plot point,” Viola’s daughter, Jill, has vanished—after apparently committing suicide (it’s complicated). Whodunit? ... That most of the characters have secrets adds a layer of intrigue to a musical mystery that strikes nary a false note. Encore, encore
Booklist


(Starred review.) Racculia delivers an experience worth rhapsodizing about as a group of teenagers and their adult chaperones descend upon a hotel in the Catskills for a statewide music festival.... [A]ngst-ridden teens and adults, all with hidden secrets, are swept up in a crescendo of memories and emotions. Racculia's droll wit and keen understanding of human nature propel a story that's rich in distinctive characters and wholly engaging. A gem.
Kirkus Reviews

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