Tuesday Mooney, prospect researcher (how many books use this as a character's job? This position sets her up perfectly for the rest of the book), is quiet, pale, and wears a lot of black. She has one good friend, Poindexter "Dex". Investment banker by day but with a flamboyant gay man who likes to wear dresses and makeup in his off time. He is the one standing next to Laila "Lyle" Pryce when her eccentric husband dies at a fundraiser Tuesday's nonprofit is running (though, why is she signed up as a volunteer? She works for the company). It is also Dex who sends Tuesday a link to the newspaper article announcing that Vincent Pryce (yes, really) has left clues around the city for people to solve a mystery that will lead them to inherit from his vast estate.Tuesday is also approached to help by a man she identifies as Nathaniel Arches, a wealthy man whose family was in a feud with Vincent Pryce. But he has his own reasons for wanting to get to the end of the game; reasons he doesn't want to share with Tuesday.
She begins the game by asking her 15-year-old neighbor Dory to join in but drops her as soon as Dory's father asks. Which was interesting--most stories would have Tuesday forging ahead with her friendship with Dory no matter what rather than complying with her parent's request.
I wouldn't go as far as saying this is a "grown-up Westing Game" like some other reviewers but it certainly has elements of fun and mystery that make it a quick read.
Four and a half stars
This book came out October 1st
ARC kindly provided by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and NetGalley
Opinions are my own
