Bellweather Rhapsody (2014), a young adult mystery novel by Kate Racculia, centers on a young woman who must finally confront what happened many years ago when she witnessed a murder-suicide. Receiving mixed reviews upon publication despite winning the 2015 Alex Award, some critics believe the book is better suited to an adult rather than a teenage audience. Racculia is the author of three young adult novels. When she’s not writing, she is singing in the oldest Bach choir in America. Music, choirs, and bands feature prominently in her novels. Reclusive twenty-seven-year-old Minnie Graves has never recovered from something awful she witnessed back in 1982. Fifteen years ago, Minnie was a bridesmaid at her sister’s wedding at the prestigious and grand old Bellweather Hotel in New York. The night of the wedding, a murder-suicide took place in room 712; Minnie saw everything. The bride shot her husband before hanging herself. Minnie is still trying to piece together how she feels about it. Minnie wasn’t the only witness to the tragedy. The hotel concierge, Harold Hastings, saw what happened, too. He regrets that he couldn’t do anything to stop the murder-suicide and he is angry to think that Minnie witnessed it. Struggling with symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, both these characters want to move on with their lives. The hotel, however, has a funny way of never letting them go. Although the hotel is quiet these days, it comes to life once a year for the Statewide, a national high school music festival; it’s a big deal for students hoping to become stars. Only the best musicians in the country are invited to perform at this festival, which has a reputation for catapulting students to fame and glory. Two teenagers participating in Statewide this year are twins Rabbit and Alice Hatmaker. Rabbit is shy and reclusive, just like Minnie, whereas Alice loves herself and flaunts her singing abilities any chance she gets. Although Rabbit and Alice are twins, they aren’t performing together. Rabbit is playing the bassoon for Fisher Brodie, an eccentric and gregarious conductor; Alice is the star of the show. Singing in the finale, she assumes she will get her big break. Although the Hatmakers are competing against each other, they are very close. Rabbit decides that this is the moment when he will tell his sister about his sexuality and the boy he fancies at school. Needing to confide in someone, he prays that she will understand. Rabbit’s plans to come out to his sister are thwarted, however, when someone else steals the show at Stateside. One night, Alice goes to her room, room 712, which she is sharing with Jill, a flute player whom she has never met. Jill is the daughter of Viola, the head of Statewide, and Alice wants to make a good impression on them both. Alice doesn’t have a chance to make any impression at all, because she finds Jill hanging in the bedroom of room 712. Understandably, Alice panics and runs for help. However, when she goes back to the room, Jill is gone. Everyone thinks Alice is looking for attention, but that doesn’t explain why Jill is missing or where she is. Some people blame Alice for her death. Some students say that Jill killed herself, whereas, others say that Alice killed her. For the first time in her life, Alice wishes that she wasn’t the center of attention. Whatever has happened, Minnie decides to make peace with her past by discovering the truth and putting the mysteries of room 712 to bed. She visits the hotel, sleuthing around for information, all the while trying to control the fear and anxiety she feels now that she is back at the Bellweather. She teams up with Harold Hastings who is still working at the hotel, and together they concoct a plan to catch the killer. Meanwhile, all Alice can think about is how Jill’s suicide distracts everyone from her musical talents. She can’t handle someone else being the center of attention. Rabbit is frustrated and angry with her, but he knows that she must figure out her attention-seeking problems on her own. He is worried about whether anyone else will get hurt, especially as he doesn’t believe that Jill killed herself. Viola thinks the whole incident is nonsense. She is convinced that Jill is alive and well somewhere and that she is simply looking for attention. Viola says that Jill pulls attention-seeking stunts all the time, and she blames Alice for indulging her. Alice, however, wants to team up with Minnie and Harold to uncover the truth, since Viola refuses to take her own daughter’s disappearance seriously. To make matters worse, a storm keeps everyone cooped up inside the Bellweather Hotel. Viola insists that the show must go on; she won’t cancel Stateside, especially since the snowstorm makes it impossible for anyone to go home. With tensions rising, and paranoia brewing between everyone, Jill reappears, explaining that her mother staged her disappearance for attention. Minnie confronts her demons and puts the ghost of what happened years ago behind her. Room 712 can be locked up and forgotten about by everyone.

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Kate Racculia

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