Editorial Content for Scavengers
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Reviewer (text)
Look, people make sh** up all the time. Yes, and sometimes there are consequences for it. However, when a book starts with that as its first sentence, it promises a lot to look forward to. So pick up Kathleen Boland’s debut novel, SCAVENGERS, and prepare for a wild ride.
Bea Macon was a mover and shaker in the commodities world of New York City. That is, until she took a huge risk that was totally out of character. It should have worked, but instead it got her fired. No worries; she’ll find another job soon. As a matter of fact, since she has this time off, Bea decides to visit her mom, Christy, in Salt Lake City. It’s been a while since they spent time together. Maybe things between them will have improved.
"SCAVENGERS is a story of a mother and daughter reconnecting at a time when both have hit a serious bump in the road.... Read this book for its humor, but also for its poignancy."
They have an odd --- often strained --- relationship. Bea has always been the responsible one. To say that Christy is a free spirit would be a vast understatement. She’s quirky at best, irresponsible at worst. Christy leaves behind a pile of unpaid bills when she decides to pick up and move --- which happens whenever the whim takes hold of her --- and starts a new pile wherever she lands. She has never held a job, at least for long, so Bea pays her rent.
Christy’s one constant has been her plants. They are fake ones because she doesn’t take care of live ones. Now, for her latest crazy venture, Christy is on the hunt for buried treasure. She discovered an online forum claiming that a million dollars is buried somewhere, cryptically described in a poem. All she has to do is work out the clues from what’s written in the poetry and, voila, instant millionaire. She and the others in this forum are obsessed with finding it.
So Bea shows up at her mom’s place on very short notice. The reunion is somewhat awkward, as expected. Before long, Christy’s landlord posts an eviction notice, and Bea sort of figures that it’s par for the course. Then she discovers that her mom has made plans to meet a guy named Bob, one of the other online treasure seekers, in a desert town called Mercy this upcoming weekend. Christy also is hoping to find more than gold when she hooks up with him. Bea can’t believe it; this tops the list of her irresponsible shenanigans. So she insists on going with her mother to Mercy. Is she trying to protect Christy, or does she maybe want to let her own hair down? It might be possible that they will find something much more valuable than money.
What happens in the desert is truly a treasure hunt. Maybe it’s not a successful one, but Bea and Christy make some unforgettable memories that weekend.
SCAVENGERS is a story of a mother and daughter reconnecting at a time when both have hit a serious bump in the road. Christy may think she’s searching for gold, but Bea knows that she has no realistic notion of its actual whereabouts. Their adventure leads them back to each other instead. Read this book for its humor, but also for its poignancy.
Teaser
After being fired for taking an uncharacteristic risk at her commodities trading job, Bea Macon sublets her New York apartment and books a one-way ticket to stay with her mother, Christy. Usually the responsible one, Bea isn't about to admit exactly why she's suddenly decided to visit, but she isn’t the only one keeping secrets: Christy has a man. She has a map. She has…a username on a forum devoted to unearthing $1 million in buried treasure that an antiquities dealer claims to have hidden somewhere in the western U.S.? Bea is convinced this is just another one of her mother’s wild larks, an elaborate way to refuse to finally grow up. But Christy believes she’s onto something --- and she’s arranged a rendezvous in a rural town called Mercy with the guy she’s been obsessively trading theories with online to prove it.
Promo
After being fired for taking an uncharacteristic risk at her commodities trading job, Bea Macon sublets her New York apartment and books a one-way ticket to stay with her mother, Christy. Usually the responsible one, Bea isn't about to admit exactly why she's suddenly decided to visit, but she isn’t the only one keeping secrets: Christy has a man. She has a map. She has…a username on a forum devoted to unearthing $1 million in buried treasure that an antiquities dealer claims to have hidden somewhere in the western U.S.? Bea is convinced this is just another one of her mother’s wild larks, an elaborate way to refuse to finally grow up. But Christy believes she’s onto something --- and she’s arranged a rendezvous in a rural town called Mercy with the guy she’s been obsessively trading theories with online to prove it.
About the Book
A rollicking debut novel about a cautious daughter and her eccentric, estranged mother venturing west in search of buried treasure --- and a way back to each other --- before they run out of patience, money and options.
After being fired for taking an uncharacteristic risk at her commodities trading job, Bea Macon sublets her New York apartment and books a one-way ticket to stay with her mother, Christy, a free spirit who has been living in Salt Lake City on Bea's dime.
Usually the responsible one, Bea isn't about to admit exactly why she's suddenly decided to visit, but she isn’t the only one keeping secrets: Christy has a man. She has a map. She has...a username on a forum devoted to unearthing $1 million in buried treasure that an antiquities dealer claims to have hidden somewhere in the western U.S.?
Bea is convinced this is just another one of her mother’s wild larks, an elaborate way to refuse, as she has for Bea’s entire life, to finally grow up. But Christy believes she’s onto something --- and she’s arranged a rendezvous in a rural town called Mercy with the guy she’s been obsessively trading theories with online to prove it. Out in the desert that one woman believes to be a promised land, the other a wasteland, they find themselves barreling toward a more high-stakes, transformative escapade than either of them could have imagined.
Populated with unforgettable characters and set against one of the world’s most oddly enrapturing landscapes, SCAVENGERS is a funny and heartbreaking novel about old injuries, new beginnings, and the lengths to which we’ll go to find, escape and reinvent ourselves.
Audiobook available, read by Helen Laser
