Quantcast

The DNAinfo archives brought to you by WNYC.
Read the press release here.

Graceland Cemetery Ghost Tale Provides Inspiration For Author's Latest Book

 Lindsay Currie has spent hours wandering through Graceland Cemetery. The walks provide Currie what she describes as "solitude in the middle of a chaotic city," but they also inspired her latest book "The Peculiar Incident on Shady Street," which is available for pre-order at major online retailers and will be officially released Oct. 10.
Lindsay Currie
View Full Caption

CHICAGO — Lindsay Currie has spent hours wandering through Graceland Cemetery.

The walks provide Currie what she describes as "solitude in the middle of a chaotic city," but they also inspired her latest book "The Peculiar Incident on Shady Street," which is available for pre-order at major online retailers and will be officially released Oct. 10.

Currie, of East Lakeview, based a good part of her book on a ghost legend buried in Graceland Cemetery. Without giving away the name of the ghost, which would reveal too much of the mystery in the book, Currie said the truth behind the ghost's death "has been twisted, warped from over 100 years of retelling.

"In other words, it's the perfect fodder for a mystery book," she said. "After completing some baseline research, I made my first visit to the gravesite where I quickly confirmed my suspicions — there was definitely enough spine-chilling material to sustain an entire novel. In fact, it took only a few moments of staring at the eerie monument to feel the familiar tug of a story in my brain."

Graceland is one of the primary settings of the book, which tells the tale of character Tessa Woodward, who moves to Chicago from Florida and tries to unravel the mystery of what happened in a haunted house on Shady Street.

Currie spent four months researching and writing the book in a research room at Chicago History Museum. The novel includes setting at nearby North Pond.

Currie is a veteran author whose middle-grade novels are published with Simon & Schuster/Aladdin, while her young adult novels are published with Flux/Llewellyn and Merit Press.

She said "The Peculiar Incident on Shady Street" is geared toward 8- to 13-year-olds.

Currie will have an official book release event at The Book Cellar in Lincoln Square at 6 p.m. Oct. 14. For more information, click here.