THE GARBAGE MAN
by Tessa Pacelli
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Pub Date 23 Sep 2025 | Archive Date 15 Jan 2026
Tessa Pacelli | Zero Day Books, LLC
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Description
What if your dream job became a nightmare without end?
Fresh out of Harvard Business School, Kayla Mousavi lands a coveted job at General Recycling, beating out thousands to work for Americaʼs hottest tech company and its legendary CEO, Frederick Douglass Monahan. It seems like a golden opportunity. GRʼs trash eating bacteria gobble up refuse, rescuing a world choking on garbage. And her job, as the right-hand analyst of a global business celebrity, guarantees a glittering future. But Kayla should have remembered what her father – in prison for insider trading – always said. Inside every great company is great crime.
It's not long before Kayla stumbles onto the kind of dirt that not even the magic GR bugs can disappear. Soon, she’s witness to a professional hit — a hit meant for her — and on a collision course with the truth behind the trash: deep in the bowels of a Wall Street darling is an extraordinary and terrifying business that will reshape everything we believe about psychology, security, privacy, and human nature. Now, to live, Kayla will have to outsmart a ruthless genius with unlimited resources. A man who absolutely intends to change the world…just not exactly as advertised.
A Note From the Publisher
Advance Praise
"Wildly intriguing and fresh...You won’t forget Kayla’s story!"
- Jacquelyn Mitchard
#1 New York Times Bestselling Author, The Deep End of the Ocean
EARLY READER PRAISE FOR THE GARBAGE MAN:
“The twists and turns never stopped coming....”
“The story grabbed me from the beginning....”
“Fast paced and had lots of twists and turns.”
“A gripping plot”
“I really enjoyed this story!”
“Realistic in a scary sort of way.”
Marketing Plan
Major market / publication submissions for features and reviews
Galleys available across multiple sites
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Mailing list - special offers, free content and more
Available Editions
| ISBN | 9798999093905 |
| PRICE | |
Available on NetGalley
Featured Reviews
Courtney P, Reviewer
This book was intriguing from beginning to end. Captivating from beginning to end. This book always kept you wondering what was to come next. Be careful what you throw away.
Shree G, Librarian
One word sums up this novel - MINDBLOWN!
In the same class as Michael Crichton and his novels, Tessa Pacelli brings all of her talent and writing prowess to the fore with The Garbage Man, a thrilling story about ambition, betrayal, love, loyalty, and cutting-edge tech. This bizarre yet believable tale explores the intersection of science, technology, and humanity.
Kayla Masouvi is a talented, Harvard-educated, young, good-looking woman who is clever, persistent, and doggedly focused on achieving what she wants. Hobnobbing at cigar-smoke and perfume-filled gambling parlors, teeming with waitresses in dazzling mini skirts, wielding cocktail trays and loud, raucous laughter and cheers, to the swanky perks that only a senior executive at a billion-dollar company office can enjoy, Kayla is equally at ease in both settings because she lived a life full of adventure, and did not mind risking everything she owned to get what she wants.
Yet...she is not the protagonist of the book. It is The Garbage Man. A brilliant entrepreneur, a shrewd employer, a crackerjack poker player, and a really, really rich man. There are more aspects to his magnanimously sinister personality, but all will be disclosed when you get to the end of the novel. Trust me, you will pray that you never get so successful as to have a boss like that.
I thank Tessa Pacelli, Zero Day Books, and NetGalley for allowing me to review this nail-biting ARC. This book is coming out soon, and I'm excited to read other raving reviews when it does. The twists will jolt you, the turn of events will enthrall you, and the hours will simply melt away.
Read it with Depeche Mode playing in the background. It will enhance your reading experience, whether you are a devout 'devotee' or not! ;)
My personal theme song for this book would be Every Breath You Take by The Police.
Dani C, Reviewer
Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC of The Garbage Man by Tessa Pacelli. This was a really original and thought-provoking read. I loved the premise, a futuristic world where virtual reality created from people’s waste becomes dangerously addictive. The idea of tech, rubbish and alternate realities colliding was really interesting and unsettling at the same time. It’s fast-paced, full of tension and completely immersive. A clever, sharply written debut with a lot to say about control, obsession and escape.
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