The Peculiar Pumpkin Thief is the seventy-second book in the original Italian Geronimo Stilton series and the forty-second book in the English Geronimo Stilton series by Scholastic.
Synopsis[]
Halloween is a few days away when all of the pumpkins in New Mouse City disappear! There's a thief on the loose, and the thief wants to stop Halloween. Can my detective friend Hercule Poirat and I solve the mystery in time to save Halloween?
Plot[]
The book begins with Geronimo meeting Benjamin at the Tricks and Tails Halloween store. While they're there, Geronimo finds Hercule disguised as a large pumpkin decoration, saying that he's found a new case and he needs Ger's help. Not wanting to be involved in another one of Hercule's investigations, Geronimo declines, saying that he'll think about it.
The next day, Geronimo finds out that multiple stores including Tricks and Tails, the Prank factory, and a pumpkin farm were all robbed clean. Suspicious, Geronimo goes to Hercule's office to talk. After pranked with a bucket of green paint, he tells the detective about his suspicions.
Later, a large building covered by a tarp suddenly appeared in New Mouse City. Then, mice throughout the city receive letters about a Halloween party taking place at a place called "Mystery Park", including the Stiltons. Geronimo, still sus, refuses to go, but ends up going anyway to be with his family. When he gets to Mystery Park, he receives a call from Hercule with a lot of static which seemed to be warning him about a danger in the park.
Geronimo's suspicions are confirmed when it's revealed that Mystery Park was a trap for the New Mouse City citizens. All the mice were locked in the park, while mice with clown masks scurried out. Luckily, Hercule flew by in a helicopter, which Geronimo entered.
As they watch all the clown mice rob the city, Hercule explains that a malicious clown named Chuckles was behind all this, and the building with the tarp was The Clown Tower, a large headquarters shaped like him. After crashing the helicopter into the ocean and stealing a glider two mice were guarding, they make it inside The Clown Tower using two clown masks.
Inside, they confront Chuckles in his office. While their disguises fooled the clown at first, their true identities were shown when Chuckles insulted Hercule by saying that he should be in a zoo. The two mice usher a deal with the clown: if he can't make them laugh, he'll let them go. Unfortunately, He makes them laugh by smacking them on the head with a rubber hammer.
Hercule creates a new deal: Chuckles will let them go if he cries at something. Chuckles accepts, and loses after Hercule tells a story about a mouse who gets eaten by a wolf.
However, Chuckles goes back on his promise by changing The Clown Tower into a rocket and blasting into space. When he opens a trapdoor underneath Geronimo and Hercule, they manage to make it down safely. When they get down, they free all the mice in Mystery Park with a key they took from Chuckles. To make up for the fact that they never properly celebrated Halloween, Geronimo invites his friends over to his house for a party.
The party is a success, although Hercule brought up his crush on Thea, and when Geronimo said he'll look into it, Hercule organizes a meet-up with Ger and Hercule's buff cousin Brutella, who apparently broke her last boyfriend's back.