by Adriana Licio (Author)  Format: Kindle Edition

A Book Review by Jackie Houchin

In Etta and Dora’s SIXTH home-swapping adventure, the two senior friends find themselves once again involved in a murder mystery, this time on the Isle of Mull in Scotland…and, at a Castle which purports to be haunted…

As they arrive, a mini war is going on between the gal who has inherited the Castle and who desperately wishes to sell it to a development company, and the islanders who wish to preserve it for posterity and their own prosperity (hopefully). Our two senior swappers are at first seen as part of the enemy, since they are Italian, and the wannabe investors are a group of “Italians.”

I’ve read the previous books in the series, and I know that disasters await the much-loved pair of older ladies and their wise, proud, and spoiled Basset Hound, Napoleon. In the very first pages of this book, it’s a terrifying tire blowout on a narrow mountain road in a torrential thunder storm. But trouble soon escalates with weird and ghostly happenings their first night spent in Castle Glengullion! What have they gotten themselves into?

During a local fair on the castle grounds, they meet many of the villagers, including a group of oldies set on spoiling the sale by any means. Etta and Dora also listen to the glamorous sales pitch by the developer. Soon a scream alerts them to a … yep, a dead body. (See the wonderful book jacket artwork for the setting!)

What would be normal for Etta and Dora is immediate sleuthing, but this time Etta seems reluctant and Dora is not her usual self. Still, in touring the sites on Mull and surrounds, and talking to people, they can’t help but sniff out clues. Thankfully, the best “sniffer” of all, their hound, Leon, is on the trial and pulls his somewhat reluctant “bi-peds” along. Yes, he is distracted by rabbits and beautiful she-dogs, but he also knows the hands that feed him and looks out for them.

The warring parties up their antes and a clash of titans results. In another horrendous Scottish thunder storm when fear is rampant, a…what?  A real ghost appears?  Yikes! This seems to shake the two sleuths out of their moods and they get into gear. It’s all very exciting and dramatic and fun. And though I speculated, I could not decide who the murderer was? Such a surprise at the end when the “Swappers” explain!

And in a sweet final scene, the weirdness of Etta and Dora themselves is explained and resolved. (Thank you, Adriana Licio!  I want to see them in MORE house-swapping mysteries!

FIVE STARS

AMAZON BUY LINK

.