Fun old Harlequin Gothic from the 80’s about an American girl (Trudy Stone, who is 23) who inherits an Italian villa from her late aunt Julia. She arrives in Italy by train but the lawyer who was to greet her is away and couldn’t come. Trudy has never been to the villa and she doesn’t have the keys to get into it, the lawyer has them. A friendly stranger who knew her aunt (Dr. Carl Redman, early 30’s) picks her up at the train station and drives her to Castle Malice, which is next door to the villa she inherited. The elderly man who owns the castle (Ben Steiburn…art collector) was also friends with her late aunt and would like to help Trudy out. So he lets her stay at his castle for a while, till the lawyer comes back and opens up the villa for Trudy. While Trudy is at the castle she meets an assortment of people who knew her aunt. Trudy also hears about the legend of the ghost of the Masked Swordsman. It is said her aunt saw the ghost right before she died (she was found dead in her pool.)

Pretty soon things start happening to Trudy…her aunt’s death mask appears next to Trudy’s pillow in the middle of the night. She is locked in the tunnel that connects Castle Malice to the villa. She sees the Masked Swordsman, who makes some attempts on her life. Is the ghost for real, or is someone pretending to be the swordsman, trying to get rid of Trudy to get the villa. Ben Steiburn is interested in tearing the villa down so he can use the land to build an art museum for himself. When she finally sees the lawyer he tells Trudy that she is the owner of the villa until her death, then it goes to someone else, someone whose name he doesn’t know. (He tells her there is also a second will. The details are in a sealed envelope…the lawyer’s late father helped aunt Julia with her will before he died.) This makes Trudy suspicious of many people who could want her dead to get the villa/inheritance.

I really enjoyed this book. It wasn’t written in the first person POV (point of view) like most gothic books are. It had a likable heroine, a good cast of characters/suspects, and some handsome suitors for Trudy.

An entertaining read that kept me interested. ( )