This was yet another fantastic Nancy Parker book, I flew through it.

First read a bit before I went to sleep on the 7th, and then on the 8th I read the remainder of the book in an hour. I just couldn’t stop reading. 😛 Not even food could lure me away from my book, though my boyfriend stepped in (darn it).

This time Nancy has a new job, this time in the middle of nowhere. Really, the middle of nowhere. Yes, there is a small village nearby, but really, it is just a few houses and a church.
Her new employer was told of Nancy by Ella (yes, that Ella from the previous book), and thus Nancy was hired.

The book is split up with two POVs, Nancy’s, and Ella’s. Nancy’s POV is done, like the last time, in journal format, with the added spelling errors (which did kind of annoy me as it were only some words here and there) and the fun illustrations. I did love the format of a journal, it feels more real, and it fits perfectly with Nancy who just loves writing in it. Nancy is learning all about being a housekeeper, she even found a little book about it, but next to that she is also learning that her new place might not be all that. One it is in the middle of nowhere. Two she is mostly alone (her employer sleeps in the other wing). Three scary noises that no one else can hear and mysterious stuff happens around her.
But thanks to that she can be a detective again and find out what is going on.
Nancy was definitely my favourite girl, and I really like reading about her life and how she experiences it. It is quite a contrast from Ella. Nancy wants to learn, Nancy wants to do things with her life but probably won’t be able to do that due to a whole slew of reasons. Still I have high hopes for her, if she continues with solving mysteries like this she might get somewhere eventually.

Of course, Nancy is not alone, she has help of Ella. Ella who doesn’t live that far away and is going to a school not that far from where Nancy is at the moment. I did like that Ella went to school, though I wish she would cheer up a bit, she was quite gloomy throughout the book. I get that going to school is no fun, especially if one must wear an awful uniform, but really, I had hoped she was a bit nicer and less my-life-is-meh. I liked the parts were she was being a detective more, as she shut up about her school stuff then.
She should already be thanking the stars that her father is so modern and that she can talk to him about anything and everything. That he will listen and understand her. A lot of kids her age might not be so lucky with their parents.
I also am still laughing because I totally have a different image of Ella from what the book’s illustration would tell us. 😛 When I saw that illustration I just laughed, that is not how Ella looks to me.
I do like Ella (if she isn’t so gloomy). She is smart, interesting, and I love how she just does what she wants, and doesn’t let people dictate her how to do things (like with the school stuff, some of those rules were just silly and weird).

There are also some other characters making a comeback and I was definitely happy to see them again.

The mystery? I had my suspicions, especially after certain hints were dropped. So it was really fun seeing them come true, see them be shaped and turn into something real. There are clues all over the book, and I loved that the author lifted the veil of those clues bit by bit. Just enough that you might start making conclusions, but not enough to know the whodunnit immediately.

I also loved the donkey sanctuary and how the donkeys kept escaping to go to the sea and the beach. 😛 Those silly creatures. You would think they would be happy on their grassy lands but oh no, not these donkeys.

The letters to her family were a nice extra, I loved them in the previous book, and I love them in this book.

The ending was terrific and I was definitely happy with how it all ended. It was exciting, fun, interesting, and I was clapping my hands in delight as everything was told and everything was shown.

I do hope that there will be more Nancy books, I can’t wait to see where Nancy will be going in the next book, hopefully a step closer to being a detective, though I am guessing she will just have a new job somewhere.

I would recommend this book to everyone. Fast paced mystery, hilarious situations, spooky scenes, things that go BUMP in the night, great characters, and more!