Dunc and the Haunted Castle

Culpepper Adventures #15

by Gary Paulsen

When Dunc and Amos are invited to spend a week in Scotland, Dunc can already hear the bagpipes a-blowin'. But when the boys spend their first night in an ancient castle, it isn't bagpipes they hear. It's moans! Dunc hears groaning coming from inside his bedroom walls. Amos notices the eyes of a painting following him across the room! Could the castle really be haunted? Local legend has it that the castle's former lord wanders the ramparts at night in search of his head!

Team up with Dunc and Amos as they go ghostbusting in the Scottish Highlands!

80 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1993

About the author

Gary James Paulsen was an American writer of children's and young adult fiction, best known for coming-of-age stories about the wilderness. He was the author of more than 200 books and wrote more than 200 magazine articles and short stories, and several plays, all primarily for teenagers. He won the Margaret Edwards Award from the American Library Association in 1997 for his lifetime contribution in writing for teens.

Reviews

[Josiah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Amos Binder's cousin, the preteen inventor T.J. Tyler, makes his return two books after we met him in Dunc's Undercover Christmas. Committed to a research project in Scotland this summer, T.J.'s father has rented a castle in the countryside, and T.J. sends Amos a letter inviting him to visit. Amos and his best friend Dunc Culpepper are soon on a flight across the Atlantic; Dunc is intrigued by a phrase in T.J.'s letter that suggests spooky things are going on at Dunbar Castle. Dunc never declines an opportunity to play the role of detective—to Amos's everlasting chagrin—and he's primed for a doozy of a mystery as T.J. and his father meet the boys at the airport and drive them to the castle.

Dunbar Castle's anonymous owner has hired a small staff to watch over the place while the Tylers are there, but these employees behave strangely. T.J. speculates that Mrs. Knox, the cook, is a witch, and Dunc and Amos have to agree she looks the part. Mr. Macbeth, the realtor, doesn't seem happy with two extra guests on the premises. But Dunc and Amos don't get the gist of the mystery that T.J. alluded to in his letter until he demonstrates a secret he found: concealed passageways inside the old stone walls, snaking up, down, and around the castle. He hasn't explored most of the tunnels, but T.J. has heard eerie sounds from the walls at all hours of the night. Legend has it that Dunbar Castle is haunted by Robert Ramsey, a knight beheaded while defending the iconic Stone of Scone. Is his ghost roaming the secret passageways?

Mr. Tyler dismisses the idea that something untoward is at play, but Dunc and Amos follow T.J. into the walls and search for clues. They find a container of whiskey sitting out; could it be an indicator of what's causing the sounds T.J. hears at night? A trip into town yields little by way of clues, but Mr. Smith, who tends the grounds at the castle, sneaks the boys a note warning of calamity headed their way. Is his message meant for good, or as a threat? To solve Dunbar Castle's mystery, Amos will have to don the actual armor of heroic Robert Ramsey in an attempt to scare some criminals out of hiding. What will he, Dunc, and T.J. discover lurking at the end of the castle's secret corridors?

It isn't a superb mystery by any stretch, but Dunc and the Haunted Castle is, in my opinion, the best of the first fifteen Culpepper Adventures. The action is paced well, the characters aren't ridiculous, the mystery makes sense—requiring thought to solve before Dunc and Amos do—and Dunbar Castle is somewhat atmospheric. The humor is also fairly effective, and Gary Glover's cover art is probably his best so far. The writing is too dry to generate excitement, but the story holds together better than most in the series, and I believe I'd rate Dunc and the Haunted Castle the full two stars. Though nowhere near the quality Gary Paulsen is capable of, this isn't a bad book.

[Becky · Rating 2 out of 5]

One of the best of the Culpepper adventures...