Jenny Reviews: The Shadowy Horses

The Vitals

The Shadowy Horses by Susanna Kearsley
Release Date: 2nd October 2012
Page Count: 432
Genre: Contemporary Fiction, Gothic, Mystery
Target Audience: Adult
Series: No
Source and Format: Purchased; Paperback

Summary (From Goodreads)
Archaeologist Verity Grey has been drawn to the dark legends of the Scottish Borderlands in search of the truth buried in a rocky field by the sea.

Her eccentric boss has spent his whole life searching for the resting place of the lost Ninth Roman Legion and is convinced he's finally found it--not because of any scientific evidence, but because a local boy has "seen" a Roman soldier walking in the fields, a ghostly sentinel who guards the bodies of his long-dead comrades.

Here on the windswept shores, Verity may find the answer to one of the great unsolved mysteries of our time. Or she may uncover secrets someone buried for a reason.

Notes on The Shadowy Horses
This book is so deliciously gothic. It is set in a wonderful old house on the Scottish coast AND it has a ghost. You almost don't even need anything else to make it a solid gothic novel, really. But then Kearsley goes and populates said house and the nearby town with really wonderful characters. The kind that make you wish you could be friends with them. The best is Robbie, the local boy who can see the ghost. He has the second sight and is almost unbearably cute. It is a wonderful blend of science and the unknown (or perhaps, the unknowable) that will have you flipping pages faster than you realize. If this book doesn't make you want to visit Scotland then I will think less of you. So don't tell me if you still don't want to visit after reading this. Also, I now want the Sentinel to be patrolling my backyard. I need to learn Latin ASAP. (If you haven't read the book you have no idea what I'm talking about. You should remedy that soon.)

Chief Complaint
The reason this book got 4 stars instead of 5 is the "climax" at the end of the book. It was pretty lame, in my opinion. Everything else up to that point was wonderful and you truly had no idea how the book was going to end. I know that sounds like a deal breaker, but I promise it is not. The book is still worth the read!

Overall Diagnosis

Get a Second Opinion

• Jessica from Laugh Love Write -"Kearsley pulls off a beautiful mystery, keeping the reader enthralled with what’s going to happen, is it or isn’t it kind of stuff."  
• Denise from So Many Books, So Little Time - "The characters in this story were great.  There were likable, and not so likable, characters but they all brought something different to the story."