The Shadowy Horses by Susanna Kearsley
Rating: ★★★★★
Verity Grey abandons her comfortable job at the British Museum to seek adventure on an archaeological dig in the wilds of Scotland. But when she arrives on site, she discovers that the excavation is being led by a discredited and eccentric old man who has forsaken scientific evidence. Instead, the entire team is following the word of a local boy who claims that he saw a ghostly Roman soldier in the fields.
As she becomes entangled in a subtle web of treachery and danger, Verity begins to believe that there is a Roman sentinel haunting the site. And he’s there to do more than guard the bodies of his fallen comrades…
This was really good.
I love me some Roman history, and I’ve read more books set in the UK than anywhere else, so this book pretty much sold me at “female archaeologist searching for the lost ninth Roman legion in Scotland”.
I probably would have given it a solid three stars for that alone, but with such a gorgeous setting, lush prose, wonderfully developed characters – including a few very grey side characters, a likable, brainy MC with integrity and nerve, and a love interest that you fully understand her attraction to – ghosts, a psychic child, and a captivating plot, I had to bump it up to five.
Truly, I enjoyed this so much that I bought all of this author’s other books after reading it.
Proof:
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