Customer Reviews

Shadowy Horses

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

"The Shadowy Horses" by Susanna Kearsley was my first book by this author, and the comparisons to Mary Stewart are wonderfully accurate. I am already ordering her other books...from me, the highest compliment. Ms. Kearsley writes in the first person, and manages to pull you right into the story, which is no small feat. Her writing style is fluid and descriptive, and she displays a talent for building suspense at just the right pace. Her characters (secondary as well) are well-drawn, likable, and interesting, and her quick-moving plot makes you want to keep turning the pages. One tiny, tiny criticism (but perhaps this is simply a result of my wanting the story to continue long after it was finished): her ending seemed rushed, and I wanted a bit more detail on the ghostly Sentinel and his tragic story, and that of the Ninth Legion...in another book, perhaps??? My final assessment: well done, Ms. Kearsley, well done!

I had a really bad day at work and I was exhausted and even playing with my three year old son couldn't completely close down my thoughts. Then, in the bath, I picked up The Shadowy Horses and got back into it (I'd started it the night before.) Honestly, I sighed OUTLOUD. It was complete escape. I recommend this book to fans of Mary Stewart or Barbara Michaels -- anyone looking for a really good gothic suspense.

I'm not sure if I should thank Ms. Kearsley or be mad at her. I stayed up two nights in a row because I couldn't put her book down. The story was wonderful, and the characters were realistic. I have been looking for an alternative to Barbara Michaels' books, and I think Ms. Kearsley is it. My only suggestion to her would be-- write faster!

I thought this was an excellent book. I love a good mystery. I also like a little of the supernatural. This had both and they blended well. There was also a romantic thread through it, which was refreshing, in not being explicit about sex. The Scottish atomosphere throughout the book was charming, and made it all the more interesting. There was just enough Scottich brogue in it to make you feel like you were right there with the characters. Overall, a great read and I would highly recommend it to all who wish to read a really good book. Plan on getting her two other books to read, and I will definitely be looking for future books by Susanna Kearsley.

This is very enjoyable fiction written in the tradition of Barbara Michaels. The story has an historical setting with a suspenseful plot and the book is just long enough.

Verity Grey is an archaeologist who has the opportunity to work on an ancient Roman site in Scotland. She's smart, attractive and very dedicated to her work. The project is an interesting one, and she's working with 3 other archaeologists who all have different backgrounds. A wealthy older Irishman, a deadly

handsome Englishman, and the fascinating Scotsman. Of course, there is a romance which is not overdone, but portrayed with just the right touch to keep the reader interested.

The story is enhanced by Robbie a young boy who lives nearby and has the second sight. The child often sees the ghost of a Roman Sentinel. Verity's trapped by her rational side as a scientist, and her desire to believe that the boy is actually seeing a ghost. I was intrigued from the first to the last page.

By far the best of the latest crop of Romantic-Suspence writers, Ms. Kearsley certainly writes a winning story. Her heroine Verity is fresh, a real 21st century woman with a real career, tangible hopes and dreams for the future and best of all her hang-ups are believable giving motivation to her actions and introspections in the course of the novel. The setting is gothic in its unsettling unconventionality. One meets the other players immediately as one would meet aquaintances at a luncheon. The reader is presented with the characters and left to draw his or her own conclusions; there is no excessive ponderings voiced sotto voce by the narrator. The men are real men and I found myself intrigued by the nuances in their dispostions in the way I had been charmed long ago by the bantering between the lead female and male in Victoria Holt's major offerings. The romantic attraction between the main characters is fun and piquant; I found myself rereading certain passages to thrill again at the wordplay. The supernatural note adds a realistic New Age spice that gets beyond the usual Thornfield scenario with the old house and its imposing secrets. All in all, I found "The Shadowy Horses" a great read and as close to the old masters, Mary Stewart and Victoria Holt as any author could hope to get. I look forward to reading Kearsley's next publications and hope that "The Gemini Game" and "Undertow" is reissued/republished in the United States.

In the Shadowy Horses, Verity Grey is working on a dig in Scotland for an eccentric archaeologist, Peter Quinell, who has been looking for evidence of the missing ninth legion of an ancient Roman army for many years, with little success. Her ex-boyfriend, Adrian is also on the same project, as well as an attractive local scot, Davy. They have little proof that the excavation is going to turn up their desired finds, little support from the academic community, and ghostly presences to complicate things further....as well as Verity's own feelings for Davy.

This is an excellent, fast moving book that I was sorry to see end. The descriptions of life in a small Scottish coastal village were excellent and very true to life. The characters were colourful and likeable and it is not at all hard to picture them at the Ship Hotel with a pint or gathered around the kitchen having a hearty Scottish breakfast.

Pour a cup of tea and make plans to curl up for a day by the fire reading this book, you won't regret it.

When Verity Grey is asked to Eyemouth, Scotland by an ex boyfriend for an archaeological job., she arrives at Rosehill not quite knowing what to expect. She meets her boss, Peter Quinnel, and is told he is digging for the lost Ninth Legion of Rome. Furthermore, he knows it is there because a little boy who is psychic saw a phantom sentinel in the field and has communicated with him. Skeptical, Verity has to see for herself what the little boy is capable of before she is a believer. Add to that the sound of running horses she hears every night (where there aren't any) and the sounds of somebody moving around (who isn't there) and you have the makings of a good ghost story.

Verity also meets archaelogists David Fortune, who she is instantly attracted to. Let me say up front that while there is a romance, it is very much in the background. It's almost as if the author got bashful when they came together and skipped over what went on between them. If passion and explicit sex scenes are your thing, better skip this one. If you like a ghost story with a gothic feel, this book is for you.

This book was pretty good. I'm really interested in archaeology, so that aspect of it was fascinating, as was the ghost. I also really liked the characters and the feel/mood of this book. My only real complaint was that it never seemed to really get of the ground. There doesn't seem to be any real conflict for the majority of the book, then at the end it's sort of rushed and very, almost too, easily resolved. Other than that, though, it was really very good.

I love paranormal elements so this book was my cup of tea.. I love an author that can make me suspend belief and accept things slightly off kilter. The author does a marvelous job with characterization - the people in the story are not pigeonholed into stereotypes but seemed wonderfully real. It was so refreshing to have a mystery suspense without the mass murder psycho. To me this is story telling at its finest. The author has been compared to Mary Stewart and Barbara Michael and I can see why. Not surprisingly, she is a Cookson Fiction Prize winner. I must get her back list