Mystery

Basic, but fun enough ( )

A Bonny Love Among the Ancient Romans
Review of the original Seal Books paperback edition (May, 1997)

[3.5 rounded up]
My GR friend Berengaria wrote such an entertaining review of this book that I couldn't resist giving it a read as well, even if romance and the paranormal are not my usual genres. Archeology, ancient Romans and Scotland were enough of a draw however. Fortunately I was able to source a nice copy of the original Canadian paperback from 1997 in the Toronto Public Library system. Not only was the 25 year old paperback in good condition (I suspect that its being classified as "Science Fiction" might have caused it to languish somewhat among the stacks) but it was also an autographed copy. That Susanna Kearsley was a Canadian author previously unknown to me was a bonus.

See photograph at https://scontent-ord5-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/317777110_9263926270299409_17...
The surprise advantages of the Toronto Public Library system, surreptitiously autographed books by local area authors 🙂

The romance and the paranormal did not actually play that strong a part in the story. Archeologist Verity Grey joins a dig near Eyemouth in Scottish Border country which turns out to be a search for the supposed lost Ninth Legion of Roman (aka Legio IX Hispana). The Ninth Legion disappeared from history and has variously been assumed to have been either annihilated by Scottish tribes or simply reassigned to another part of the empire with the orders being lost to the record.

There is a smouldering crush brewing between Verity and one of the other participants in the dig. In the background there are suspicious actions from some of the others, one of whom is Verity's past lover. It is gradually revealed that the reason for the site of the dig is because a local young boy with the 'second sight' is able to perceive a Roman sentinel guarding the location. It also becomes evident that someone is plotting to sabotage the endeavour. It all comes to a climax in the midst of a storm with perils from both nature and human. Will the sentinel reach out across time to save our heroes?

See photograph at https://qph.fs.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-d383b42bb9991087f924cc31d51f6262
Modern reconstruction of a wall and ditch segment from a Roman marching fort such as would have been constructed by Legio IX Hispana. Image sourced from Quora.

I found The Shadowy Horses to be an entertaining read which was well atmosphered with the local characters and geography. It provided both a smattering of Scots dialogue and quite a bit of background on archeology and about the era of Roman Britain and the types of legionary fortresses which were constructed then.

Trivia and Link
The lost Ninth Legion of Rome has been the subject of a considerable number of books, plays, documentaries and films which can be seen listed on Wikipedia. Rosemary Sutcliff's novel The Eagle of the Ninth (1954) is one of the earliest. ( )

A story with a ghost and a child psychic wouldn’t generally appeal to me, but there is something very retro about Susanna Kearsley’s writing style that I enjoy. We meet her main character, Verity Gray, as she arrives at an excavation site in Scotland, where her new boss is attempting to find evidence of the elusive Ninth Roman Legion, and even from her initial bus ride into town, we know there will be more discovered here than old bones.

Kearsley's Scottish setting is charming, her romantic involvement is sweet and understated, which is a welcomed relief from those authors who think they need to describe sex to us as if they were writing an instruction manual, and her discussions of the Roman archeological site are interesting and sometimes informative. There is a very weak, unsurprising “surprise” twist, but I was able to overlook that in favor of the easy unfolding of the characters.

This one wasn’t as good as the other Kearsley’s I have read, but it was an earlier effort and not flawed enough to put me off of reading another when I can fit her into the reading schedule. We all need a guilty pleasure--for the time being, Kearsley is mine. ( )

One of my favorites that I have to revisit every now and then. ( )