In the background there are suspicious actions from some of the others, one of whom is Verity's past lover. There is a smouldering crush brewing between Verity and one of the other participants in the dig. 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. 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 romance and the paranormal did not actually play that strong a part in the story. The surprise advantages of the Toronto Public Library system, surreptitiously autographed books by local area authors 🙂 That Susanna Kearsley was a Canadian author previously unknown to me was a bonus. 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. Fortunately I was able to source a nice copy of the original Canadian paperback from 1997 in the Toronto Public Library system. Archeology, ancient Romans and Scotland were enough of a draw however.

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. Review of the original Seal Books paperback edition (May, 1997)

The Shadowy Horses by Susanna Kearsley