Rider in the Dark
written by Victoria Holmes
320 pages
published in 2004
What started as an interesting horse story for me, ended in an thrilling tale I wanted to read again.
Helena is a girl who lives in Dorset, England in 1740. Her daily life usually consists of riding horses, and lately, everyone is preparing for the local Bridport horse race. There's a new addition to her family's stables... Oriel, a horse she can't stay away from, even though he is unbroken and dangerous. Her main goal is to prove to everyone that Oriel is not as wild as he seems... and she will take great risks to show this.
Her father is the leader in their quaint village, and even though Roseby is a small place, it has plenty of crimes taking place. The two most repeated criminals throughout the book are the smugglers (villagers who collect ship cargo without paying taxes) and the wreckers (villagers who deliberately crash a ship, murder the sailors, and steal the cargo).
Although the wreckers are notably worse, smugglers are punished on the same level. Lady Helena never gave much thought to these criminals until she discovers that the people she trusts the best are involved. She doesn't want to lose these friends to the death penalty, so what is there to do?
~*~click here to read my review of another Victoria Holmes book.
I remember totally loving this book when I read it, but that was several years ago and now I hardly remember anything about it! I might just have to pick it up again...
ReplyDeleteI've read three of Victoria Holmes' horse books and this one was by far my favorite.
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