Red Horses

Donna Lynch has returned with the prequel to her acclaimed debut novel ISABEL BURNING. This is the tragic and haunting love story of damaged Russian scientist Vladimir Millerovo, a Grace ancestor, and his gifted, beautiful Romanian bride Veda. The couple are forced to flee late 1800′s Moscow, along with their baby daughter Ana, across several continents and an ocean to escape Vladimir's crimes and the ghosts that seek their revenge. Finding sanctuary in the Caribbean paradise of Martinique, the family tries to repair what has been broken only to find that the horror they sought to leave behind has been irrevocably burned into each of their hearts, and ignited a terrible gift in young Ana.

From Booklist

The problem with prequels is that, to get the full impact of the tale, you need to be familiar with the story that already exists. This is a prequel to the author’s well-reviewed Isabel Burning (2008), a story of dark secrets and the mysterious Dr. Grace, whose experiments involving the human soul capture the interest of the title character. Here, the author explores the history of the Grace family, going back to the late nineteenth century, focusing on a Russian scientist, whose own experiments are dark and frightening, and the scientist’s daughter, whose life is tragically affected by her father’s work. Written with elegance and strong atmosphere, this is a solid gothic horror story. Readers unfamiliar with Isabel Burning probably won’t pick up on the author’s use of foreshadowing, but that’s OK: the book works well as a stand-alone and is sure to drive new readers back to the first one. --David Pitt

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