The Naseby Horses by Dominic Brownlow

 The Naseby Horses by Dominic Brownlow is a superb novel set in the atmospheric Fenland village of Glennfield. Brownlow puts the reader on a back foot by plunging us into the action of Day 3, as the narrator, the seventeen year old Simon, is released from hospital after a severe epileptic seizure. Immediately, we've lost three days and Simon's condition makes him an unreliable narrator to fill in the gaps for us. 

His hospitalisation coincides with the disappearance of his twin sister, Charlotte, and his subsequent interactions with his parents show their strained sympathy and frustration with his coincidental seizure induced memory lapse. Brownlow describes the auras, that act as a precursor to the seizures, as something quite supernatural in and of themselves which allows him to segue seamlessly into the local folklore of the Naseby Horses and their connection to the mysterious disappearance of children from Glennfield going back generations. 

Flashbacks show us the friction of the domestic setting leading up to Charlotte vanishing and add extra layers of tension and authenticity to this tautly written mystery. It does not take much to imagine how a lively teenage girl might feel, and behave, after being uprooted from London to the remoteness of the Fens. Simon's unreliability means we see everything through a distorted lens and are never quite sure what's real and what he merely believes to be. However, the bond between the twins leaps palpably off the page, that secret bond that only twins share is expertly captured by Brownlow and provides the emotional heart of the novel that lingers long after the final pages.

The Naseby Horses is an unusual novel that I heartily recommend.

Thanks to Emma at damppebbles for my gifted copy.