The Lightning Horse (Empire at Twilight Book 1) by N.L. Holmes – Review by Jennifer Gordon

The Lightning Horse by N.L. Holmes
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this historical fiction crime story by N.L. Holmes and as it’s book one in a new series, I look forward to future novels. The story centres around a young Hittite charioteer who discovers that what he believed had been a chariot accident that killed his father and also maimed his grandfather was in fact an act of sabotage aimed at the king. Setting out on an adventure to find his fathers killer, the young man learns that good and evil are often not what they seem. The novel is based in the Hittite empire, present day Turkey, in around 1250 BCe, and the author really bought this era and place to life with their detailed descriptions of time and place. The characters are well defined and interesting and I particularly liked the main character and felt invested in his search for his fathers killer. It is this underlying mystery that runs throughout the whole story, which had enough drama and twists and turns in it to keep me hooked and guessing. There were a lot of characters to keep up with and also place names to remember but the glossary at the back was helpful with this as was the map at the start. I could tell whilst reading the novel that the author had obviously done a lot of research as this comes through in her writing and I liked the fact that there was a historical notes section at the end which confirmed this and tells the reader what is fact and fiction.

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