S. A. Sinclair

Amelia Raglan and the Haunted Barn by S. A. Sinclair

Before she moved to Lexington, Kentucky with her parents and cat-on-a-leash Sulu, ten-year-old Amelia Raglan didn’t think she would get to spend the summer horseback riding.  She didn’t think she would explore a creepy, potentially haunted old barn in her own backyard. And she definitely didn’t think she would hunt down a thief responsible for stealing horse country’s most valuable racehorses.

Amelia’s dream of taking riding lessons comes true when she moves next door to Jemma Sage.  Jemma’s dad runs a racing Thoroughbred farm, and her mom is a riding instructor. Amelia learns all about riding and horses – including how to stop Loki the pony from eating her hair.

But Amelia’s new life isn’t peaceful.  Jemma’s claim that the Raglan’s crumbling barn is haunted by Mr. Emerson, the former occupant of Amelia’s house, leads to a terrifying ghost-hunting mission.  Then the plague of horse thefts sweeping Lexington strikes the Sage’s farm, and Amelia’s new friend Santi is blamed for the disappearance of their most promising racehorse.  If Amelia and Jemma cannot discover the identity of the real thief and their connection to Mr. Emerson, Santi will stay in jail, the stolen horses will be lost forever, and Jemma’s brother could get hurt – or worse.

Amelia Raglan and the Haunted Barn is Stacy Gregg’s Pony Club Secrets meets Linda Fairstein’s Devlin Quick Mysteries with a little Small Spaces by Katherine Arden thrown in.  This middle-grade mystery novel is full of ghost-hunting, friendship, and facing fears – but mostly it’s full of horses.

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