Author(s): Karen Wood

Middle Fiction 8-12-year-olds

In this fifth book in the warm-hearted Diamond Spirit series, Jess and Luke are out to foil the "brumby runners" who so callously trap wild mountain horses and leave them broken and traumatized. Can they save the wild horses?

Jess ran out to the front gate. "What are you doing? Where are you going?" "I'm going to stop those brumby runners," Luke wrenched open the door of the ute and climbed in. "What brumby runners? You don't even know who they are or where they come from." "I know where the horses come from."

When Luke brings home a truckload of traumatized "brumbies," or feral horses, some with horrific injuries, Jess agrees something must be done. Can Jess, Luke, and their friends foil the runners and save the wild mountain horses from their cruel fate? And in going back to Matty's Flat, will Luke discover where he really belongs?