This novel tells the story of a famous racehorse and the people connected to him evoked through some objects—his own skeleton and three portraits of him. Although the main characters in the novel are fictional, many of the historical characters are not. The horse, Darnley, who is renamed Lexington, is still considered one of the best racehorses of all time, and many of his offspring have been champions.
In 2019 Theo is a Nigerian graduate student of art history at Georgetown. He plucks a painting out of the trash of his neighbor. It is of a horse, and he recognizes that it is well painted, so he decides to write an article about having it cleaned and valued.
Jess is the head of a lab at the Smithsonian that cleans and articulates animal skeletons for display and study. She has recently located the skeleton of the famous race horse Lexington for a scholar studying equine bone structure when Theo brings in his cleaned painting. Jess recognizes it immediately as one of Lexington painted by Thomas J. Scott, a 19th century horse painter.
In 1850, 13-year-old Jarrett is a slave working with horses for Dr. Warfield in Lexington, Kentucky. Jarrett’s father, Harry Lewis, is a well-known horse trainer who has bought his own freedom and is saving to buy Jarrett’s. Jarrett is with Alice Carneal when she gives birth to Darnley, the horse that will be renamed Lexington. After a promise from Warfield to give Darnley to Harry instead of his yearly wage, Jarrett develops a close relationship with the horse.
Thomas J. Scott is a young artist who specializes in painting horses and is hired by Warfield to paint some of his horses. While he is there, he paints a copy of his picture of Darnley and gives it to Jarrett. Later, he returns to paint an older Lexington.
These are the characters whose points of view are used to tell the story of Lexington. Brooks’s story is based on what is known of the real horse and characters with some inventions. It’s an interesting story with vivid descriptions of the races, of 19th century New Orleans, and of the racing industry of the time. It also has strong themes of the effects of slavery, racism, and cruelty to animals.
What? Me Read? 
I was tempted right up to the last three words – can’t cope with animal cruelty! It does sound like an interesting story, though.
There’s not too much animal cruelty, though, except for racing in general.