They’re Under Starter’s Orders … And They’re Off!

Crikey. You wait ages for a thriller set in the world of Irish horse-racing, and then suddenly you’re looking at a neck-and-neck race to what we can only hope will be a photo finish. Last week these pages featured a Q&A with horseracing journalist Lissa Oliver, previously a nominee in the James Tait Award and Longman History Award, whose CHANTILLY DAWNS is published by the small but perfectly formed imprint Book Republic. Quoth the blurb elves:

When top jockey Marcel Dessaint loses his racing licence, his whole world falls apart. Accused of deliberately pulling up healthy horses, Marcel is passed a verdict of ‘Gross Misconduct’ and forced to face the enmity of his peers. With a famous face and nowhere to hide in Chantilly, Marcel becomes an outcast in the only world he knows. With The Derby now out of his reach, he struggles to overcome his own self-doubt, while battling to uncover the truth behind the horses’ defeats and clear his name. As he gradually fears he may have been betrayed by one of his closest friends, he discovers all too late that it’s not just his licence on the line. Lives are at stake …

  All of which suggests that Ireland, a country with an honourable heritage in the Sport of Kings, has finally found its own Dick Francis. But lo! Here comes Irish Times’ horseracing journalist Brian O’Connor’s BLOODLINE, out of the Poolbeg stable, thundering up on the rails:

Liam Dee’s world is turned upside down when a young foreign groom is murdered at Bailey McFarlane’s stables on the Curragh. Liam, a champion steeplechase jockey, is initially both witness and suspect. However, shrewd police detective Diarmuid Yeats takes a gamble on his innocence and enlists his help in the hunt for the killer. This nightmare experience exacerbates the tensions in Liam’s life. He has been falling out of love with his job, his joy in racing relentlessly worn away by the struggle to keep the weight down on his six-foot frame. Is it time to quit? But McFarlane’s stables houses the brilliant Patrician, a potential Cheltenham Gold Cup winner, and Liam wants to be the jockey to get him first past the finish post in the race that matters most. With emotions at pressure point, Liam falls in love with the exotic blonde Ukrainian stable girl, Lara, leaving him in an even more vulnerable position than before. Then the killer strikes again and the race to the finish post is replaced by a race for survival . . . and there is no second place.

  So there you have it. A two-horse race with no clear favourite, and both contenders boasting a noble lineage. They’re under starter’s orders … and they’re off!

“Ya Wanna Do It Here Or Down The Station, Punk?”: Lissa Oliver

Yep, it’s rubber-hose time, folks: a rapid-fire Q&A for those shifty-looking usual suspects ...

What crime novel would you most like to have written?
I guess it would have to be HIGH STAKES, the first Dick Francis I read, which got me hooked! THE book I would most like to have written is Anne Rice’s INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE - not a crime novel, but one I continually aspire to.

What fictional character would you most like to have been?
Erm ... a tough one. All the characters I really love in fiction are tortured souls. As a coward who enjoys a happy life - not for me! So, it has to be Terry Pratchett’s Nanny Ogg! Who wouldn't want to be Nanny Ogg?

Who do you read for guilty pleasures?
No guilty pleasures, every story making it to print is a good one. Inappropriate for my age, perhaps? TEDDY ROBINSON, my first love, by Joan G. Robinson. Romance would be a guilt, but definitely not a pleasure!

Most satisfying writing moment?
The whole process of writing CHANTILLY DAWNS. It was what I set out to write and the characters just took over. The most satisfactory moment of any piece of writing is that final full stop. To sit back and think, “There …”.

The best Irish crime novel is …?
You've got me there. I don’t really read crime and Dick Francis only ever scraped in for the horses. That would have to be a pass, sorry. Even the crime I write about in the horseracing world is fantasy. It takes a great brain like Dick Francis (and me!) to make horseracing corrupt!

What Irish crime novel would make a great movie?
I haven’t read any, but they would all have potential. A good author makes their reader visualise the story, so the film is only a step away. The production company is usually a bit further ...

Worst / best thing about being a writer?
I can’t think of a worst thing. That’s because I don’t actually mind missing meals or eating burnt food. My family might have a ‘worst’ view point! The best thing is that I can wake up in the morning and type until I go to bed at night, and when I’m not typing my characters are always with me. It’s being able to play Devil with characters’ lives (playing God would be too simple) and sharing those stories with other people.

The pitch for your next book is …?
A young apprentice jockey finds his life intertwined with obsession, danger and envy ...

Who are you reading right now?
Terry Pratchett.

God appears and says you can only write OR read. Which would it be?
It’s lucky I’m an atheist, then! No one could stop me from writing, the story would always be in my head, defying them. And no one could ever part me from my books.

The three best words to describe your own writing are …?
Empathetic, gripping, unexpected

Lissa Oliver’s CHANTILLY DAWNS is published by Book Republic.