What do you think?
Rate this book
Sainte Bastien
The Berkshire racing stable, Sainte Bastien, has been in the Marchant family for generations, a bastion of old-fashioned values and integrity, but the next in line now jeopardises the family name as misfortune dogs the stable. Jockey Mark Ashton is forced into early retirement by injury and suffers a spectacular mental breakdown.
Replacement, Kym Hughes, had dreamed of a top position during twenty years of mediocrity. He had the talent, but never the breaks. At 34, the break finally comes, but at Ashton’s expense. Kym wonders if benefiting from a colleague’s misfortune has invoked a curse, as he now suffers nothing but ill luck and Nick Marchant isn’t noted for his patience.
Champion trainer Nick Marchant has his own troubles. The sudden retirement of Ashton left him high and dry at the start of the Flat racing season and replacement Hughes seems to be cursed. Nick can’t help but feel a little guilty at not showing Ashton the sympathy deserved, but sympathy isn’t his finer trait. The early death of his young wife taught him to be hard and his horses have become his only focus since. No coincidence that he became Champion Trainer the year after her death.
As if not enough, he was left to rear the wayward Dominic alone and now that his son has reached legal independence Nick dreads what the future may hold. Despite every effort to be the model parent he knows Dominic is amoral and hides a dark secret. Nick will inevitably be held responsible for anything Dominic does. Is it possible that his vengeful and jealous son is responsible for the stable’s run of misfortune?
More than parental problems dog teenage apprentice jockey Dominic, who is battling the scales, his late mother bequeathing him nothing more than her catwalk height. Weight is the least of his worries. Race riding is his only respite and the severe wasting is slowly and painfully killing him, but it was a choice he gladly made. His father isn’t the only one who daily cries to heaven that it should have been Dominic and not her… Unaware that their personal demons are forging stronger links than their racecourse ties, their lives become intertwined in a treacherous web of envy, obsession and danger.
Praise for Lissa Oliver
CrimeAlwaysPays.com
“Ireland, a country with an honourable heritage in the Sport of Kings, has finally found its own Dick Francis.”
The Racing Post on Chantilly Dawns
“Enough to inspire a casual reader to take more interest in the sport.”
The Irish Field on Gala Day.
“Is Lissa Oliver Ireland’s Dick Francis? A fantastic thriller, can be enjoyed by the die-hard racing fan or by someone with little or no interest in racing, thanks to Oliver’s ability to hook the reader from the outset.”
Replacement, Kym Hughes, had dreamed of a top position during twenty years of mediocrity. He had the talent, but never the breaks. At 34, the break finally comes, but at Ashton’s expense. Kym wonders if benefiting from a colleague’s misfortune has invoked a curse, as he now suffers nothing but ill luck and Nick Marchant isn’t noted for his patience.
Champion trainer Nick Marchant has his own troubles. The sudden retirement of Ashton left him high and dry at the start of the Flat racing season and replacement Hughes seems to be cursed. Nick can’t help but feel a little guilty at not showing Ashton the sympathy deserved, but sympathy isn’t his finer trait. The early death of his young wife taught him to be hard and his horses have become his only focus since. No coincidence that he became Champion Trainer the year after her death.
As if not enough, he was left to rear the wayward Dominic alone and now that his son has reached legal independence Nick dreads what the future may hold. Despite every effort to be the model parent he knows Dominic is amoral and hides a dark secret. Nick will inevitably be held responsible for anything Dominic does. Is it possible that his vengeful and jealous son is responsible for the stable’s run of misfortune?
More than parental problems dog teenage apprentice jockey Dominic, who is battling the scales, his late mother bequeathing him nothing more than her catwalk height. Weight is the least of his worries. Race riding is his only respite and the severe wasting is slowly and painfully killing him, but it was a choice he gladly made. His father isn’t the only one who daily cries to heaven that it should have been Dominic and not her… Unaware that their personal demons are forging stronger links than their racecourse ties, their lives become intertwined in a treacherous web of envy, obsession and danger.
Praise for Lissa Oliver
CrimeAlwaysPays.com
“Ireland, a country with an honourable heritage in the Sport of Kings, has finally found its own Dick Francis.”
The Racing Post on Chantilly Dawns
“Enough to inspire a casual reader to take more interest in the sport.”
The Irish Field on Gala Day.
“Is Lissa Oliver Ireland’s Dick Francis? A fantastic thriller, can be enjoyed by the die-hard racing fan or by someone with little or no interest in racing, thanks to Oliver’s ability to hook the reader from the outset.”
243 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 15, 2016
5 people are currently reading
11 people want to read
About the author
Lissa Oliver
7 books44 followersI've been writing fiction from beyond earliest memory, first published at the age of seven! Always a hobby, it inadvertently led to a successful award-winning career in journalism, which then led to the publication of my previously rejected first novel, Chantilly Dawns, now a No.1 bestseller and No.1 on Amazon and Kindle, a massive thrill. Two more racing thrillers followed, to much acclaim, and I recently finished a fourth for the same publisher, due out any day soon, Grey Motive, a cosy crime. I have always worked with racehorses and we have a retired one living with us at home. I specialise as a journalist in welfare and education for the professional racing and breeding industry. My other passion is music and I can be found at almost every Irish & UK punk and ska gig and festival! I'm a former Chair of the Irish Writers' Union and sit on the Board of the Irish Writers Centre and the Irish Copyright Licensing Agency. I'm a Professional Mentor at the Irish Writers' Centre and teach and facilitate Creative Writing classes through adult education boards.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
July 24, 2017
Lissa Oliver’s Sainte Bastien.
If you want a primer on thoroughbred horse racing you couldn’t do much better than read Lissa Oliver’s third racing thriller Sainte Bastien. Fiction it is, but Oliver, an experienced racing journalist and researcher, packs the novel with her in-depth knowledge of the self-contained bubble that is high-octane thoroughbred racing. Anyone not familiar with the racing life and who reads Sainte Bastien will never look at jockeys in the parade ring before they get ready for a race in the same way again. This was the case with this reviewer. I have a working knowledge of show jumping, and the horses and riders connected with it, but no knowledge of flat racing. It is a different world.
The overall theme is pain, its many guises and how we deal with it. The focus of the story is Dominic Marchant, son of top UK based trainer Nick Marchant. Dominic, five foot eight inches and almost seventeen years old, is obsessed by only one think: his passion to be a top jockey; to win races. To do this, aided by his loyal girlfriend Sophie, he has to maintain a weight of seven stone five pounds. It is a herculean effort which Oliver portrays darkly and brilliantly. The mood of the book is often intimidating as Dominic battles his demons, not just with weight and another growing spurt, but his dysfunctional, borderline psychotic relationship with his father’s iron will and belligerence. Early in the book Marchant fumes after Dominic takes a fall, ‘he can stay on the ground with a ruddy broken neck for all I care’.
Dominic carves his way through every day haunted by hunger pangs and lack of fluids which at times doubles him up in pain. His morning ritual to cleanse his body to keep weight down is chilling and deeply unsettling. On top of this he continually attempts to hide mounting painful injury to keep riding. The continuous drug testing, which is ‘the curse of the jockeys room’, means heavy pain killers are out. The catwalk looks and height of his (deceased) mother is seen simply as ‘a curse’ to be endured.
As the book progresses, the reader is torn between sympathy, anger and suspicion for Dominic’s motivations and actions. He seems to be a dangerous person to be around, especially if you are a competing jockey in his father’s stables, such as the unfortunate Kym Hughes. And then a promising apprentice jockey dies in Marchant’s stable and Dominic’s shadow lurks over the event like a dark cloud.
Hints of a troubled childhood emerge in Dominic’s thoughts as he tries to blot out ‘the illogical cruelties too hard to comprehend’. As if struggling with physical pain and a constant battle with his own body were not enough, Dominic must also do battle with his own sexuality. The reader is kept in suspense throughout the novel, wondering, who is at fault here? Is it the dour obsessive Dominic? His iron-willed trainer father? Or both? Does the problem stem from the death of his mother, seventeen years ago?
The end, when it comes, on the ‘hallowed Epsom turf’ is frightening and unexpected. The reader is brought across the finishing line by Oliver with the same ruthless efficiency as the jockeys bring their horses home.
If you want a primer on thoroughbred horse racing you couldn’t do much better than read Lissa Oliver’s third racing thriller Sainte Bastien. Fiction it is, but Oliver, an experienced racing journalist and researcher, packs the novel with her in-depth knowledge of the self-contained bubble that is high-octane thoroughbred racing. Anyone not familiar with the racing life and who reads Sainte Bastien will never look at jockeys in the parade ring before they get ready for a race in the same way again. This was the case with this reviewer. I have a working knowledge of show jumping, and the horses and riders connected with it, but no knowledge of flat racing. It is a different world.
The overall theme is pain, its many guises and how we deal with it. The focus of the story is Dominic Marchant, son of top UK based trainer Nick Marchant. Dominic, five foot eight inches and almost seventeen years old, is obsessed by only one think: his passion to be a top jockey; to win races. To do this, aided by his loyal girlfriend Sophie, he has to maintain a weight of seven stone five pounds. It is a herculean effort which Oliver portrays darkly and brilliantly. The mood of the book is often intimidating as Dominic battles his demons, not just with weight and another growing spurt, but his dysfunctional, borderline psychotic relationship with his father’s iron will and belligerence. Early in the book Marchant fumes after Dominic takes a fall, ‘he can stay on the ground with a ruddy broken neck for all I care’.
Dominic carves his way through every day haunted by hunger pangs and lack of fluids which at times doubles him up in pain. His morning ritual to cleanse his body to keep weight down is chilling and deeply unsettling. On top of this he continually attempts to hide mounting painful injury to keep riding. The continuous drug testing, which is ‘the curse of the jockeys room’, means heavy pain killers are out. The catwalk looks and height of his (deceased) mother is seen simply as ‘a curse’ to be endured.
As the book progresses, the reader is torn between sympathy, anger and suspicion for Dominic’s motivations and actions. He seems to be a dangerous person to be around, especially if you are a competing jockey in his father’s stables, such as the unfortunate Kym Hughes. And then a promising apprentice jockey dies in Marchant’s stable and Dominic’s shadow lurks over the event like a dark cloud.
Hints of a troubled childhood emerge in Dominic’s thoughts as he tries to blot out ‘the illogical cruelties too hard to comprehend’. As if struggling with physical pain and a constant battle with his own body were not enough, Dominic must also do battle with his own sexuality. The reader is kept in suspense throughout the novel, wondering, who is at fault here? Is it the dour obsessive Dominic? His iron-willed trainer father? Or both? Does the problem stem from the death of his mother, seventeen years ago?
The end, when it comes, on the ‘hallowed Epsom turf’ is frightening and unexpected. The reader is brought across the finishing line by Oliver with the same ruthless efficiency as the jockeys bring their horses home.
January 4, 2018
Being unfamiliar with anything to do with the world of horses and racing, I wasn't sure what to expect. However, this novel pulls the reader in with a riveting thriller that also depicts a complex father/son relationship - the son's struggle with his chosen profession, and the obsessive restrictions he places on his body, proving to be quite an eye opener into the world of the professional jockey. The author knows her stuff!
February 5, 2018
A gripping narrative from the beginning. If you are a person not very familiar with the horse racing world but have a love of horses Lissa draws you into this world describing in vivid detail the aspects of horse racing and the drama that can unfold. That drama unfolds at a fast exciting pace throughout Lissa`s book. A definite five star book!
November 6, 2018
A racing thriller with plenty of twists. If you're looking for a racing thriller that takes you inside the stables. This is a must read for you
March 8, 2019
Shame about the order
I think that it would have been better if book 3 came before 2 rather than the other way round.All in all a good story.
I think that it would have been better if book 3 came before 2 rather than the other way round.All in all a good story.
November 19, 2020
I have read and enjoyed all 3 books but do feel that book 3 should have been book 2 .... there would have been better continuity.
I know very little about horseracing, the characters drew you in.
I know very little about horseracing, the characters drew you in.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews