Heliacal Star by Victor Bahna

Victor Bahna

Heliacal Star

Adult; Mystery/Thriller; (Market)

Thoroughbred racing is one of the oldest, richest, and most traditional sports. In ancient Greece, horse-drawn chariots sped around rudimentary hippodromes. In North America, racing dates to the mid-1600s on Long Island, only a few miles east of present-day Belmont Park. Today, crowds cheer and scream from the stands as intelligent, athletic equines thunder toward the finish line, but few consider the welfare of the horses once the track lights go dark. It’s at Belmont Park where former bookie Matt Galiano encounters the be-witching Heliacal Star, a horse on the cusp of greatness–if only he weren’t at the center of a race-fixing scheme. It’s also where Matt meets fledgling trainer Kristine Connelly, whose trust and savvy he needs if he has any chance of escaping the gangsters who seem to have their hands in everything at the track–and who are none too pleased to encounter Matt there, years after he’s caught skimming from their coffers. As they bond over their love of horses and racing, Matt and Kristine must learn to lean on each other, or they’ll lose more than just a wager.

Plot/Idea: 8 out of 10

Originality: 9 out of 10

Prose: 8 out of 10

Character/Execution: 8 out of 10

Overall: 8.25 out of 10

Assessment:

Plot/Idea: Bahna sets this captivating mystery against the backdrop of the cut-throat business of thoroughbred horse racing. The author succeeds in intriguing even readers with little previous interest in racing with rich detail and vivid scene-building.

Prose: Bahna offers abundant description without sacrificing tension. The romantic elements provide an additional layer of interest to the storytelling.

Originality: The author's enthusiasm for thoroughbred racing is apparent throughout. Bahna offers a wealth of detail about the sport–including its dark side–while maintaining narrative momentum.

Character/Execution: Matt and Kristine are both intriguing, imperfect, and layered characters whose love for horses sings through the pages.

Date Submitted: August 27, 2024

Reviews

Bahna’s debut follows horse racing enthusiast and former bookie Matt Galiano, whose interest in a thoroughbred racehorse entangles him in the seedy underbelly of sports betting. Matt, whose special connection with racehorse Heliacal Star started years ago, is now caught up in the world of fixed races, privy to insider information that hints someone’s breaking the rules, but he’s reluctant to report it to the racing commission given his own tumultuous past in organized crime. When Matt meets promising young horse trainer Kristine Connelly, he is immediately intrigued by her no-nonsense attitude—and the two quickly find themselves wrapped up in a perilous journey together, set against the backdrop of thoroughbred racing.

This thrilling tale, embedded in the rich legacy of thoroughbred racing and its surrounding ecosystem, delivers vivid descriptions of the sport and the betting that goes along with it—all capably drawn from Bahna’s two-decades-long experience in breeding and retiring racehorses. Characters are cinematic in their delivery, particularly Bahna’s gangster, Tony Kaufman, and his band of ne’er do wells—who luxuriate in Hennessy XO and Verdi’s Il Trovatore while commanding lackeys to follow orders… or else. Bahna skillfully manages a sense of perpetual immediacy, with danger lurking just around the corner, keeping readers on their toes with brutal fights, double-crossing, and high-octane chases.

Matt’s criminal past eventually returns with a vengeance, threatening not just him but Kristine as well, as the pair is forced to grasp at every straw in order to stay a step ahead of the dangers chasing them. But beyond the white-knuckle action, Bahna adds a humanistic perspective about the horses themselves, highlighting the exploitative practices and animal cruelty that can pursue the industry, all without sermonizing, instead transforming this story into an intense crime thriller that will resonate with those who favor chilling page-turners.

Takeaway: Chilling story of illegal horse race betting, with incredibly high stakes.

Comparable Titles: Dick Francis’s Dead Cert, Jason Beem’s Southbound.

Production grades
Cover: B+
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: NA
Editing: A-
Marketing copy: A-

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