This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Barbara Casey will award a $20 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.
On some level she was aware that an elderly woman had come out of the darkness and put her arms around her. Meredith heard her say that everything would be all right. But on another, more conscious level, the one where all of her senses saw, felt, processed and recorded what was happening, Meredith watched two black body bags being loaded into the back of an ambulance. Then she watched the ambulance turn around and drive off in the opposite direction. Her long, tumbling mass of blond curls hung loosely over her face, shielding it. For Beth, the reality of what had taken place would come later. But Meredith had seen what had happened and understood. That knowledge was now seeping through every pore of her body.
Seventeen-year-old Meredith and her four-year-old stepsister, Beth, face the numbing reality of suddenly losing their parents in a freak accident. With no other family, they are taken from their mobile home in Georgia to go live with a grandmother they have never met in a mansion in Palm Beach, Florida. Beth soon adjusts to her new environment; but Meredith withdraws from everyone and everything, unable to blot out the image of the horrible crash that killed her parents. It is only when she reaches out to a homeless woman that Meredith is finally able to find herself and face her demons. With the help of her grandmother’s long-employed staff, a family doctor, a museum curator, an attorney who is more than just her grandmother’s legal advisor, and, of course, her conniving grandmother who is dealing with her own guilt for having been estranged from her son and his wife (Meredith’s and Beth’s parents), Meredith is able to pull herself from the depths of despair into a life filled with faith, hope, and generosity.
Slightest in the House is a contemporary novel with strong, interesting characters from different walks of life, brought together because of life’s difficult and often unexpected circumstances, and bonded together by their faith and belief that everything works out as it should.
Read an Excerpt
After saying goodbye to Meredith, Ellen walked back toward the ocean hoping to find Matt on her bench. Much to her disappointment, no one was there and the wind was blowing so hard she couldn’t stay. With nowhere else to go, she walked back to the parking deck and the public restroom. By now it was raining hard again, and this time it didn’t let up.
The streets were practically disserted, and the parking deck was empty of all but a couple of cars. Ellen waited in the restroom until her watch said 4:45 p.m. Then, after refastening her straw hat and cinching the strap of her tapestry bag a little tighter, she fought her way down the street through the gale-force wind and driving rain toward Chapel Hall. “Surely Matt will be there,” she repeated over and over. But even as she said this, she knew something was seriously wrong.
There was no line of people waiting when Ellen finally got to Chapel Hall. In fact, there was no one around at all. She walked up the steps to the front door. Her dress was clinging to her legs, and her wet feet sloshed inside her open-toed shoes. She tried to open the door, but it was locked. Then she saw a note someone had tacked inside a glass frame on the side of the wall: No meals served until further notice due to hurricane.
Ellen was stunned. She had heard of hurricanes, of course, but she had never been in one before. If only she could find Matt. Matt would know what to do. She began to shiver. One thing was certain, she couldn’t just stand there. She had to find shelter.
She started walking back the way she had come—back toward the parking deck. This time the wind was to her face. Blowing sand pelted her bare skin, and the noise of the pounding waves of the ocean nearby was almost deafening. It was completely dark. Even the street lights were blackened by the amount of rain falling from the sky.
Slowly Ellen forced her way back to the parking deck. This time she climbed to the second level where she and Matt had slept the night before. Even holding onto the guard rail, it was a struggle, the pavement was so slick. Twice she fell, scraping her knees and bruising her arm. When she at last got to the second level, she was horrified. The concrete wall that had made a safe buffer for Matt’s bags the night before was now a natural rain gutter. As Ellen stood clutching her tapestry bag to her body, ankle-deep water gushed down the deck like a small river.
About the Author:
Barbara Casey is the author of over two dozen award-winning novels and book-length works of nonfiction for both adults and young adults, and numerous articles, poems, and short stories. Several of her books have been optioned for major films and television series.
In addition to her own writing, Barbara is an editorial consultant and president of the Barbara Casey Agency. Established in 1995, she represents authors throughout the United States, Great Britain, Canada, and Japan.
In 2018 Barbara received the prestigious Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award and Top Professional Award for her extensive experience and notable accomplishments in the field of publishing and other areas.
Barbara lives on a mountain in Georgia with three cats who adopted her: Homer, a Southern coon cat; Reese, a black cat; and Earl Gray, a gray cat and Reese’s best friend.
This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Barbara Casey will award a $20 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.
The small town of Wellington, Florida, has the distinction of playing host to some of the wealthiest people in the world as well as the most prestigious equestrian events. King Charles comes from England to watch polo on the fields where he once played as Prince. The United States Olympics Equestrian team trains and competes there with teams from other countries. In sharp contrast, just down the road, due west, are some of the largest sugarcane fields in the world. The people who work these fields are for the most part poor. They come from many cultures and backgrounds, but they primarily come from Haiti, Jamaica, and the United States. This combination of horse owner and cane worker is an unusual dichotomy, and it is a blend of these things that makes up the world in which my story’s main character, Tillie, the 11-year-old daughter of a sugarcane field foreman, lives.
In The Airs of Tillie, Tillie Turpning lives in an imaginary world that is filled with beautiful horses, polite people, and luxurious homes. Her real world, however, includes living in a cane foreman’s small tenant house with her over-worked mother, an autistic sister, and a rebellious older brother who is searching for answers within a radical Muslim group. When Tillie is unexpectedly forced to assist in the difficult birth of a new foal, she proves that her determination and belief in herself will allow her to accomplish anything she sets out to do.
Read an Excerpt
Matt struck hard at the cane stalk and continued moving down the row at a faster pace than normal. Meeting Abdullah had stirred up more questions. The fundamentals of the Muslim faith were good as far as he could tell. There was sahah, or daily prayer, ibadah, which was submission to Allah or God. Zalsah was paying 2.5 percent of his salary to a deserving fellow being—his parents called it tithing. There was fasting during the month of Ramadin or ninth month. And there was hajj, or pilgrimage, to Mecca. This was considered the biggest of all acts of worship. It was where Muslims from around the world were united into one international brotherhood. Mustafa talked a lot about the hajj. It was his hope to go some time in the next year. He had even suggested that Matt go with him—that is, if he decided to convert to Islam.
The prayer and worship and giving to others were all good things as far as Matt was concerned. He didn’t have much to give, but he wouldn’t mind sharing it. Abdullah had made a special point to single him out after the meeting, telling him that he had heard good things about him. That the “Brotherhood” needed good men like him. That was when Abdullah invited him to a special meeting they were having later in the week. Abdullah had actually called him a man. He had also told him that if he needed anything to let him know. “It is an honor,” Mustafa had told him later, “for Abdullah to take special notice.”
Matt felt good. He liked his new friends and he liked what he was learning about Islam. Abdullah was a leader. Matt noticed how much everyone looked up to him—respected him. That was what he wanted, too. Respect. But being the son of a cut foreman who worked in a cane field brought on more jokes than respect from the other workers.
Matt straightened up from his stooped position and wiped the sweat from his face. Behind him lay hundreds of long cane stalks neatly cut and piled in a row. The Brotherhood needs good men like you. He would attend the special meeting even if it did mean sneaking out of the house.
About the Author:
Barbara Casey is the author of over two dozen award-winning novels and book-length works of nonfiction for both adults and young adults, and numerous articles, poems, and short stories. Several of her books have been optioned for major films and television series.
In addition to her own writing, Barbara is an editorial consultant and president of the Barbara Casey Agency. Established in 1995, she represents authors throughout the United States, Great Britain, Canada, and Japan.
In 2018 Barbara received the prestigious Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award and Top Professional Award for her extensive experience and notable accomplishments in the field of publishing and other areas.
Barbara lives on a mountain in Georgia with three cats who adopted her: Homer, a Southern coon cat; Reese, a black cat; and Earl Gray, a gray cat and Reese’s best friend.
Join us for this tour from July 5to July 25, 2022!
Series Details:
Book Title: THE SERAPHIM'S SONG - Book 5, The F.I.G. Mysteriesby Barbara Casey Category: YA Fiction (Ages 13-17), 213 pages Genre: Mystery, Fantasy Publisher: Gauthier Publications (Hungry Goat Press) Release date:April 2022 Content Rating: G. THE SERAPHIM'S SONG is suitable for all readers - adult and young adult.
Book Description:
Many changes have taken place at Wood Rose Orphanage and Academy for Young Women while Carolina and Larry were on their honeymoon in Frascati, Italy, on the Granchelli farm. The newlyweds have been given a larger bungalow; Ms. Alcott, niece of the founder of Wood Rose, and Mrs. Ball, assistant to the headmaster, have moved into a bungalow together; and Jimmy Bob, caretaker and night watchman at Wood Rose has moved from his family home down the road a bit into a small bungalow on the orphanage property with his hound dog Tick, as well as his new cat and her litter of kittens.
Summer is coming to an end and the F.I.G.s will soon return to the universities to complete their special projects. They are starting to feel anxious, and the coping mechanisms they have used their entire lives are starting to work overtime. Dara’s thoughts turn to an unknown language, possibly from another world; Mackenzie focuses on the relationship of math to music; and Jennifer keeps hearing the note of B flat minor and is drawing dark swirls on her canvas board.
Barbara Casey is the author of several award-winning novels and book-length works of nonfiction for both adults and young adults, and numerous articles, poems, and short stories. Several of her books have been optioned for major films and television series.
In addition to her own writing, Barbara is an editorial consultant and president of the Barbara Casey Agency. Established in 1995, she
represents authors throughout the United States, Great Britain, Canada, and Japan.
In 2018 Barbara received the prestigious Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award and Top Professional Award for her extensive
experience and notable accomplishments in the field of publishing and other areas.
Barbara lives on a mountain in Georgia with three cats who adopted her: Homer, a Southern coon cat; Reese, a black cat; and Earl Gray, a gray cat and Reese’s best friend.
Seraphim's Song was another pretty good read for young readers by Barbara Casey. It is, also, the fifth book from her The F I G Mysteries series, I have only read one other book from the series and I believe each book can be read as a stand alone. It seems like enough information is given to keep readers up to date and feel as though they are not lost or missing anything from the previous books. It was fun for me to catch up with the F I Gs (Females of Intellectual Genius) to see what they are up to in this new adventure. I actually felt as if I was part of the F I G myself. I wanted to keep reading to see how the mystery is solved. There were a few scenes that were a little slow but it quickly picked back up and kept me intrigued to see what was going to happen next. This little journey was fun, entertaining and engaging.
I am giving Seraphim's Song four and a half stars. I still would love to read the first three books in the F I G Mysteries series to find out what happened previously, as well as, hope there will be a sixth addition to it. I believe teen readers who enjoy mystery and suspense will want to pick this one up.
I received a paperback copy of Seraphim's Song from the publisher, but was not required to write a positive review. This review is one hundred percent my own honest opinion.
This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Barbara Casey will be awarding a $25 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn commenter. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.
The Cinderella Coyotes of State University are in the Final Four, poised to win the NCAA National Championship in basketball—the culmination of March Madness. For Marla Conners, she's proud of her husband Neal, and his achievement of coaching a collegiate team to the pinnacle of his career and the ultimate victory for his team. Yet, Marla's idyllic life is about to be viciously attacked and torn apart by a different madness—her husband's reputation ruined, a university disgraced, and she finds herself on trial accused of first-degree murder.
The Coach’s Wife is rife with spine-tingling suspense, conspiracy, deceit, and murder, sizzling and seductive passion, right down to the last second buzzer-beating heroics. This is also a candid and vivid behind-the-scenes portrait of Division One college basketball, university politics, money and corruption, and all the lives that are blessed and ruined by it all.
Read an Excerpt
Another deafening roar exploded from the coliseum, and when it did Marla threw down her partially smoked cigarette and ground it into the polished tile floor with the toe of her shoe. Quickly she reached for another cigarette from the opened pack in her small red handbag. She lit it, sucked the smoke into her mouth, held her breath, coughed, and then slowly released it. Marla didn’t smoke, but when she paced up and down the hallways of basketball coliseums, puffing on cigarettes seemed appropriate. It gave her something to do with her hands, and it helped keep her sane.
“God, how I hate this.” Gale Simmons, the gray-haired woman pacing in the same direction as Marla, was married to one of the assistant coaches at Piedmont State. She, along with several other women—also wives of coaches, some of them wives of players—were known as the hall walkers. They were the women who met on a regular but unscheduled basis the last two minutes of every game, pacing the halls, smoking, or pretending to in Marla’s case, and trying to give each other encouragement. Unable to watch the most crucial time of the game—that last two minutes—they paced in heart-pounding agony, listening to the fans erupt in cheers or boos, and to the announcer scream out the play-by-play over the public address system.
It didn’t matter which team they supported. The bond they shared went beyond the game and winning or losing. It was after the game that most mattered. If their team won, it meant going through the torture one more time, but at least their husbands would be happy. If their team lost, it meant their husbands would go through weeks of depression and as their wives they would have to put up with an impenetrable wall of silence broken only by an occasional negative outburst—usually directed toward them. Each of the hall walkers had experienced it. And it was that experience more than any other that cemented the friendship between them.
With thirty seconds to go, the score is 76 all. This is a hot one, folks. Let’s see what the Seawolf pack is going to do. Sydney Rob makes an inbound pass into the back court to Jerry March—the clock is moving, folks. Jerry lobs the ball back over to Rob. Rob passes it over to Miller in the right court.
Interception by Darrell Washington! Holy cow, sports fans! The Seawolf’s Sydney Rob loses the ball to the Demon Deacons. Wake Forest has the ball. Washington bringing it down court. Fifteen seconds on the clock.
About the Author:
Barbara Casey is the author of several award-winning novels for both adults and young adults, as well as book-length works of nonfiction true crime, and numerous articles, poems, and short stories. Her nonfiction true crime book, Kathryn Kelly: The Moll behind Machine Gun Kelly, has been optioned for a major film and television series. Her nonfiction book, Assata Shakur: A 20th Century Escaped Slave, is under contract for a major film. In addition to her own writing, she is an editorial consultant and president of the Barbara Casey Agency. Established in 1995, she represents authors throughout the United States, Great Britain, Canada, and Japan. Barbara is also a partner in Strategic Media Books Publishing, an independent publishing house that specializes in cutting-edge adult nonfiction. Barbara lives on a mountain in Georgia with her three cats who adopted her: Homer, a southern bobtail; Reese, a black cat; and Earl Gray, a gray cat and Reese’s best friend.
Book Title: The F.I.G. Mysteries by Barbara Casey Category: YA Fiction (Ages 13-17) Genre: Mystery, Fantasy Publisher: Gauthier Publications (Hungry Goat Press) Release dates: The Cadence of Gypsies (2011); The Wish Rider (2016); The Clock Flower (2018); The Nightjar's Promise (2020) Tour dates: May 25 to June 5, 2020 Content Rating: PG. There are some themes that deal with the
Jewish Holocaust and some frightening scenes appropriate for young adult
and adult readers.
Buy the Series: Amazon
B&N, Books-A-Million, and local bookstores everywhere
Add to Goodreads
Book Details:
Book Title: The Cadence of Gypsies (The F.I.G. Mysteries) by Barbara Casey Category: YA Fiction (Ages 13-17), 200 pages Genre: Mystery, Fantasy Publisher: Gauthier Publications (Hungry Goat Press) Release date: The Cadence of Gypsies (2011) Tour dates: May 25 to June 5, 2020 Content Rating: PG. There are some themes that deal with the
Jewish Holocaust and some frightening scenes appropriate for young adult
and adult readers.
Book Description: Three high-spirited 17
year olds, with intelligent quotients in the genius range, accompany
their teacher and mentor, Carolina Lovel, to Frascati, Italy, a few
weeks before they are to graduate from Wood Rose Orphanage and Academy
for Young Women. Carolina's purpose in planning the trip is to remove
her gifted, creative students from the Wood Rose campus located in
Raleigh, North Carolina, so they can't cause any more problems
("expressions of creativity") for the headmaster, faculty, and other
students – which they do with regularity. Carolina also wants to visit
the Villa Mondragone where the Voynich Manuscript, the most mysterious
document in the world, was first discovered and search how it is related
to a paper written in the same script she received on her 18th birthday
when she was told that she was adopted – a search that will fill in all
of the missing pieces of her past and help each of her students to
discover something meaningful within themselves.
Buy the Book: Amazon
B&N, Books-A-Million, and local bookstores everywhere
Add to Goodreads
Book Details:
Book Title: The Wish Rider (The F.I.G. Mysteries) by Barbara Casey Category: YA Fiction (Ages 13-17), 220 pages Genre: Mystery, Fantasy Publisher: Gauthier Publications (Hungry Goat Press) Release date: The Wish Rider (2016) Tour dates: May 25 to June 5, 2020 Content Rating: PG. There are some themes that deal with the
Jewish Holocaust and some frightening scenes appropriate for young adult
and adult readers.
Book Description:
Seventeen-year-old Dara Roux and her two best friends, Mackenzie
Yarborough and Jennifer Torres, the three collectively referred to as
the FIGs (Females of Intellectual Genius) because each has an
intelligence quotient in the genius range, have just returned from
Frascati, Italy. It was there that their much loved teacher and mentor,
Carolina Lovel, discovered that her birth parents were gypsies, and that
she had a connection to the Voynich Manuscript, the most mysterious
document in the world. Now, with graduation from Wood Rose Orphanage and
Academy for Young Women behind them, Dara asks Mackenzie, Jennifer, and
Carolina to help her locate her birth mother when she learns that she
might be living in New York City. All the young women have to work with
are five addresses, and when Mackenzie prepares a grid showing the
location of all five addresses, four of the locations form a square with
the fifth in the middle—which is also Grand Central Terminal. Relying
on Dara’s gift for speaking and understanding foreign languages, the
black and white images that stir musical cadences in Jennifer’s mind,
and Mackenzie’s mathematical calculations that normally provide
numerical solutions and answers to life’s most difficult questions but
now keep showing the number “61”, the determined young women tirelessly
go from one address to another in search of Dara’s mother. Their
determination turns to desperation, however, and they ignore caution and
the dissonant chords Jennifer frantically scribbles on her eight-stave
musical paper as they pursue one final address—the one located in the
middle of Mackenzie’s grid. Encountering a dark hidden society and sub
culture more dangerous and terrifying than they could have imagined, it
is there that Dara learns why she was abandoned as a seven year old in a
candy store all those years ago.
Buy the Book: Amazon
B&N, Books-A-Million, and local bookstores everywhere
Add to Goodreads
Book Details:
Book Title: The Clock Flower (The F.I.G. Mysteries) by Barbara Casey Category: YA Fiction (Ages 13-17), 180 pages Genre: Mystery, Fantasy Publisher: Gauthier Publications (Hungry Goat Press) Release date: The Clock Flower (2018) Tour dates: May 25 to June 5, 2020 Content Rating: PG. There are some themes that deal with the
Jewish Holocaust and some frightening scenes appropriate for young adult
and adult readers.
Book Description:
The three FIGs—Females of Intellectual Genius—as they are called,
have graduated from Wood Rose Orphanage and Academy for Young Women
after returning from New York City where Dara learned why her mother
abandoned her all those years ago, and they are now attending
universities where they can further their special talents. This means
they will be separated from each other and from Carolina, their
much-loved mentor and teacher who is “one of them,” for the first time
in their young lives. They vow to try living apart for one semester, in
the so-called real world that doesn’t include the orphanage; but if
things don’t work out, they will come up with another plan—a plan where
they can be together once again. Dara is invited through Yale University
to take part in an exciting archeological project in China. Jennifer,
once again visualizing black and white images and the unusual sounds of
another cadence that seem to be connected to Mackenzie, is engrossed in
creating her next symphony at Juilliard. Mackenzie, because of her
genius at problem-solving, is personally chosen by a US Senator to get
involved in a mysterious, secret research project involving immortality
that is being conducted in a small village in China—not too far from
where Dara is involved with the archeological site. Once there, however,
she finds herself facing a terrifying death from the blood-dripping
teeth of an ancient evil dragon. Her best friends, the FIGs and
Carolina, rely on their own unique genius and special talents to save
her as she discovers the truth of her birth parents.
Buy the Book: Amazon
B&N, Books-A-Million, and local bookstores everywhere
Add to Goodreads
Book Details:
Book Title: The Nightjar's Promise (Book 4 of The F.I.G. Mysteries) by Barbara Casey Category: YA Fiction (Ages 13-17), 130 pages Genre: Mystery, Fantasy Publisher: Gauthier Publications (Hungry Goat Press) Release date: April, 2020 Format available for review: print, gifted Kindle, PDF
Will send Print Books to: USA and Canada Tour dates: May 4 to May 22, 2020 Content Rating: PG. There are some themes that deal with the
Jewish Holocaust and some frightening scenes appropriate for young adult
and adult readers.
Book Description:
Jennifer Torres, one of the three FIGs (Females of Intellectual Genius)
who is a genius in both music and art, is the last to leave the closed
rehearsal for her upcoming performance over Thanksgiving break at
Carnegie Hall when she hears something in the darkened Hall. Recognizing
the tilt of the woman’s head and the slight limp of the man as they
hurry out an exit door, she realizes it is her parents who were
supposedly killed in a terrible car accident when she was 15 years old.
Devastated and feeling betrayed, she sends a text to Carolina and the
other two FIGs—THURGOOD. It is the code word they all agreed to use if
ever one of them got into trouble or something happened that was too
difficult to handle. They would all meet back at Carolina’s bungalow at
Wood Rose Orphanage and Academy for Young Women to figure it out.
As soon as they receive the text, because of their genius, Dara starts
thinking of words in ancient Hebrew, German, and Yiddish, while
Mackenzie’s visions of unique math formulae keep bringing up the date
October 11, 1943. That is the date during World War II when the
Nazis—the Kunstschutz—looted the paintings of targeted wealthy Jewish
families and hid them away under Hitler’s orders. And as Carolina waits
for the FIGs to return to Wood Rose, she hears warnings from Lyuba, her
gypsy mother, to watch for the nightjar, the ancient name for the
whip-poor-will.
As they search for “The Nightjar’s Promise” and the truth surrounding
it, Carolina and the FIGs come face to face with evil that threatens to
destroy not only their genius, but their very lives.
Buy the Book: Amazon.com
Add to Goodreads Coming Soon to Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, and Bookstores Everywhere!
Meet the Author:
Originally from Carrollton, Illinois, author/agent/publisher Barbara
Casey attended the University of North Carolina, N.C. State University,
and N.C. Wesleyan College where she received a BA degree, summa cum
laude, with a double major in English and history. In 1978 she left her
position as Director of Public Relations and Vice President of
Development at North Carolina Wesleyan College to write full time and
develop her own manuscript evaluation and editorial service. In 1995 she
established the Barbara Casey Agency and since that time has
represented authors from the United States, Great Britain, Canada, and
Japan. In 2014, she became a partner with Strategic Media Books, an
independent nonfiction publisher of true crime, where she oversees
acquisitions, day-to-day operations, and book production.
Ms. Casey has written over a dozen award-winning books of fiction and
nonfiction for both young adults and adults. The awards include the
National Association of University Women Literary Award, the Sir Walter
Raleigh Literary Award, the Independent Publisher Book Award, the Dana
Award for Outstanding Novel, the IP Best Book for Regional Fiction,
among others. Two of her nonfiction books have been optioned for major
films, one of which is under contract.
Her award-winning articles, short stories, and poetry for adults have
appeared in both national and international publications including the
North Carolina Christian Advocate Magazine, The New East Magazine, the
Raleigh (N.C.) News and Observer, the Rocky Mount (N.C.) Sunday
Telegram, Dog Fancy, ByLine, The Christian Record, Skirt! Magazine, and
True Story. A thirty-minute television special which Ms. Casey wrote and
coordinated was broadcast on WRAL, Channel 5, in Raleigh, North
Carolina. She also received special recognition for her editorial work
on the English translations of Albanian children’s stories. Her
award-winning science fiction short stories for adults are featured in
The Cosmic Unicorn and CrossTime science fiction anthologies. Ms.
Casey's essays and other works appear in The Chrysalis Reader, the
international literary journal of the Swedenborg Foundation, 221
One-Minute Monologues from Literature (Smith and Kraus Publishers), and A
Cup of Comfort (Adams Media Corporation).
Ms. Casey is a former director of BookFest of the Palm Beaches, Florida,
where she served as guest author and panelist. She has served as judge
for the Pathfinder Literary Awards in Palm Beach and Martin Counties,
Florida, and was the Florida Regional Advisor for the Society of
Children's Book Writers and Illustrators from 1991 through 2003. In 2018
Ms. Casey received the prestigious Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime
Achievement Award and Top Professional Award for her extensive
experience and notable accomplishments in the field of publishing and
other areas. She makes her home on the top of a mountain in northwest
Georgia with her husband and three cats who adopted her, Homer, Reese,
and Earl Gray - Reese’s best friend.
One of the things I enjoy most as a writer of both fiction and nonfiction is the research involved and learning about things I know nothing about. This was especially true when I wrote The F.I.G. MYSTERIES. In each of the four books there is a theme of discovery: each of the females of intellectual genius (F.I.G.s) has reached that age and point in time where they need to find out why she had been placed in an orphanage. Their determination takes them to places of unspeakable danger that actually exist.
In The Cadence of Gypsies, Carolina Lovel, the mentor to Dara, Mackenzie, and Jennifer – the three F.I.G.s, becomes deathly ill when a young gypsy boy places a curse on her. This was based on information I found in an old, out-of-print book about gypsy cultures and medicinal practices.
Dara’s search for answers in The Wish Rider takes them to a little-known area beneath the train tracks at Grand Central Terminal in New York. Dark, damp, and dangerous, this is an area that exists today and is inhabited by a sort of sub-culture of the homeless.
Mackenzie’s search in The Clock Flower takes them to a small province in China where I expose an ancient Chinese belief in the pig dragon. This belief continues today, especially with the older generations.
And in Jennifer’s search for answers in The Nightjar’s Promise, I write about the horrors of the Nazi cruelty during World War II and the looting of precious Jewish art works. The search for these stolen works of art is still conducted today.
It is by combining actual facts with fiction that makes a book more interesting and the story more credible. And it makes it even more enjoyable to write.
The Nightjar’s Promise Jennifer Torres, one of the three FIGs (Females of Intellectual Genius) who is a genius in both music and art, is the last to leave the closed rehearsal for her upcoming performance over Thanksgiving break at Carnegie Hall when she hears something in the darkened Hall. Recognizing the tilt of the woman’s head and the slight limp of the man as they hurry out an exit door, she realizes it is her parents who were supposedly killed in a terrible car accident when she was 15 years old.
Devastated and feeling betrayed, she sends a text to Carolina and the other two FIGs—THURGOOD. It is the code word they all agreed to use if ever one of them got into trouble or something happened that was too difficult to handle. They would all meet back at Carolina’s bungalow at Wood Rose Orphanage and Academy for Young Women to figure it out. As soon as they receive the text, because of their genius, Dara starts thinking of words in ancient Hebrew, German, and Yiddish, while Mackenzie’s visions of unique math formulae keep bringing up the date October 11, 1943. That is the date during World War II when the Nazis—the Kunstschutz—looted the paintings of targeted wealthy Jewish families and hid them away under Hitler’s orders. And as Carolina waits for the FIGs to return to Wood Rose, she hears warnings from Lyuba, her gypsy mother, to watch for the nightjar, the ancient name for the whip-poor-will. As they search for “The Nightjar’s Promise” and the truth surrounding it, Carolina and the FIGs come face to face with evil that threatens to destroy not only their genius, but their very lives.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
EXCERPT:
Right on time, the guard arrived at the front gate and unlocked it. Once he drove away, Jas slipped unnoticed through the entrance into the cemetery. When he had first been given the assignment, the cemetery bothered him, especially the mausoleum. Unfamiliar sounds and smells, being surrounded by cold stones and even colder death, made his imagination work overtime so that by the end of each day when he left—just before the guard locked the gate—he would be nervous and irritable; at night, unable to sleep. Now, after all this time doing the same thing day in and day out, he was used to it. In fact, he sort of enjoyed it—thinking about the dead and all the different ways their lives might have come to an end. Lately, his imagination had taken a more brutal turn. More violent and macabre.
Ignoring the hundreds of grave sites that stretched in every direction, he quickly made his way toward the mausoleum. Having already been there many times before, he knew exactly where he wanted to go and what he needed to do.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AUTHOR Bio and Links:
Originally from Carrollton, Illinois, author/agent/publisher Barbara Casey attended the University of North Carolina, N.C. State University, and N.C. Wesleyan College where she received a BA degree, summa cum laude, with a double major in English and history. In 1978 she left her position as Director of Public Relations and Vice President of Development at North Carolina Wesleyan College to write full time and develop her own manuscript evaluation and editorial service. In 1995 she established the Barbara Casey Agency and since that time has represented authors from the United States, Great Britain, Canada, and Japan. In 2014, she became a partner with Strategic Media Books, an independent nonfiction publisher of true crime, where she oversees acquisitions, day-to-day operations, and book production.
Ms. Casey has written over a dozen award-winning books of fiction and nonfiction for both young adults and adults. The awards include the National Association of University Women Literary Award, the Sir Walter Raleigh Literary Award, the Independent Publisher Book Award, the Dana Award for Outstanding Novel, the IP Best Book for Regional Fiction, among others. Two of her nonfiction books have been optioned for major films, one of which is under contract.
Her award-winning articles, short stories, and poetry for adults have appeared in both national and international publications including the North Carolina Christian Advocate Magazine, The New East Magazine, the Raleigh (N.C.) News and Observer, the Rocky Mount (N.C.) Sunday Telegram, Dog Fancy, ByLine, The Christian Record, Skirt! Magazine, and True Story. A thirty-minute television special which Ms. Casey wrote and coordinated was broadcast on WRAL, Channel 5, in Raleigh, North Carolina. She also received special recognition for her editorial work on the English translations of Albanian children’s stories. Her award-winning science fiction short stories for adults are featured in The Cosmic Unicorn and CrossTime science fiction anthologies. Ms. Casey's essays and other works appear in The Chrysalis Reader, the international literary journal of the Swedenborg Foundation, 221 One-Minute Monologues from Literature (Smith and Kraus Publishers), and A Cup of Comfort (Adams Media Corporation).
Ms. Casey is a former director of BookFest of the Palm Beaches, Florida, where she served as guest author and panelist. She has served as judge for the Pathfinder Literary Awards in Palm Beach and Martin Counties, Florida, and was the Florida Regional Advisor for the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators from 1991 through 2003. In 2018 Ms. Casey received the prestigious Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award and Top Professional Award for her extensive experience and notable accomplishments in the field of publishing and other areas. She makes her home on the top of a mountain in northwest Georgia with her husband and three cats who adopted her, Homer, Reese and Earl Gray, Reese’s best friend.
The Nightjar's Promise was a pretty good read for young readers by Barbara Casey. Even though it is the fourth book from her The F I G Mysteries series, I feel as though as it can be read as a stand alone. I have not read the first three books and did not feel like I was missing any information by starting with this one. It did give a little bit of information that readers may need to know to continue with this one.
I found The Nightjar’s Promise to be a fun, entertaining and engaging read. It was a little slow at first but about halfway through the adventure and pace really picks up. I love what F I G stood for - Females of Intellectual Genius. How inspiring is that? I loved getting to know Jennifer and learning about the mystery along with her. It was easy to read and I was able to have the whole book read in one sitting. I just had to know what was going to happen next in the following scenes. The suspense was one that made me want to keep reading and not to put it down. I could not solve the mystery on my own. I was left hanging up until the end.
I am giving The Nightjar’s Promise four and a half stars. I would love to read the first three books in the series to find out what happened previously. I recommend it for teen readers who enjoy mystery and suspense.
I received this book from the publisher. This review is 100% my own honest opinion.
