The Nightjar’s Promise features Jennifer, one of the F.I.G.s. As she is leaving her practice, she swears she sees her mother and father, but that can’t be! They were killed in a car crash 15 years ago! She messages the other F.I.G.s their codeword, THURGOOD, to be used only when they are in trouble or have something terrible to discuss.

The F.I.G.s genius powers start working immediately and they each envision something that will give them clues. They are warned to beware the nightjar, setting off a chain of events that lead them to one danger after another.

The Nightjar’s Promise is a young adult mystery that I felt could be read as a stand-alone story. There is enough information about who each of the F.I.G.s are that a new reader to the series doesn’t feel lost. The story fairly fast-paced and it was a quick read for me. I had a few sections where I felt the speed could have been picked up just a bit, but overall, it was a fun, exciting story!

The group of F.I.G.s (Females of Intellectual Genius) were a wonderful group of characters! I loved that they each had their own special ability, and when they work together, the ladies have a strong mixture of knowledge to solve mysteries! I enjoyed the character, Jennifer, in this story. I’m hoping that other books in this series feature the other F.I.G.s as I would like to get to know each of them in their own story!

To Read or Not To Read:

I would recommend The Nightjar’s Promise for readers that enjoy YA stories with some fantasy mixed into the premise. While this is book 4 in the series, it can be read as a stand-alone.

Where to Find This Book:

The Nightjar’s Promise by Barbara Casey is available at these sites.

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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.

Just the Facts:

The Nightjar’s Promise by Barbara Casey
Series: The F.I.G. Mysteries, Book 4
Genre: Mystery
Page Count: 130 pages
Publisher: Hungry Goat Press 
Pub Date: April 22, 2020

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.

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I was provided an advanced reader’s copy of this book for free. I am leaving my review voluntarily.

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