Casey Barrett Books In Order

Publication Order of Duck Darley Books

Casey Barrett is a Canadian Crime Fiction author that is best known for the Duck Darley series. Before Casey became a writer, he was a celebrated competitive swimmer.

+Biography
Casey Barrett was born in 1975 in Montreal, Quebec. Most authors have a tendency to boast about the way the reading and writing bug bit them when they were really young.

As a child, Casey’s life revolved around swimming. The author took up the activity when he was just four. His first true taste of competitive swimming came when he joined the North Baltimore Aquatic Club.
The experience prepared him for the rigors that came with swimming competitively at the Bolles School in Jacksonville, not to mention his aquatic activities at the University of Southern California.

Along with his stint at Southern Methodist University, swimming was a part of Casey Barrett’s life for a very long time. The author believes he excelled in the field because he was such an ambitious child.

Once he got into swimming, Casey remembers being driven by an unquenchable desire to improve and succeed. It helped that his parents were just as determined to see him make it as a competitive swimmer.

For all that he accomplished, Casey eventually migrated to New York primarily because he wanted to abandon swimming and the sort of life it entailed. The change began when the author got to University and begun to pursue print journalism.

Even though he never stopped swimming, at least not during his days at University, Casey knew that he wanted to go into publishing. The author had a burning desire to become a writer of crime fiction.

But he did not know how to go about changing career paths, especially after the attention he attracted when he represented his country in the 1996 Olympics. Casey admits that swimming will probably be a part of him for the rest of his life.

Even after he abandoned the competitive field, the author saw fit to open a school in New York designed to teach young kids how to swim. But once the writing bug bit him in 2006 and once his love for crime fiction was awakened, nothing could sway Casey Barrett’s determination to become a published author.

Once he finally sat down to seriously pursue his dreams, it took Casey several years to hone his craft and then write and publish ‘Under Water’, his debut novel. The book follows the exploits of a former competitive swimmer who squandered his money and talent and was eventually forced to make a living as an unlicensed private detective.

Casey read copious amounts of crime fiction to prepare for his own debut in the genre. The author has imputed some of his publishing success to his history as a competitive swimmer.

In fact, Casey believes that the two fields are not nearly as different from one another as people think. It took dedication for Casey to make it as an Olympic athlete. His training regimen was exhausting and time-consuming.

Casey Barrett was always up before the sun, and the training he did during those early morning hours was merely a warm-up that prepared him for further training later on in the afternoon.

And Casey adhered strictly to this program because of his strength of will and a disciplined determination to succeed. Casey brings that same focus to writing. The author has a strict writing schedule that he endeavors to follow regardless of the obstacles that his day brings.

Casey admits that it took more effort that he could have imagined to write his first book. The numerous crime fiction novels he read helped him understand the process of crafting a story set in the crime fiction genre. But a point came when Casey realized that he did not know how to stop reading and researching.

For every educational crime fiction novel he read, the author always felt that there was more to be read and more to be understood. It took a bit of coaxing for Casey to finally garner the confidence necessary to put his research aside and finally sit down to write his first novel.

+Under Water
Duck Darley lost everything he ever cared about but he couldn’t really blame anyone other than himself. Once upon a time, Duck had a future as a competitive swimmer. In fact, everyone was certain that he would eventually secure a gold medal in the Olympics.

But Duck could not get out of his own way. He started drinking early on. Then he allowed his father’s genes to drag him into a life of crime. And it wasn’t long before Duck ended up in prison.

Things are a little better for Duck Darley now. He gets by as an unlicensed private detective, but just barely. His cases are hardly glamorous. Duck spends his days chasing down cheating spouses.

The job wouldn’t be so bad if Duck didn’t have to work for people he once called his peers, people who keep reminding him of all the great opportunities he had and the foolishness that drove him to lose everything.

It is little wonder that Duck keeps trying to lose himself in a bottle. Most people in his position might have frowned at the idea of investigating Madeline McKay. But Duck isn’t in a place to say no to work.

So when a former teammate who became an Olympic champion asks him to find his missing teenage sister, Duck accepts. McKay, like her brother, was on the path to success as an athlete.

So it occurs to Duck that, like him, McKay could be another spoiled runaway pursuing a self-destructive habit. That narrative becomes difficult to support when the girl’s ex is murdered in a most savage manner.

To make things worse, the media seems determined to paint McKay as the murderer. To exonerate her, Duck is forced to dip his toe back into the world of Olympic swimming. Beneath the arena’s glorious façade is a seedy underbelly chocked with crime and violence.

It will take all the courage Duck can muster to face his past and overcome his demons. This is as he attempts to find a missing girl before the worst comes to pass.