The Secret of Crescent Grey

About the Book

Crescent Grey loved adventure, and found it in the pages of books, but in the real world life wasn’t always so great. Orphaned before her first birthday she grew up in the most miserable place imaginable and stranger still, it also just happened to bear her name. But Crescent Grey Orphanage was no ordinary orphanage. An ancient, dark place with a long history of being haunted and other kinds of weird happenings — a gruesome graveyard, old scary paintings, hidden passageways and odd teachers suspiciously traipsing about at all hours of the night. Everyone seems to have a secret here — including Crescent herself.

Not knowing who she really was, what her real name is or who her parents were had a profound effect on her and gave Crescent a penchant for solving mysteries and an irresistible curiosity that always seemed to land her in the worst kinds of trouble. Then, a few months before her eleventh birthday she finds a chance to escape her dreary surroundings and forget her mysterious past. Adopted by a caring couple, she finally thinks she is going to lead a normal life. Only something is about to happen to her that will turn her world upside down, make her question everything she knows and change that life forever. Sent back to the place she grew up and forced into a rigorous routine she hates, full of frets about her grades, dodging dreadful teachers, evading awful bullies and putting up with embarrassing situations.

But in the midst of it all she finds things she never truly expected, even from herself: friendship, loyalty, and bravery. And all the while the greatest mystery of all is taking shape around her — an old evil is brewing, and unbeknown to staff and students alike a series of events is about to unfold that will renew a deadly danger and bring full circle a dark connection from the past which lies at the very heart of the orphanage itself. Caught up in events no adult will believe are Crescent and her friends, and its up to them to solve the mystery, catch the culprit and save the day. But the way is fraught with peril, and a diabolical adversary who comes at them from every turn. And while they must face their fears and confront the enemy, they soon realize that the end of the mystery is only the beginning of the greatest adventure of their lives….

About the Author

ABOUT THE AUTHOR/ILLUSTRATOR Born in Elyria, Ohio in the summer of 1970, an only child, R. M. J. Hooper spent his life being influenced by great stories, delving into books about fantasy and science-fiction, reading about the adventures of superheroes in comics, and in awe of the great adventure films of his youth. Drawing from the age of three, he always drifted toward the creative; contributing to the yearbook staff in middle-school, involving himself in Art Class, Creative Writing, and Drama Club in High School. After attending the University of Cincinnati for Commercial Art, he transferred to the Art Institute of Pittsburgh and graduated with a degree in Animation-Multimedia. But daunted by the vanishing genre of traditional animation and the struggle of trying to be a professional artist, on a whim he moved to Las Vegas, Nevada where he became a professional caricature artist. Always captivated by English culture from its long history and legends like King Arthur and Robin Hood, to its traditional sensibilities, love of music from British bands in the 1980’s, to films, television shows, and classic literature. In August, 2004 he finally had a chance to visit the U.K. London was everything he hoped it would be. Inspired by its rich history, lush parks, souring architecture and friendly people he spent the next four years writing and developing the history and characters that inhabit the world of Crescent Grey. The result is the book that you now hold in your hands. Spitfire’s Grave is meant to be the first story in an intricately planned epic series about the girl Crescent Grey, her friends and their adventures. Mr. Hooper now travels back and forth, living in both the United States and Great Britain while he continues to write and draw.