Author sets debut thriller in ‘Kincaid,’ Ky.
Angela Carlisle
By Burton Cole
DEMOSSVILLE — Angela Carlisle meant to set her debut novel in Falmouth.
“I really enjoy books set in small towns,” the DeMossville woman said. “I figured out early on I wanted it to be here.”
A couple small-town glitches arose on the way to the publication of “Secondary Target,” Book 1 in “The Secrets of Kincaid” series published last month by Bethany House.
“A lot of people I had read excerpts in the beginning couldn’t figure out how to say ‘Falmouth.’ They thought I was making it up,” she said.
A judge of one writing contest even blasted Carlisle for what the judge thought was an ill-advised attempt to disguise the words “foul mouth” as “Falmouth.” The judge apparently had never heard of Falmouth, Kentucky — or, for that matter, the coastal town on Cape Cod in Massachusetts or the historic town in Cornwall, England, or any of the other cities and towns named Falmouth worldwide.
Carlisle changed the city to the fictional town of Kincaid, which she calls “a sister city of Falmouth.” But she wasn’t ready to move her romantic thriller out of Pendleton County.
One scene in the novel describes a 30-minute drive south to Harrison Memorial Hospital in Cynthiana. In another chapter, it’s a 45-minute or so drive north on Highway 27 to Cincinnati. Then there’s the unnamed county high school off Highway 27 only a few minutes outside the neighboring city of — Falmouth.
The pages of the second novel, due out in May 2025, will contain even more local flavor, including the annual Wool Fest in Falmouth and scenes from Kincaid Lake.
BACKGROUND
Carlisle, 32, was born in Texas but her family moved to Kentucky nearly 30 years ago. She was homeschooled, then graduated from Ozark Bible Institute and College in Neosho, Missouri, with a double major in Bible studies and Biblical literature.
Single, she lives in DeMossville while working remotely as an editor and writer for Answers in Genesis, an apologetics ministry founded by Ken Ham that “advocates young Earth creationism on the basis of its literal, historical-grammatical interpretation of the Book of Genesis and the Bible as a whole.”
Her path to editing and writing came naturally.
“My Dad wrote when I was a kid. I grew up reading and proofreading his stuff,” she said.
“I grew up reading a lot. I’d read two to three Boxcar Children books in a day. I read Mandie books, Sherlock Holmes… After college, I was more into adult suspense and thrillers — Terry Blackstock and Lynette Eason, those two are my favorite. Also Lynn Blackburn.”
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