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A Cape Cod Mystery #1
A Whisper Came
The lighthouse has a secret
A young ambitious reporter is sent to Chatham on Cape Cod to follow up on the body of a woman found floating near an abandoned lighthouse. The reporter’s editors encourage her to dig into Chatham’s quirky residents and ghost stories. To get a flavor of old Cape Cod and its maritime legends, she makes a nighttime visit to Monomoy Point Lighthouse with a young charter boat captain. In the process she stumbles tragically into a dark mystery that forces her to question her sanity and the truth buried in a legend.
A young ambitious reporter is sent to Chatham on Cape Cod to follow up on the body of a woman found floating near an abandoned lighthouse. The reporter’s editors encourage her to dig into Chatham’s quirky residents and ghost stories. To get a flavor of old Cape Cod and its maritime legends, she makes a nighttime visit to Monomoy Point Lighthouse with a young charter boat captain. In the process she stumbles tragically into a dark mystery that forces her to question her sanity and the truth buried in a legend.
237 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 28, 2021
200 people are currently reading
918 people want to read
About the author
Keith Yocum
13 books111 followersKeith Yocum was born in Ridgecrest, California, the civilian town supporting the China Lake Naval Weapons Center in the Mojave Desert. He grew up overseas as an Army brat, including long stints in the Panama Canal Zone and Western Australia. He has an undergraduate degree in philosophy and a graduate degree in journalism. He had an extensive career in publishing, including publications like The Boston Globe and The New England Journal of Medicine. He lives on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and is the author of eleven novels. His espionage thriller "Valley of Spies," was picked by Kirkus Reviews as one of the best indie mysteries, crime stories, thrillers of 2019. He was a semi-finalist in the 2010 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award with his Vietnam War mystery "Daniel."
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Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
June 30, 2021
I have come to the conclusion that a lot of reviews are written so that ‘‘word bites” can be ripped out of them and stuck on the covers of books and in advertising - phrases like “page turner”, “thriller”, “incisive”, “suspensful”, and “taut”! Maybe this is one of those Mr. Obvious observations. That sort of hype promises a lot, but often doesn’t deliver.
This book has a lot of strong ingredients:
* a dead body wearing strange clothing floating off Monomoy Island off Cape Cod,
* a curious and ambitious attractive female reporter;
* a spiteful ex-boyfriend;
* a kind, attractive, intelligent charter boat captain;
* an abandoned, ghostly town;
* spooky legends;
* an odd clutch of writers led by a well-known mystery writer with a crazy wife.
Throw all these ingredients into a book and see what happens. Yocum commits to expaining that unidentifiable body and why it is dressed in antique clothing. Who is she? Why is she wearing such odd clothing? Who killed her and why? Yocum does that by the end.
The edge of the seat element comes from time pressure or something similar. Is the murderer going to strike again? Is there a body in the closet? Will the charter boat captain regain his memory?
The story is the path from the body to the resolution of all the issues and the complications that get in the way of the explanations and resolutions.
The protagonist is the young reporter. I would have liked her better if she hadn’t been so ditzy. Although her bosses at the Boston Globe seem to like the stories she is writing for the paper, and they tell her to stay there, to keep digging, and to stay at a Ritzy Resort. The stories she writes seem like fluff, atmospheric pieces. She doesn’t recognize the real story until it almost kills her. Unfortunately much of the drama in the story is connected by coincidental links.
Yocum is a strong writer with experienced writing connections including with the Boston Globe and he lives on Cape Cod. So he knows what he’s writing about. He has a bucket of ingredients for an exciting book in a great venue. I’m not sure I understand where the title fits in the story. The dark lighthouse on the cover at sunset has a solid role to play. It’s worth a read.
This book has a lot of strong ingredients:
* a dead body wearing strange clothing floating off Monomoy Island off Cape Cod,
* a curious and ambitious attractive female reporter;
* a spiteful ex-boyfriend;
* a kind, attractive, intelligent charter boat captain;
* an abandoned, ghostly town;
* spooky legends;
* an odd clutch of writers led by a well-known mystery writer with a crazy wife.
Throw all these ingredients into a book and see what happens. Yocum commits to expaining that unidentifiable body and why it is dressed in antique clothing. Who is she? Why is she wearing such odd clothing? Who killed her and why? Yocum does that by the end.
The edge of the seat element comes from time pressure or something similar. Is the murderer going to strike again? Is there a body in the closet? Will the charter boat captain regain his memory?
The story is the path from the body to the resolution of all the issues and the complications that get in the way of the explanations and resolutions.
The protagonist is the young reporter. I would have liked her better if she hadn’t been so ditzy. Although her bosses at the Boston Globe seem to like the stories she is writing for the paper, and they tell her to stay there, to keep digging, and to stay at a Ritzy Resort. The stories she writes seem like fluff, atmospheric pieces. She doesn’t recognize the real story until it almost kills her. Unfortunately much of the drama in the story is connected by coincidental links.
Yocum is a strong writer with experienced writing connections including with the Boston Globe and he lives on Cape Cod. So he knows what he’s writing about. He has a bucket of ingredients for an exciting book in a great venue. I’m not sure I understand where the title fits in the story. The dark lighthouse on the cover at sunset has a solid role to play. It’s worth a read.
January 16, 2025
Takes place in Chatham MA (Cape Cod)
237 Pages
27 Chapters
Book 1 of series
Journalist for Boston Globe is sent to Chatham to investigate and report on a unidentified female body that turned up on a Cape Code shore.
This was pretty easy to figure out who did it, certainly with a interesting twist. I would love to know more about the wife of the writer involved. Learned much about the islands involved and the story behind the meaning of skuddlebut.
237 Pages
27 Chapters
Book 1 of series
Journalist for Boston Globe is sent to Chatham to investigate and report on a unidentified female body that turned up on a Cape Code shore.
This was pretty easy to figure out who did it, certainly with a interesting twist. I would love to know more about the wife of the writer involved. Learned much about the islands involved and the story behind the meaning of skuddlebut.
June 23, 2021
Loved every minute of this book
I live in Harwich, the town next to Chatham, so how could I not love this book? I’ve only been out to Monomoy twice, once in the 1960’s and once in the late 1970’s. I see it every clear day that I look out on Nantucket Sound. Unfortunately I never knew half of the history of it, or that it had once been inhabited. The plot of the story was great as I could envision where everything was taking place. Even if you don’t know the area, it’s a great enjoyable who-done-it!
I live in Harwich, the town next to Chatham, so how could I not love this book? I’ve only been out to Monomoy twice, once in the 1960’s and once in the late 1970’s. I see it every clear day that I look out on Nantucket Sound. Unfortunately I never knew half of the history of it, or that it had once been inhabited. The plot of the story was great as I could envision where everything was taking place. Even if you don’t know the area, it’s a great enjoyable who-done-it!
August 17, 2021
Suspension of disbelief is a tricky thing in crime fiction. You need to achieve it, and yet a writer can never assume they've succeeded at it because success is entirely in the eye of the reader. In the case of A WHISPER CAME, my attempts to achieve suspension resulted in several bruising tumble to the terra firma of realism, accompanied by a different kind of disbelief — that a former newspaper journalist could create a newspaper journalist no one could believe.
Stacie Davis, a young Boston Globe, initially reports on the finding of a dead water in waters off Cape Cod, in a peripheral area of the Globe's reach. It's the sort of news that I, as a former reporter at a metro daily, know merits maybe four to six column inches in inside page of an inside section, far away from page one. But not in A W HISPER CAME. In a time of intensely tight budgets, we're expected to believe that this story so engaged the eccentric whimsies of the paper's top editor that he not only sends her out to Chatham but pays for her increasingly expensive expenses for several days as he encourages to wring every dry drop from this single waterlogged corpse. I'd hate to see that editor have to explain himself tp his publisher come budgeting time.
So. That's not plausible, and especially not as a pretext for the trouble Stacie gets herself into in the service of chasing leads on this story where none exist, and another implausibility piles up — Stacie herself becomes the lead suspect in the crime when he convinces a local fisherman to take her to the lighthouse island near where the body was recovered, in the service of ... well, what, exactly? An arid Sunday feature pegged to a lead-free story? Here we're expected to believe that local authorities are so starved for leads that they're willing to pin the whole thing on Stacie on the flimsiest fo evidence just so they can close the case and move on.
That leads to further implausibilities featuring a local bestselling mystery novelist with an oily bonhomie, and to an utterly flaccid climax involving that hoariest of crime fiction tropes: the convenient case of amnesia that clears up just in time to save the heroine's life. (That is, after she ignores the amnesia sufferer's repeated calls, which happens after she begs him to help her any way he can ....)
While A WHISPER CAME fails the suspension-of-disbelief test, and doesn't do much to develop interesting characters, it does have a sense of Chatham and the Cape geography and culture that fully engages the five senses as much as one of the mystery author's gourmet meals, thought at times it feels like a research dump that's a little too detached from the story and thus bogs it down. But by then, it's already bogged down by its other shortcomings.
Stacie Davis, a young Boston Globe, initially reports on the finding of a dead water in waters off Cape Cod, in a peripheral area of the Globe's reach. It's the sort of news that I, as a former reporter at a metro daily, know merits maybe four to six column inches in inside page of an inside section, far away from page one. But not in A W HISPER CAME. In a time of intensely tight budgets, we're expected to believe that this story so engaged the eccentric whimsies of the paper's top editor that he not only sends her out to Chatham but pays for her increasingly expensive expenses for several days as he encourages to wring every dry drop from this single waterlogged corpse. I'd hate to see that editor have to explain himself tp his publisher come budgeting time.
So. That's not plausible, and especially not as a pretext for the trouble Stacie gets herself into in the service of chasing leads on this story where none exist, and another implausibility piles up — Stacie herself becomes the lead suspect in the crime when he convinces a local fisherman to take her to the lighthouse island near where the body was recovered, in the service of ... well, what, exactly? An arid Sunday feature pegged to a lead-free story? Here we're expected to believe that local authorities are so starved for leads that they're willing to pin the whole thing on Stacie on the flimsiest fo evidence just so they can close the case and move on.
That leads to further implausibilities featuring a local bestselling mystery novelist with an oily bonhomie, and to an utterly flaccid climax involving that hoariest of crime fiction tropes: the convenient case of amnesia that clears up just in time to save the heroine's life. (That is, after she ignores the amnesia sufferer's repeated calls, which happens after she begs him to help her any way he can ....)
While A WHISPER CAME fails the suspension-of-disbelief test, and doesn't do much to develop interesting characters, it does have a sense of Chatham and the Cape geography and culture that fully engages the five senses as much as one of the mystery author's gourmet meals, thought at times it feels like a research dump that's a little too detached from the story and thus bogs it down. But by then, it's already bogged down by its other shortcomings.
June 18, 2021
Thank you @netgalley and BooksGoSocial for the advance eBook in exchange for my honest review.
A Jane Doe found in the water, a mysterious island, local legends, and lost memories all make up part of this gripping, fast paced novel. Pros: lots of character, moving storyline, plot twists I didn't see coming, quick read, engaging story. Cons: Stacie acted a bit naive for a hot shot reporter, basically a "blonde don't go into that basement you are going to get killed" character at times, a few characters that keeps showing up didn't really add a lot to the story, I'm looking at you clingy ex-boyfriend. Overall, an enjoyable book with a surprise ending, and I'm okay with the way the book ended, and can't wait to read more.
When the body of an unknown woman is found in the water in Nantucket Sound, Stacie, a reporter dying for her big break, gets assigned the story. While trying to dodge a persistent ex, Stacie heads down to the Cape, and writes a series of well received, front page stories, everything seems to be going good. After a trip with charter captain Carl to the mysterious Monomoy Island goes horribly wrong, Stacie gets set adrift from both the Boston Globe and her new local friends. Determined to prove her innocence, Stacie barrels straight into danger, with no backup, determined to solve the mysteries.
A Jane Doe found in the water, a mysterious island, local legends, and lost memories all make up part of this gripping, fast paced novel. Pros: lots of character, moving storyline, plot twists I didn't see coming, quick read, engaging story. Cons: Stacie acted a bit naive for a hot shot reporter, basically a "blonde don't go into that basement you are going to get killed" character at times, a few characters that keeps showing up didn't really add a lot to the story, I'm looking at you clingy ex-boyfriend. Overall, an enjoyable book with a surprise ending, and I'm okay with the way the book ended, and can't wait to read more.
When the body of an unknown woman is found in the water in Nantucket Sound, Stacie, a reporter dying for her big break, gets assigned the story. While trying to dodge a persistent ex, Stacie heads down to the Cape, and writes a series of well received, front page stories, everything seems to be going good. After a trip with charter captain Carl to the mysterious Monomoy Island goes horribly wrong, Stacie gets set adrift from both the Boston Globe and her new local friends. Determined to prove her innocence, Stacie barrels straight into danger, with no backup, determined to solve the mysteries.
February 6, 2025
Way too many unnecessary characters and way too long to get to the point...and predictable...
June 20, 2021
This is an enjoyable cozy mystery about a reporter working on a story about a mysterious death off the coast of Cape Cod.
July 17, 2025
Will read this author again.
More like three and a half stars. First, the good stuff: I was intrigued from the very beginning and stayed engaged. The main characters were done well and believable. The length was just right and the pacing well done. The ending was not predictable. The setting was well chosen.
The not-so-good stuff: the dialogue and humor sometimes felt awkward, especially amongst the authors or when facts were the main purpose for the dialogue. A few of the minor cast of characters felt stereotyped. When referencing Jamaica Inn, the original author, Daphne du Maurier, should have been acknowledged. Except for the very elderly, age would no longer play much importance in the knowledge of WWI ambulance drivers. Elements of the ending definitely stretched credibility.
More like three and a half stars. First, the good stuff: I was intrigued from the very beginning and stayed engaged. The main characters were done well and believable. The length was just right and the pacing well done. The ending was not predictable. The setting was well chosen.
The not-so-good stuff: the dialogue and humor sometimes felt awkward, especially amongst the authors or when facts were the main purpose for the dialogue. A few of the minor cast of characters felt stereotyped. When referencing Jamaica Inn, the original author, Daphne du Maurier, should have been acknowledged. Except for the very elderly, age would no longer play much importance in the knowledge of WWI ambulance drivers. Elements of the ending definitely stretched credibility.
January 18, 2025
Scooby-Doo!
Where are you?!
This started off as an interesting police procedural. A woman is found dead off the cost of Cape Cod wearing clothes from the 1800s. A reporter from Boston is sent to the small town of Chatham to investigate the story.
Things went south soon after. The police investigation was for the most part ignored. The reporter spent most of her time investigating the history of Chatham. Chasing ghosts in a deserted lighthouse.
What?
Is this an episode of Scooby-doo? Stacie Davis is Daphne? Where's Scrappy?
Stacie is accused of assaulting a local resident. Throw in an amnesia trope and this turned into a nor'easter. What a disaster.
The ending? Laughable bad.
Where are you?!
This started off as an interesting police procedural. A woman is found dead off the cost of Cape Cod wearing clothes from the 1800s. A reporter from Boston is sent to the small town of Chatham to investigate the story.
Things went south soon after. The police investigation was for the most part ignored. The reporter spent most of her time investigating the history of Chatham. Chasing ghosts in a deserted lighthouse.
What?
Is this an episode of Scooby-doo? Stacie Davis is Daphne? Where's Scrappy?
Stacie is accused of assaulting a local resident. Throw in an amnesia trope and this turned into a nor'easter. What a disaster.
The ending? Laughable bad.
February 24, 2025
Chatham -
Jack and Phil found female body in the water ( unable to identify, wearing odd clothes
Carl Lane - boat charters in summer, painter in the winter;
Stacie Davis, reporter (MBTA) for Boston Globe assigned to investigate the death; She wrote interesting articles about Chatham for the Globe
Marie - her friend;
Investigates the death with Carl - goes to island, sees horse poop and lantern - someone cuts the rope to Carl's boat and someone pushed him down steps. He has concussion and amnesia.
Investigators: Manteo-assistant DA; Martin; Felix Barone - DA;
WINSLOW PRESCOTT, famous writer of mystery novels contacts Stacy, invites her for coffee, then lunch with friends. He's the killer. The woman was his illegal maid, set up everything on the island, and tried to drown Stacie
Jack and Phil found female body in the water ( unable to identify, wearing odd clothes
Carl Lane - boat charters in summer, painter in the winter;
Stacie Davis, reporter (MBTA) for Boston Globe assigned to investigate the death; She wrote interesting articles about Chatham for the Globe
Marie - her friend;
Investigates the death with Carl - goes to island, sees horse poop and lantern - someone cuts the rope to Carl's boat and someone pushed him down steps. He has concussion and amnesia.
Investigators: Manteo-assistant DA; Martin; Felix Barone - DA;
WINSLOW PRESCOTT, famous writer of mystery novels contacts Stacy, invites her for coffee, then lunch with friends. He's the killer. The woman was his illegal maid, set up everything on the island, and tried to drown Stacie
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 5, 2025
Very interesting
I really liked the history and the lore in this story. The descriptions of Cape Cod were so vivid I want to go vist and experience the ocean, light houses and the beach.
I really liked the history and the lore in this story. The descriptions of Cape Cod were so vivid I want to go vist and experience the ocean, light houses and the beach.
March 31, 2025
First in a series
This is a very interesting murder mystery. It has good characters and a great location off the coast of Maine. The mystery is baffling and there is an element of haunting legends that make this a compelling story.
This is a very interesting murder mystery. It has good characters and a great location off the coast of Maine. The mystery is baffling and there is an element of haunting legends that make this a compelling story.
July 15, 2025
Too long and slow
Didn't grab my attention and I just kept reading waiting for something to happen. Ending was rushed and predictable. Why do killers feel the need to explain everything to their victims?
Didn't grab my attention and I just kept reading waiting for something to happen. Ending was rushed and predictable. Why do killers feel the need to explain everything to their victims?
August 21, 2023
Good short mystery revolving around the small town of Chatham, Massachusetts. Got this from a local book store and loved it!
January 17, 2025
🤔
The book was ok enough for me to keep reading and finish it.. . . . . . . .
The book was ok enough for me to keep reading and finish it.. . . . . . . .
January 23, 2025
First time reading Keith Yocum and came away rather impressed. Nice writing style, characters were great and story held your interest throughout. Recommend.
January 25, 2025
Page Turner!
Once I started this book I couldn't stop turning pages. I didn't want to put it down till I finished. Bring on the next one!
Once I started this book I couldn't stop turning pages. I didn't want to put it down till I finished. Bring on the next one!
February 5, 2025
Oh my goodness!! This book was wonderfully thought out the Author definitely did her research. Best mystery I have ever read i hope to read more of her books. From Author to another one word WOW!!!!
February 7, 2025
Good story but writing style could be better, characters not rounded out enough, conversations sometimes not realistic. But I did want to hurry through and get to the answers.
February 21, 2025
great mystery!!
I really enjoyed this. The characters and their development were good. Also it was good and twisty without any gore. A breath of fresh air!
I really enjoyed this. The characters and their development were good. Also it was good and twisty without any gore. A breath of fresh air!
March 30, 2025
Predictable. Some interesting history of cape cod
April 10, 2025
A major disappointment . An unlikely and extremely slow moving story with a rushed ending .
I will be giving the rest of this series a miss .
I will be giving the rest of this series a miss .
April 25, 2025
OK.
Never read this author before , but I quite enjoyed the story. It made me want to finish it. Well written .
Never read this author before , but I quite enjoyed the story. It made me want to finish it. Well written .
May 30, 2025
GREAT READ
I found it hard to put the book down once I got into the storyline. Who would have thought the murderer would have been who it was. Well recommended
I found it hard to put the book down once I got into the storyline. Who would have thought the murderer would have been who it was. Well recommended
December 2, 2025
Nothing really happens until 90% then it all feels rather rushed.
January 30, 2024
This mystery didn't have me on the edge of my seat. I enjoyed the Cape Cod scenery & the characters, but the storyline was lacking.
Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews