A Whisper Came: A Cape Cod Mystery

At the start of this suspenseful mystery from Yocum (Miraflores—Memoir of a Young Spy), a charter boat captain on a fly-fishing outing off Chatham, Mass., comes across a floating object that turns out to be a woman’s corpse. The authorities struggle to ascertain the dead woman’s identity and whether she was a victim of foul play. The Boston Globe assigns metro reporter Stacie Davis, who has just had a bad breakup and is in no mood to go to the Cape, to the story. Finding solid information scarce, even after law enforcement deems the fatality suspicious, Stacie acquaints herself with the locals, whose ranks include a mystery author who’s hoping to get something to write about. She learns that the region is rife with ominous folklore, including a ghost, an abandoned fishing village that people fear to approach, and mooncussers, scoundrels who lure ships to their doom by pretending that the lights they carry belong to a lighthouse. Yocum matches a creepy atmosphere with fully realized characters. Hank Phillippi Ryan fans will hope to see more of Davis. (Self-published)