Insects And Weddings: Cape Children’s Book, Chatham Mystery Debut

A new Cape Cod novel for children and the third installment of a suspenseful mystery series set in Chatham are now available at Yellow Umbrella Books.

Author Lisa Rockwell Kingman (aka Lisa Forness) of Yarmouth Port describes her debut novel “Bartholomew and the Summer of Grace” (Rockwell Kingman Publishing, 2025) as “my love letter to Cape Cod.”

The 133-page novel for ages 6 through 12 is, in a way, reminiscent of the classic books Kingman, 65, a retired director at Stifel, enjoyed as a child.

 “I wanted Bartholomew to be an ‘innocent’ story, full of love and friendship, some drama, but nothing that would be too much for an elementary school kid,” Kingman said in an email interview last week. “Kids grow up too fast these days. The story is supposed to be sweet!”

The novel opens with Bartholomew, a talking cricket, waking up one morning in mid-June. Bartholomew vows that this summer he will introduce himself to the summer residents who live in the beach cottage where his dinghy is stored. The morning after the family arrives, the four children do meet the exceedingly well-dressed Bartholomew, clad in a navy jacket and a sea captain’s hat. Later on, they also meet the elegant Grace, a praying mantis who lives in the family’s shed.

 “Bartholomew” is deliberately not set in a particular Cape town “so that it would be relevant to kids living pretty much anywhere on the Cape,” Kingman says. Yet when the family sails, it’s clear they’re in Buzzard’s Bay or “anywhere along the western coast of the Cape.”

As the summer progresses, the children and Bartholomew share many adventures and misadventures. The book is populated with a charming array of Cape Cod characters such as cranky Old Man Joe who runs a gas pump on a pier. The family sails to the Elizabeth Islands, and later a hurricane hits. The hurricane, of course, is a time for checkers and cards during the power outage. Invariably, the summer wanes. “There was an ever-so-slight chill in the evening air, almost imperceptible…” Bartholomew’s “soul ached with a longing he found hard to understand.” One of the children says, in the manner of all children at the end of a Cape Cod summer, “I don’t want to go home…I want to stay here forever.”

Kingman’s family moved to Dennis in 1971, but prior to that the family often visited her grandmother’s cottage in Onset on Buzzard’s Bay — the model for the summer cottage in “Bartholomew.”

 “Growing up on the Cape was one of the best things that has ever happened to me, and my love of this area is profound,” Kingman says, adding, “I feel so lucky to live here again!”

 “Bartholomew” has delightful illustrations by Dominique Hance of Indianapolis, a freelance graphic designer/illustrator. At the end of the book Kingman includes an eight-page glossary defining Bartholomew’s “big words.”

Kingman dedicates “Bartholomew” to her late mother, Marcia Leonard, a “wannabe” writer, and to her father “who took us all around the Cape on our sailboat.” She is contemplating writing a sequel.

Kingman will sign copies of “Bartholomew” at Yellow Umbrella Books in Chatham on Friday, July 25 from 1 to 3 p.m.

 “Lost in the Crush: A Cape Cod Mystery” (Keith Yocum, 2025) is the third installment in the Cape Cod Mystery series by Keith Yocum of Chatham. The previous books in the series are “A Whisper Came” and “Dead in the Water.”

This new novel takes off when a young woman’s fiancé disappears on the night before their wedding. The only trace of him is a mysterious surveillance video captured on Main Street in the hours of darkness. More mysterious still — he’s holding the hand of someone off camera. Is it another woman?

Yocum is a retired journalist and, like him, his detective Stacie, the jilted bride, is a reporter. Stacie’s investigation of her fiancé Carl’s disappearance takes her around Cape Cod, to Boston and then to Florida. Is Carl, who is guilty of at least “emotional violence” against Stacie, who she believes he is?

 Yocum plans to write at least one more installment in his Cape Cod Mystery series to make it a quartet. 

 “I get a lot of comments on how readers enjoy ‘revisiting’ Chatham and its environs,” he says. “They also seem to like the spirited, intense personality of Stacie. So, I think she has some legs, as it were.”

Writing a mystery series poses challenges that are not there for the writer of a stand-alone mystery.

 “The primary issue is making sure that each novel can stand on its own without the reader having to read the prior or succeeding novels,” Yocum says. “That can be tricky at times for me because I tend to forget to fill in the blanks for a new reader who picks up book two or three in the series.”

On the other hand, “the pleasure of writing recurring characters and settings is that it’s easier to feel comfortable with the characters. I feel I know Stacie and even Carl, though that may sound odd,” he adds.

 “Lost in the Crush” is available at Yellow Umbrella Books.