HARWICH — Author Katie O’Sullivan of Harwich has published prolifically across several genres including romance and young adult. “I started out writing romance, but began a young adult series when my fourth grader complained she wanted to read one of my books,” O’Sullivan said in a recent email interview. Her latest novel is “Ghost in the Machine” (Windmill Point Press, 2020). If you enjoy fiction se...

 It seems like it has been quite a while since we have read a new mystery set in Chatham, and that is what we have with “Roger Sherman III and the Seal Murder Mystery” (2020), a debut novel by Chatham summer resident John Beneville. Beneville, a 2016 graduate of Dartmouth College who grew up in Cos Cob, Conn., has been coming to Chatham with his parents and grandparents since he was very young. “My parents ...

 The sometimes weird and sometimes spectacular adornments of wild creatures inspired author Jenna Grodzicki of Chatham to write “Wild Style: Amazing Animal Adornments” (Millbrook Press, 2021). “Hats. Jewelry. Makeup. Perfume. People wear accessories every day. But humans aren’t the only ones with a flair for fashion,” Grodzicki writes. For wild creatures, “The right look, though, can make all the difference.” ...

“It's sad to lose Uhtred,” author Bernard Cornwell said of the hero of his Last Kingdom series of books, the 13th and final volume of which, “War Lord,” was released this week. The prolific Chatham novelist began writing about Uhtred of Beddanburg, the warlord of the book's title, 17 years ago in “The Last Kingdom,” the first book in the series, the arc of which follows the character from his youth to his old ...

You know that folding table decorated with a fishnet where authors sign their new work outside Yellow Umbrella Books? Weather permitting, Yellow Umbrella owner Eric Linder will sit at that table on Nov. 21 signing his own new book, “The Blue in the Eye of the Girl at La Jolla: New and Selected Poems” (Loom Press, 2020). The signing and the sale of a Bob Staake giclée print are a part of the store’s fun 40th an...

While we all wish we were not living in a state of semi-quarantine during the coronavirus pandemic, the time spent at home has been good to a certain group of people: Writers. “The pandemic also turned out to be kind of a plus,” says author Kat Szmit, whose first novel “The Sugar House” (Wicked Whale Publishing, 2020) has just been released. Working her day job from home, Szmit found she had more time on her h...

Author Andrew R. “Bob” Black did a bit of preliminary research on the steps of the Boston Public Library before embarking upon his new book “Buried Dreams: The Hoosac Tunnel and the Demise of the Railroad Age” (Louisiana State University Press, 2020). He had been researching another topic when “this Hoosac Tunnel kept popping up. It was a political football,” he recalled during a telephone interview last week....

William Nickerson Walker’s third spy novel, “Target Switzerland,” will be released later this month. In retirement, Walker, 82, is a prolific writer, an indefatigable golfer and an energetic vice president of the Nickerson Family Association, Inc. (NFA). In the past he was an international businessman and financier, diplomat, government official and partner in a large Wall Street law firm. Two years ago, Wa...

Have you ever wondered what the venerable gray shingle and red brick Chatham Bars Inn might look like if it were painted, say, hot fuchsia? Or what the pristine-white Chatham Wayside Inn might look like in purple with green instead of black shutters? And why should the Red Nun building be red with white trim, anyway? It might be pretty in pink. Now is your chance to find out how these colors would look on C...

Who doesn’t love a thriller set in the often-paranoid world of spies, where nothing is quite as it seems to be? Author Keith Yocum’s “Valley of Spies” (Time Tunnel Media, 2019) has been named to Kirkus Review’s 2019 prestigious list of Best Indie Mysteries, Crime Stories and Thrillers. “Valley of Spies” is the third book in the trilogy that began with “Color of Blood,” and continued with “A Dark Place.” All...

In his new book “Cape Cod Nights: Historic Bars, Clubs and Drinks” (History Press, 2019), Christopher Setterlund picks up where his 2017 book “Historic Restaurants of Cape Cod” left off. Both books lead the reader on a nostalgic trip of dining, clubbing and drinking across Cape Cod of yesteryear. “I began by asking my family, parents, grandparents, etc. where they had enjoyed going and amassed a huge list o...

Just in time for Halloween comes the pleasurably creepy debut novel “In the Midst of the Sea: A Novel of Paranormal Horror” (Pace Press, 2019), set on off-season Martha’s Vineyard. “Both the Cape and the Islands are so full of history, culture and time, that I almost feel like you can’t help but feel the ghosts around you,” author Sean Padraic McCarthy of South Plymouth said in an email interview last week. Mc...

Recent books by local writers examine life in New York City, Cape Cod and during Neanderthal days. Skip Rozin of Harwich, who made a career as a freelance writer in publications as diverse as Time Magazine, the Wall Street Journal and Audubon, has now turned his considerable talents to memoir in “The View from Apartment Four: On Loving and Leaving New York” (77 Street Press, 2019). At the heart of the memoi...

Things that go bump in the night, reflections on the immigrant experience, a look at the meaning of home and a non-fictional survey of America’s Colonial pirates are the topics of four new books by authors who will be in Chatham in coming days. Donna M. Bevans, a graduate of Harwich High School who now lives in Fort Collins, Col., will sign her novel “The Captain’s House” (AuthorHouse, 2019) on Aug. 13. Bev...

If you enjoy novels set on Cape Cod, you will love the finely-crafted debut novel “Seeking Glory: A Novel About Relationships, Loss, and Finding Your Way Home” (Outskirts Press, Inc. 2018) by Patricia Hamilton Shook. Shook is a resident of Sharon with a timeshare in Yarmouth. But her Cape Cod roots run deep. She has known the Cape since she was a child staying in her grandmother’s cottage on a street that dead...

While on average four people each year are killed by sharks, over 100,000 sharks are killed by humans. In fact, 32 percent of open ocean sharks, including the scalloped hammerhead and the whale shark, have been hunted in such high numbers that they are now in danger of going extinct. These are some of the facts behind ocean conservationist William McKeever’s new book “Emperors of the Deep: Sharks—the Ocean’...