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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", "suspenseful" and "taut" are great for selling hype but not so much for the actual quality of the story. They promise a lot, but often don't deliver. For unknown writers adjectives like these are helpful. They're like "fresh garden salad" or "spring water".
Keith Yocum's book - A Whisper Came -has a lot of strong ingredients:
- a dead body wearing strange clothing floating off Monomoy Island off Cape Cod;
- An old, New Englandy, Cape Cod town;
- a curious, ambitious, and attractive female reporter;
- a spiteful ex-boyfriend;
- a kind, attractive, intelligent charter boat captain that's 'one of the boys';
- an abandoned, ghostly town;
- spooky local 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 explaining that unidentifiable body and why it is dressed in antique clothing. The protagonist is the young reporter who is a bit too ditzy, making - "Don't open that door!" - kind of decisions. There were numerous coincidences holding the narrative together.
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 how the title connects to the story except for the spookiness. The dark lighhouse on the cover at sunset does have a solid role to play. The Whisper Came is an entertaining beach read from a local writer.
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Low-E coatings were just a glimmer in a creative window manufacturers' mind way back then. "Low-E" stands for "Low Emissivity". Materials absorb, reflect, and emit radiant energy. If the amount of thermal radiation can be reduced, more heat stays in the house than flows back out through the window glass. A Low-E coating on the glass is an ultra-thiin, virtually invisible layer that reflects infrared heat back into the home.
