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With “Lost in the Crush,” the third installment of Keith Yocum’s popular Cape Cod mystery series, the veteran writer once again employs the town of Chatham, Mass. as the setting to take readers on an eerie journey of nail-biting suspense. Yocum, a resident of Chatham, has crafted this one with a slow burning start that quickly morphs into gripping suspense. Yocum’s novels are written in a unique way that appeals to the tastes of thinking readers.

As was the case in the first two installments in the series “Lost in the Crush” centers on lead protagonist Stacie Davis, a former Boston Globe reporter who had moved to Chatham. Six months prior, her boyfriend Carl Lane, a charter fisherman and part time construction worker in the winter season, proposed to her on Chatham’s Lighthouse Beach.

Months after saying yes to Carl, on the night before her wedding, Carl is nowhere to be found. He has simply vanished with no explanation. The only slim clue to his sudden disappearance is found in the grainy thread of a security video tape that captures him in the pre-dawn hours, long after their wedding rehearsal dinner, walking down a street in Chatham holding the hand of an unseen woman.

In short order Dan Yellen, a police officer who is also one of Stacie’s old flames from long ago, reaches out to her offering to track down Carl. Immediately the mystery deepens as Stacie learns that Carl, on the night before his wedding ceremony, sold his boat and his truck, the tools of his trade. Seemingly out of the blue he had apparently indicated that he was getting out of the charter boat business.

Being held in the clutches of devastating heartbreak on her wedding day, Stacie’s life is suddenly upended. In a moment of desperation, she reaches out to Carl’s ex-wife and his 12-year-old daughter for any kind of explanation; a confrontation that results in a restraining order being issued against Stacie. This leads her to accept Dan Yellen’s offer to track down Carl, and together the two of them make their way to Florida where a bizarre confrontation takes place that opens up a series of questions where answers are conspicuous by their absence.

The initial slow start to this book leads to a winding tale that has one turning the pages long into the late hours, as was the case with me. The shocking twists and turns emerge like an Olympic team hurtling down an icy bobsled run. One thing that the author also showcases is his keen insight into family dynamics and personal relationships as well as feelings that grip all people.

Having read many of his books over the years, I can tell you that Yocum is a master of bone chilling suspense. He consistently weaves twisting plots and populates them with perfectly drawn characters. His books keep readers guessing about the ultimate outcome right up to the final page.

Asked about his inspiration in leaving the central character standing alone at the altar on her wedding day in writing “Lost in the Crush,” Yocum says, “My son got married last summer in Chatham and my imagination couldn’t resist wondering what if…”

As for the complex and enigmatic character of Dan Yellen, the author says, “Yellen emerged as a manifestation of the nefarious power of incredibly intelligent people with access to technology. I keep a file on some of the most outlandish capabilities of some individuals when it comes to eavesdropping and hacking. Yellen was a mashup of those individuals who live and breathe on the dark web. And of course, we pay some of them to work for the US government.”

In response to the question of how long it takes him to write a book Yocum said, “It takes three months for the first draft, then another six weeks for redrafting. My wife Denise is always the first read, and nothing gets past her. Continuity errors are her specialty.”

I also asked him if he knows how his books will end when he first starts writing them, and he said, “Yes, generally, but most authors will admit to serendipity at key moments when they’re ensconced in the act of creating.”

In the final analysis, Keith Yocum has again succeeded in crafting yet another complex and compelling mystery that is set against the backdrop of characters who, with their flaws and human failings, become quite real to the reader. Over the course of this three-book series, his writing style has consistently reached out to captivate the reader completely. He accomplishes this in a way that blends together the idyllic backdrop of the picturesque coastal town of Chatham, the richly drawn and credible characters who are part of the town, and compelling plot lines that bring the narrative to life in the mind’s eye of the reader.

Across the years Yocum’s literary images of Cape Cod in general, and of Chatham in particular, have been indelibly etched in my mind. With its complex plots, and characters who are so real that you can almost reach out and touch them, “Lost in the Crush,” the third offering in Yocum’s Cape Cod mystery series, this is a book that definitely has the potential to be turned into a movie or miniseries.