CAPE COD, by William Martin, Warner Books, 652 pages, $21.95.

A master storyteller is back again, this time with a blockbuster tale encompassing 652 pages, not one of which you dare skim. This is not just because William Martin is a skillful writer, but also because he deals with a mystery and to risk missing a clue is to spoil second-guessing fun.

This writer’s forte is his meticulous research and his mastery of locale, in this instance Cape Cod. It also lies in his finesse in weaving intrigues and traits from the past with the present. In his last novel, “Back Bay,” the mystery had to do with a sterling silver tea set which disappeared at the time of the British invasion of Washington, in “Cape Cod” it is a search for the missing ship’s log which may shed light on a possible crime. The ship in question being the Mayflower.

“Cape Cod” explores this segment of American history through the genealogy of two founding families: the Bigelows and the Hilyards. Both were passengers on the Mayflower but one family belonged to the sect which chartered its services and one did not. The Hilyards belonged to the group dubbed “strangers” who were aboard because their fares were needed. That situation fairly much epitomized family goals; yet throughout coming generations their fate was to be entwined for good, and sometimes, for ill.

Never has the harrowing trip on the Mayflower and the vicissitudes of its trapped passengers been so graphically described and seldom have we seen such a dimensional, appreciative portrait of its harried master, Christopher Jones. Astute judge of character his experience has led him to be, he is not above recording some of this thoughts and suspicions in his log, which if it could be found might have repercussions down through the years.

The intricate plot seesaws back and forth between the 1600s and the 1990s. Its characterizations, whether from the early period or from this era, are vibrant and robust. For almost the first time a new picture of the early relationships between the would-be settlers and the native Americans is portrayed. Involved, then as now, is real estate and conservation, preservation and respect for the past as well as the future.

Somehow there is an edge to a story whose setting touches territory with which most of us are familiar. If you enjoyed “Back Bay” you will delight in “Cape Cod.” This novel will last beyond one beach day and will linger hauntingly in the mind whenever one sees on a map that long arm of land reaching into the sea.

William Martin is a native of Boston and a graduate of Harvard. Thus he is writing from a native’s perspective.

Marion Flood French is a free-lance writer who resides in Bangor.