Print List Price: | $17.00 |
Kindle Price: | $4.99 Save $12.01 (71%) |
Sold by: | Penguin Group (USA) LLC Price set by seller. |
Your Memberships & Subscriptions
Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
Audible sample
The Lamplighters: A Novel Kindle Edition
“A ghost story and fantastically gripping psychological investigation rolled into one. It is also a pitch-perfect piece of writing. . . . As with Shirley Jackson’s work or Sarah Waters’s masterpiece Affinity, in Stonex’s hands the unspoken, unexamined, unseen world we can call the supernatural, a world fed by repression and lies, becomes terrifyingly tangible.” --The Guardian (London)
Inspired by a haunting true story, a gorgeous and atmospheric novel about the mysterious disappearance of three lighthouse keepers from a remote tower miles from the Cornish coast--and about the wives who were left behind.
What strange fate befell these doomed men? The heavy sea whispers their names. Black rocks roll beneath the surface, drowning ghosts. And out of the swell like a finger of light, the salt-scratched tower stands lonely and magnificent.
It's New Year's Eve, 1972, when a boat pulls up to the Maiden Rock lighthouse with relief for the keepers. But no one greets them. When the entrance door, locked from the inside, is battered down, rescuers find an empty tower. A table is laid for a meal not eaten. The Principal Keeper's weather log describes a storm raging round the tower, but the skies have been clear. And the clocks have all stopped at 8:45.
Two decades later, the keepers' wives are visited by a writer determined to find the truth about the men's disappearance. Moving between the women's stories and the men's last weeks together in the lighthouse, long-held secrets surface and truths twist into lies as we piece together what happened, why, and who to believe.
In her riveting and suspenseful novel, Emma Stonex writes a story of isolation and obsession, of reality and illusion, and of what it takes to keep the light burning when all else is swallowed by dark.
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherPenguin Books
- Publication dateMarch 16, 2021
- File size1845 KB
Customers who bought this item also bought
From the Publisher
Editorial Reviews
Review
“Beautiful, absorbing and utterly riveting, The Lamplighters is a hymn to loneliness, to the sea, and to the stories we allow ourselves to believe when we are alone. I treasured every moment of this dazzlingly accomplished and completely unforgettable novel.” --Rosie Walsh, author of The Love of My Life
“Superbly accomplished…The Lamplighters is a whodunnit, horror novel, ghost story and fantastically gripping psychological investigation rolled into one. It is also a pitch-perfect piece of writing.” --The Guardian (London)
“Wonderfully smart and atmospheric.” --The Observer
“Transported me effortlessly…Haunting, harrowing and heartbreaking, this is a novel that will stay with you.” --Ashley Audrain, author of The Push
“The Lamplighters is a tale with teeth, serrated like a shark’s. Once it’s got a hold of you, it doesn’t let go. This is a haunting mystery where the unsaid words, the unshared emotions, and the unfulfilled lives reverberate across the decades not unlike the ghosts rumored to haunt the tower lighthouse. And whether you prefer an atmospheric sea-set mystery or an unsettling story of madness and the mythic, this is a book that’s sure to satisfy.” —Criminal Element
"Stonex brings vivid detail and emotional weight to the story of three lighthouse keepers who disappeared in the 1970s...The Lamplighters is beautifully written and understated in its lyricism, qualities that serve to heighten the almost unbearable tension of the story, which is packed with quiet revelations and observations." —CrimeReads
"Emma Stonex has written a gorgeous page-turner that is at once a mystery and a novel about mysteries--about how we all write our own endings and suffer betrayals, but still light the lamps so the people we love can find their way home." --Charlotte Rogan, The Lifeboat
“A remarkable book, through every page, every character, the writing resonates with the dark, powerful presence of the sea.” --Raynor Winn, author of The Salt Path
“A beautifully written, utterly compelling tale." --Jenny Colgan, New York Times bestselling author of The Bookshop on the Corner
“Stonex's unique tale juxtaposes oddly compelling reality—the daily challenges of being a lighthouse keeper for the men and their families—against a series of strange, poignant, near-mystical happenings that will pull readers in and keep them mesmerized right to the end.” --Booklist
“Stonex’s spectacular debut wraps a haunting mystery in precise, starkly beautiful prose…Seamlessly marrying quotidian detail with ghostly touches, the author captures both the lighthouse’s lure and the damage its isolation and confinement wreak on minds and families. The convincing resolution brings a welcome note of healing. Readers will eagerly await Stonex’s next." --Publisher's Weekly, starred review
About the Author
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
1
Relief
When Jory opens the curtains, the day is light and gray, the radio playing a half-known song. He listens to the news, about a girl who's gone missing from a bus stop up north, and drinks from a mug of brown tea. Poor mother's beside herself-well, she would be. Short hair, short skirt, big eyes, that's how he pictures the girl, shivering in the cold, and an empty bus stop where someone should have stood, waving or drowning, and the bus pulls up and away, never the wiser, and the pavement shines on in the black rain.
The sea is quiet, with the glass-like quality that comes after bad weather. Jory unlatches the window and the fresh air is very nearly solid, an edible thing, clinking between the trawler cottages like an ice cube in a drink. There's nothing like the smell of the sea, nothing close: briny, clean, like vinegar kept in the fridge. Today it's soundless. Jory knows loud seas and silent seas, heaving seas and mirror seas, seas where your boat feels like the last blink of humankind on a roll so determined and angry that you believe in what you don't believe in, such as the sea being that halfway thing between heaven and hell, or whatever lies up there and whatever lurks down deep. A fisherman told him once about the sea having two faces. You have to take the both, he said, the good and the bad, and never turn your back on either one of them.
Today, after a long time, the sea is on their side. They'll do it today.
HeÕs in charge of whether the boat goes out there or not. Even if the wind's good at nine it doesn't mean it'll be good by ten, and whatever he's got in the harbor, say he's got four-feet-high waves in the harbor, he can guess they'll be forty feet round the tower. Whatever it is ashore, it'll be ten times as much round the light.
The new delivery is twentyish, with yellow hair and thick glasses. They make his eyes look small, twitchy; he reminds Jory of something kept in a cage, living in sawdust. He's standing there on the jetty in his cord bell-bottoms, frayed ends darkened by the slopping sea. Early morning it's quiet on the quay, a dog walker and a milk crate unloading. The frigid pause between Christmas and New Year.
Jory and his crew haul in the boy's supplies, Trident red cartons containing two months' clothes and food, fresh meat, fruit, proper milk not powdered, a newspaper, box of tea, Golden Virginia, and rope them down, covering the containers in tarpaulin. The keepers will be pleased: they'll have been on tinned stew the past four weeks and whatever was on the Mail's front page the day the last relief went out.
In the shallows, the water burps seaweed, slurping and sucking round the sides of the boat. The boy climbs in, his plimsolls wet, groping the sides like a blind man. Under one arm he carries a parcel of belongings tied up with string-books, cassette recorder, tapes, whatever he'll use to pass the time. He's a student, most likely: Trident gets a lot of students these days. He'll be writing music, that'll be his thing. Up in the lantern thinking this is the life. They all need an activity to do, especially on the towers-can't spend your whole time running up and down the stairs. Jory knew a keeper way back when, a fine craftsman who put ships in bottles; he'd spend his whole stay doing them and they were beautiful things by the end of it. And then they got televisions put in and this keeper threw it all away, literally chucked his whole kit out the window into the sea and from then on sat watching the box every free moment he got.
"Have you been doing this long?" the boy asks. Jory says yeah, longer than you've been alive. "Didn't think we'd make it," he says. "I've been waiting since Tuesday. They put me in digs in the village and very nice it was too, but not so nice as I'd want to stay there much longer. Every day I was looking out and thinking, Will we ever get off? Talk about a bloody storm. Have to say I don't know how it'll be out there when we get another. They told me you've never seen a storm till you've seen it from the sea, and it feels like the tower's going to collapse right from underneath you and wash away."
The new ones always want to talk. It's nerves, Jory thinks, about the crossing and if the wind might change, about the landing, about the men on the light, whether he'll fit in with them, what the one in charge is like. It isn't this boy's light yet; probably it won't ever be. Supernumeraries come and go, land light this time, rock the next, shuttled round the country like a pinball. Jory's seen scores of them, keen to start and taken up in the romantic bit of it, but it isn't as romantic as that. Three men alone on a lighthouse in the middle of the sea. There's nothing special about it, nothing at all, just three men and a lot of water. It takes a certain sort to withstand being locked up. Loneliness. Isolation. Monotony. Nothing for miles except sea and sea and sea. No friends. No women. Just the other two, day in, day out, unable to get away from them, it could drive you stark mad.
It's usual to wait days for the changeover, weeks even. Once he had a keeper stuck out there on a lost relief for four months straight.
"You'll get used to the weather," he says to the boy.
"I hope so."
"And you won't be half as ticked off as the poor sod who's due ashore."
In a bevy at the stern his relief crew look despondently out to sea, smoking and grunting conversation, their damp fingers soaking their cigarettes. They could be painted into a dour seascape, brushed roughly with thick oils. "What're we waiting for?" one of them shouts. "D'you want the tide to turn before we're off?" They've got the engineer with them too, out to fix the radio. Normally, on relief day, they'd have been in touch with the light five times already, but the storm took out the transmission.
Jory covers the last of the boxes and starts the motor and then they're away, the boat rocking and bobbing like a bath toy over the wavelets. A flock of gulls quarrel on a cockle-speckled rock; a blue trawler chugs idly into land. As the shoreline dwindles the water grows brisker, green waves leaping, crests that spume and dissolve. Farther out the colors bleed darkly, the sea turning to khaki and the sky to ominous slate. Water butts and slops against the prow; strings of sea foam surge and disperse. Jory chews a roll-up that's been flattened in his pocket but is still just about smokable, eyes on the horizon, smoke in his mouth. His ears ache in the cold. Overhead a white bird wheels in a vast, drab sky.
He can decipher the Maiden in the haze, a lone spike, dignified, remote. She's fifteen nautical miles out. Keepers prefer that, he knows, not to be so close to land that you can see it from the set-off and be reminded of home.
The boy sits with his back to her-a funny way to start, Jory thinks, with your back to the thing you're going to. He worries at a scratch on his thumb. His face looks soft and ill, uninitiated. But every seaman has to find his legs.
"You been on a tower before, sonny?"
"I was out at Trevose. Then down at Saint Catherine's."
"But never a tower."
"No, never a tower."
"Got to have the stomach for it," says Jory. "Have to get along with people too, no matter what they're like."
"Oh, I'll be fine about that."
" 'Course you will. Your PK's a good sort, that makes a difference."
"What about the others?"
"Was told to watch out for the Super. But being your age roughly, no doubt you'll get along fine."
"What about him?"
Jory smiles at the boy's expression. "No need to look like that. Service is full of stories, not all of them true."
The sea heaves and churns beneath them, blackly rolling, slapping, and slinging; the breeze backs up, skittering across the water, making it pimple and scatter. A buffet of spray explodes at the bow and the waves grow heavy and secretively deep. When Jory was a boy and they used to catch the boat from Lymington to Yarmouth, he would peer over the railings on deck and marvel at how the sea did this quietly, without you really noticing, how the shelf dropped and the land was lost, where if you fell in, it would be a hundred feet down. There would be garfish and smooth hounds: weird, bloated, glimmering shapes with soft, exploring tentacles and eyes like cloudy marbles.
The lighthouse draws near, a line becoming a post, a post becoming a finger.
"There she is. The Maiden Rock."
By now they can see the sea stain around her base, the scar of violent weather accumulated by decades of rule. Though he's done it many times, getting close to the Queen of the Lighthouses always makes Jory feel a certain way-scolded, insignificant, maybe slightly afraid. A fifty-meter column of heroic Victorian engineering, the Maiden looms palely magnificent against the horizon, a stoic bastion of seafarers' safety.
"She was one of the first," says Jory. "Eighteen ninety-three. Twice wrecked before they finally lit her wick. The saying goes she makes a sound when the weather hits hard, like a woman crying, where the wind gets in between the rocks."
Details creep out of the gray-the lighthouse windows, the concrete ring of the set-off, and the narrow trail of iron rungs leading up to the access door, known as the dog steps. The Maiden stands above the boy's shoulder, summoning.
"Can they see us?"
"By now."
But as Jory says it, he's searching for the figure he'd expect to see waiting down there on the set-off, the Principal Keeper in his navy uniform and peaked white cap or the Assistant waving them in. They'll have been watching the water since sunrise.
He eyes the cauldron around the base of the lighthouse with caution, deciding the best approach, if he'll put the boat ahead or astern, if he'll anchor her down or let her stay loose. Freezing water splurges across a sunken warren of rocks; when the sea fills up, the rocks disappear; when it drops, they emerge like black, glistening molars. Of all the towers it's the Bishop, the Wolf, and the Maiden that are hardest to land, and if he had to pick, he'd say the Maiden took it. Sailors' legend had it she was built on the jaws of a fossilized sea monster. Dozens died in her construction, and the reef has killed many an off-course mariner. She doesn't like outsiders; she doesn't welcome people.
But he's still waiting to see a keeper or two. They're not getting this boy away unless there's someone on the end of the landing gear. At that point with the drop and surge he'll be ten feet down one minute and ten up the next, and if he loses sight of it, his rope's snapping and his man's taking a cold bath. It's a hairy business, but that's the towers all over. To a land man the sea is a constant enough thing, but Jory knows it isn't constant: it's fickle and unpredictable, and it'll get you if you let it.
"Where are they?"
He hardly hears his mate's yell against the gush of water.
Jory signals they'll go around. The boy looks green. The engineer too. Jory ought to reassure them, but he isn't quite reassured himself. In all the years he's come to the Maiden, he's never taken the boat around the back of the tower.
The scale of the lighthouse rears up at them, sheer granite. Jory cranes his head to the entrance door, sixty feet above water, solid gunmetal and defiantly closed.
His crew holler; they call for the keepers and blow a shrill whistle. Farther up, higher still, the tower tapers into the sky, and the sky, in return, glances down at their little vessel, thrown about in confusion. There's that bird again, the one that followed them out. Wheeling, wheeling, calling a message they don't understand. The boy leans over the side of the boat and loses his breakfast to the sea.
They rise, they fall; they wait and wait.
Jory looks up at the tower, hulked out of its own shadow, and all he can hear are the waves, the crash and spit of foam, the slurp and wash of the rocks, and all he can think of is the missing girl on the radio that he heard about that morning, and the bus stop, the empty bus stop, and the driving, relentless rain.
2
Strange Affair at a Lighthouse
The Times, Sunday, December 31, 1972
Trident House has been informed of the disappearance of three of its keepers from the Maiden Rock Lighthouse, fifteen miles southwest of Land's End. The men have been named as Principal Keeper Arthur Black, Assistant Keeper William "Bill" Walker, and Supernumerary Assistant Keeper Vincent Bourne. The discovery was made by a local boatman and his crew yesterday morning when attempting to deliver a relieving keeper and bring Mr. Walker to shore.
As yet there is no indication of the missing men's whereabouts and no official statement has been made. An investigation has begun.
Product details
- ASIN : B08FH8KY8X
- Publisher : Penguin Books (March 16, 2021)
- Publication date : March 16, 2021
- Language : English
- File size : 1845 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Print length : 351 pages
- Page numbers source ISBN : 1984882155
- Best Sellers Rank: #327,081 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #1,561 in Mystery, Thriller & Suspense Literary Fiction
- #2,312 in Psychological Fiction (Kindle Store)
- #4,665 in Psychological Thrillers (Kindle Store)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
Emma Stonex was born in 1983 and grew up in Northamptonshire. After working in publishing for several years, she quit to pursue her dream of writing fiction. THE LAMPLIGHTERS was a Sunday Times bestseller and has been translated into more than twenty-five languages. She lives in Bristol with her husband and two daughters.
Customer reviews
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonCustomers say
Customers praise the writing style as thoughtful and lyrical. They appreciate the cover design that depicts moody descriptions of the sea. However, some find the story confusing and hard to follow. Opinions are mixed on readability, character voices, and pacing. Some find the book interesting and enjoyable, while others struggled to finish it.
AI-generated from the text of customer reviews
Customers find the writing style thoughtful and well-crafted. They appreciate the proper grammar, prose, and research. The lyrical descriptions keep the suspense high, and the editing is beautiful. Overall, readers praise the book's writing style as engaging and realistic without being overly detailed.
"...The writing is impeccable; she has a very lyrical style of description that some may find extraneous or detracting. I did not. I loved it...." Read more
"...There is a poetic beat to the writing and some freeform dialogue in the form of interviews...." Read more
"...However, the disjointed style of writing threw my concentration so much that I would veer to and finish other books...." Read more
"...The Lighthouse is beautifully written but hard to follow at times...." Read more
Customers appreciate the book's cover. They find it visually appealing, with skillful paintings of the setting and a lighthouse depicting hope. The cover beautifully illustrates the moody descriptions of the sea.
"...the power and finickiness of the sea: she is at once both a sexy siren and a vengeful hag, whose personality can change at the drop of a dime ... or..." Read more
"...enjoy expertly crafted, atmospheric books with skilful paintings of the setting. It’s what keeps me turning the pages...." Read more
"The lighthouse has always been a beautiful symbol of hope that remains steadfast against all weather and hazard...." Read more
"...Kudos to the publisher for a good synopsis and a striking cover to the book. That’s all it has going for it." Read more
Customers have mixed opinions about the story. Some find it interesting and well-written, with a plausible scenario as what may have happened. Others feel it lacks mystery and intrigue, being too complex and lacking mystery elements. The main characters are described as uninspiring and there is little positive about them.
"I loved that this story, while itself fictional, was inspired by true events...." Read more
"...The story unfolds on a dual timeline format with one timeline being 1972 following the three lighthouse keepers before and up to their..." Read more
"...This was a challenging read for me. Dark, sad and haunting but written so beautifully. It is almost like poetry...." Read more
"...If you’re looking for something different, something utterly unique, then look no further. The prose and the research are second to none...." Read more
Customers have different views on the book's readability. Some find it interesting and engaging, while others struggled to finish it and found it difficult to understand the complex plot.
"...enjoy the meatiness of a well-thought out novel that makes me think and ponder while reading. This book is not for everyone...." Read more
"...Only 4 stars because of the mystery's resolution, but over all an enjoyable read." Read more
"It was a struggle to read some days, trying to make sense of a very complex story.maybe too complex.a little more in line narrative might have..." Read more
"...I finished this book in two days and absolutely loved it. If you’re looking for something different, something utterly unique, then look no further...." Read more
Customers have different views on the characters' voices. Some find them interesting and eccentric, with a true incident being written from all characters' viewpoints. Others say the characters have the same voice and it's hard to tell who is talking. They never find a character they like and never figure out who is speaking.
"...Also, the author gives the three wives of the keepers distinct personalities and histories. You find yourself identifying with one, two, or all...." Read more
"...I found myself skipping over sections and never finding a character that I liked. It was all very melancholy and not at all scary...." Read more
"...The timeline jumps between 1972 and 1992 with chapter points of view for each character...." Read more
"...None of the narrators has a unique voice and the constant interjection of the F-word and other profanities is off-putting and unnecessary...." Read more
Customers have different views on the pacing of the book. Some find it beautifully written and engaging, keeping them turning the pages. Others found it boring, lacking interest, and lacking inspiration.
"Not believable- lost interest." Read more
"...It’s what keeps me turning the pages...." Read more
"I found this book incredibly boring. Sometimes there are quotations when someone is talking, sometimes there are not, so annoying...." Read more
"...This book is beautifully written and kept me turning the pages...." Read more
Customers find the book hard to follow and confusing. They say it's a little difficult to get into but worth reading.
"I thought the book was hard to follow most of the time. The lives of the men and their families were sad...." Read more
"...The Lighthouse is beautifully written but hard to follow at times...." Read more
"...The author did a mighty fine job of research before writing this novel and did a mind-blowing job of expressing the power and finickiness of the sea..." Read more
"...is quite good but the story, as others have noted, is by and large confusing and flat...." Read more
Top reviews from the United States
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.
- Reviewed in the United States on April 18, 2024I loved that this story, while itself fictional, was inspired by true events. I also loved how much I learned about the history of lighthouses and their keepers….. my nerdy self was all over that!
It was a bit hard to get into at first, because it took me a minute to figure out who was narrating, but once I got into the flow of this author’s style, it was all good!
It’s a bit of a sad story, and in my opinion it leaves a few plot points unsolved, but it’s a beautifully composed tale that touched my heart.
- Reviewed in the United States on April 8, 2021I hesitated to write a review of this novel because, well, in all honesty, I think I'm too inarticulate to put my reaction to this author's writing into words. Please forgive me while I try to explain why this novel is one of two books I have read this year and rated a full five stars.
Sometimes I write a review; sometimes I don't. I am a prolific reader, meaning at least a couple books daily - depending on the breadth and depth of the individual work.
Sure, its nice to read what I affectionately call "palate cleansers" or "brain candy", before diving into a more challenging and thoughtful read, but I enjoy the meatiness of a well-thought out novel that makes me think and ponder while reading.
This book is not for everyone. I loved it; you may not. The author jumps between 1972 and 1992, as well as individual story lines for each character. Additionally, there are portions of dialogue that are written freeform with some punctuation, but only just. For some, you will not like the jumping around, the characters, or the free flowing dialogue, but I did - I do - because I love poetry.
I couldn't give a gosh darn about any of the characters in this novel, save one: the sea. The author did a mighty fine job of research before writing this novel and did a mind-blowing job of expressing the power and finickiness of the sea: she is at once both a sexy siren and a vengeful hag, whose personality can change at the drop of a dime ... or barometer.
If you've ever lived by the ocean, plied your trade as a Fisher person, or even just taken a cruise and marvelled at the sea, you will appreciate the way this author craftily paints pictures of her, our Ocean Mistress. As I read, I could smell the brininess, hear the cries of the sea gulls, and see the latte-like froth left behind from a receding wave upon the shore line.
The writing is impeccable; she has a very lyrical style of description that some may find extraneous or detracting. I did not. I loved it. Once again, I love poetry.
It was so (SO!) refreshing to read a novel that was not only thoughtfully written, but had proper use of grammar and punctuation (Yay! Happy dance).
Apparently this is an author's author: even thought this was her debut work, wanna guess what she did before writing this novel? Go on, guess! She was an editor.
Thank you, Ms. Emma, bravo!
- Reviewed in the United States on March 22, 2023Inspired by a real-life unsolved mystery where the keepers of a working lighthouse went missing in the early 1900s.
Stonex presents a similar story with three keepers working the Maiden Rock Lighthouse. The story unfolds on a dual timeline format with one timeline being 1972 following the three lighthouse keepers before and up to their disappearance and the other timeline following their wives/girlfriends twenty years later.
I think Stonex does a good job portraying the mental aspect for the keepers working in such an extreme isolated location as well as that for their family’s waiting for their return to the mainland. The complex relationships between all. However, the disjointed style of writing threw my concentration so much that I would veer to and finish other books. Yes, I should have DNF, but I really wanted to see if the mystery would be resolved and how (hoping at the same time that I wouldn’t have made such an effort for it to be an alien abduction or something similar). I’m glad that I did persevere to the fairly satisfactory ending that explained all the “clues” that the keepers left behind in the 1972 timeline and concluded the 1992 timeline.
Not quite a locked room thriller more of a dark drama so if you are a fan of those am sure you will enjoy this.
*** Trigger warning for animal cruelty ***
- Reviewed in the United States on April 21, 2021This novel is a compelling read. I liked the alternating timelines (between 1972 and 1992), and I enjoyed learning about the relationships among the three couples who are the main characters. Even more interesting was the relationship among the three lighthouse keepers. Once those men are on the rocky island that houses the Maiden, their dynamics are in a crucible that will test their limits professionally and personally.
That Maiden is the lighthouse off the coast of Cornwall. Emma Stonex certainly did her homework. That lighthouse is the most interesting character in the novel. The writing about the Maiden, her eerie power over the keepers and their families, is so atmospheric and detailed that you feel the claustrophobia and tension contributing to the events that drive the plot.
The plot centers around the mysterious disappearance of the three keepers and the creepy things they leave behind--stopped clocks, a table set for only two...You as the reader are invited to speculate on what happened in this locked-room mystery. Unfortunately, when you DO find out what happened, it is a bit of a let down. The denouement feels rushed, and we are led to expect a less mundane solution. Also, the identity/backstory of one character is left hanging. I mean, I like ambiguity in my fiction, but give me SOME resolution or some clues to work out, at least.
That said, If you love lighthouses, this is a great read. You learn about the day-to-day workings of the lighthouse and what it takes to keep it going. Apparently, most lighthouses are no longer run by keepers as technology has taken them over. Also, the author gives the three wives of the keepers distinct personalities and histories. You find yourself identifying with one, two, or all. In my case, I loved Helen, wife of the PK Arthur. Only 4 stars because of the mystery's resolution, but over all an enjoyable read.
Top reviews from other countries
- Suzanne'sReviewed in Canada on September 4, 2023
5.0 out of 5 stars Captivating, I couldn't put it down.
This story is so different and imaginative. It is told to someone doing research on a book trying to solve the mystery of three lamplighters who disappeared without a trace twenty years before. He interviews the widows in turn who are reluctant to share their story at first. Through them we find out what their lives was like as they waited for their husbands' return. We also find out what life was like in the lighthouse for the men and wonder why the company had closed the case so quickly. It is truly fascinating you can almost hear the characters speak, the writing is quick no added useless descriptions, every word lead to more questions and information until Sid. Who was he? How is it that he knew so much? How did he get to the lighthouse on a stormy night? Was he real? He remains a mystery to me at least.
The ending is a complete surprise but I think I was almost there close to figuring it out...I think. If you like an amazingly well written book and love a good mystery this is it.
- RozReviewed in the United Kingdom on October 7, 2024
4.0 out of 5 stars It is bigger than average but paperback
Haven’t finished it yet
- LaykenReviewed in Germany on February 10, 2024
5.0 out of 5 stars Great book
It is an amazing book, with an amazing writing style. I especially adore the cover and just the whole story overall. And am overall happy with the small price I had to pay.
- Carolyn ScottReviewed in Italy on July 4, 2022
4.0 out of 5 stars a story
those who wrote that this novel was too disjointed, and that they were disappointed by the ending, are missing the point, I believe. It is a well told story that suggests itself between two points in time; it's a story that draws you in, makes you feel welcomed, and the rest is really up to you. I enjoyed it and would read it again.
- Lisa Bacon-HallReviewed in Australia on June 20, 2021
4.0 out of 5 stars Mysterious
Great story or as my cousin says “a cracking read”! It certainly is a page turner, great characters and a mystery that reminded me of Picnic at Hanging Rock! This story does have a satisfying ending for me, there are elements of the supernatural but did work in this story! I loved it!