Description
They say we’ll never know what happened to those men. They say the sea keeps its secrets . . .
‘A mystery, a love story and a ghost story, all at once. I didn’t want it to end’ S J Watson
Cornwall, 1972.
Three keepers vanish from a remote lighthouse, miles from the shore. The entrance door is locked from the inside. The clocks have stopped.
The Principal Keeper’s weather log describes a mighty storm, but the skies have been clear all week. What happened to those three men, out on the tower? The heavy sea whispers their names. The tide shifts beneath the swell, drowning ghosts.
Can their secrets ever be recovered from the waves? Twenty years later, the women they left behind are still struggling to move on. Helen, Jenny and Michelle should have been united by the tragedy, but instead it drove them apart. And then a writer approaches them.
He wants to give them a chance to tell their side of the story. But only in confronting their darkest fears can the truth begin to surface . . . Inspired by real events, The Lamplighters is an intoxicating and suspenseful mystery, an unforgettable story of love and grief that explores the way our fears blur the line between the real and the imagined.
Paula Fullerton (verified owner) –
After seeing all the positive reviews of this books I was intrigued. Surely it couldn’t be that good but, reader, it is. Every character is flawed and all the more interesting for it. The intense claustrophobic atmosphere of the lighthouse only adds to the suspense. I was gripped from start to end and without giving anything away the end left me reeling. It will stay with my for a long time.
Laura Besley –
‘The Lamplighters’ (Picador, 2021) by Emma Stonex centres around the disappearance of three lightkeepers from the Maiden Rock Lighthouse in 1972 and a re-examining of the facts in the present day.
The details in depicting the daily routines of the lightkeepers brought the characters, and a now redundant job, to life. The mundanity and the loneliness, amongst others, reminded me of ‘An Island’ (Holland House, 2019) by Karen Jennings in which the main character also lives in a lighthouse. Alongside the 1972 sections is the modern day thread which reads like a thriller with more and more secrets being unearthed to build up a better picture of events.
This is a hugely atmospheric and intriguing novel.