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Title details for The Lamplighters by Emma Stonex - Available

The Lamplighters

A Novel

by Emma Stonex
ebook
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1 of 1 copy available
“Transported me effortlessly…Haunting, harrowing and heartbreaking, this is a novel that will stay with you.” —Ashley Audrain, New York Times bestselling author of The Push

“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.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    March 16, 2021

  • Formats

    • Kindle Book

    • OverDrive Read

      • ISBN: 9781984882165

    • EPUB ebook

      • ISBN: 9781984882165
      • File size: 1234 KB

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from January 25, 2021
      British author Stonex’s spectacular debut wraps a haunting mystery in precise, starkly beautiful prose. In 1972, a boatman arrives at the desolate Maiden Rock lighthouse off the coast of Mortehaven, Cornwall, to pick up one of its three keepers for a scheduled break. Instead, he finds the trio—principal keeper Arthur Black; Black’s junior, Bill Walker; and third-in-command Vincent Bourne—gone. The tower is locked from the inside, the log chronicles strange storms that never happened, and the clocks are stopped at 8:45. Twenty years later, a writer determined to crack the unsolved mystery contacts the women the lighthouse keepers left behind. Now living in Bath, Helen Black returns to Mortehaven twice a year to commemorate her husband. She writes regularly to Bill’s wife, Jenny, hoping to be forgiven for Bill’s onetime obsession with her, but Jenny discards the letters in anger. Now in a troubled marriage, Vince’s former girlfriend, Michelle Davies, is sure that he played no role in the disappearance, despite his earlier brushes with the law. 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. Agent: Madeleine Milburn, Madeleine Milburn Literary, TV, & Film Agency.

    • Booklist

      February 1, 2021
      Stonex's story is based on a real-life event in 1900, when three lighthouse keepers disappeared from their remote lighthouse in the Outer Hebrides and were never seen again. This tale begins on New Year's Eve 1972 and focuses on Arthur, Bill, and Vince, the keepers at an isolated lighthouse off the Cornish coast. Just before they're due home for shore leave, they disappear. Fast-forward 20 years, and the three men's families are still in limbo because the mystery of what happened has never been solved. Now, however, a respected author has decided to investigate. He finds three women who have dealt very differently with the men's disappearance, but all three are still haunted by it. What might have happened is seen through flashbacks and the individual stories told by the missing keepers. 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. A fine read.

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Formats

  • Kindle Book
  • OverDrive Read
  • EPUB ebook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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