The Lamplighters is one of those books I picked up entirely at the wrong time.

Three men, lighthouse keepers, vanish mysteriously leaving their partners wondering why. It's a mystery at it's core, inspired by the lives of real lighthouse keepers and this is where the problem lay. It's very isolated. The characters are in a form of quarantine, describing the same rooms in the same tower day-after-day and even their partners, who are allowed to see other people, live isolated lives afterwards. It's all very lonely.

It's also a hugely character focused story and I didn't really like any of the characters. A lot hinges on peoples' secrets so it was one of those books where not a lot happens. It's all very introspective. That, added to the overall isolation, meant this book was really not a good read for right now.

What I did like were the initial chapters describing nautical life and the interesting facts about lighthouses and the lives led by lighthouse keepers. Beyond that, it sadly wasn't for me.

I loved this book! It was creepy, dramatic and just perfect for a cold evening curled up under a blanket. Thank you netgalley for the opportunity to read this title in return for an honest review.

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.

I was surprised by how much this story grabbed me. Intriguing and haunting, will leave you feeling uneasy. You can almost feel the loneliness of the sea.

Set in both 1972 and 1992, the book focuses in the men of the lighthouse and the women left behind with questions that can never be answered.

A great read for any mystery lover

A thought provoking story about three lighthouse men vanishing while out at their tower. I found my imagination working overtime in an enjoyable way as I read the comments and interaction of the wives and girlfriend of these men. This novel is based around a true story, but I was not aware of the incident.

When I started reading this book it initially wasn’t quite what I expected, I thought I’d be reading something pacy and creepy, but actually this book is much better this way. The pace and tone are perfect and all the better for it. It is a slow meandering tale which weaves together the life’s of the lighthouse men and their families. This story is so full of strong emotions of grief and loneliness and the atmosphere created is so consuming and very real. This book grows on you as you become immersed in everyone’s stories and it is very moving. This story is part historical novel, and part mystery with ghostly undertones but most definitely a beautifully written book.

The introduction of this story explains that it's based on a real situation, which remains a mystery, but that the personalities of the people involved are totally fictionalised.

The format of the story varies. It starts with four chapters written in present tense to establish the circumstances of the mystery and introduce characters. It then follows a journalist's investigation mostly written in past tense, but there are letters, news stories and one-sided conversations that fill in information. Somehow it works.

We slowly learn about each of the missing men, their wives and the relationships between them as well as the circumstances that brought each of them to this lighthouse tower. Along the way, we also learn a lot about how this occupation works, with provided housing and shifts that take the men to the tower for weeks at a time while their wives learn to live on their own for that time and adapt to frequent changes.

I wondered what research the author did because it sounded so authentic, but that was explained in the Acknowledgements at the end, that she read books with stories of lighthouse men, some of them written first hand. It certainly worked well!

The twist at the end caught me completely by surprise. That's all I'll say about it. I followed the clues like crumbs and came to the obvious solution only to be completely blindsided.

I found the story interesting along the way and feel that I've gained a new understanding of what life was like for the keepers before it all got taken over by machines. A very interesting reading experience.

What a fascinating and truly original story, which kept me guessing right up until the final chapter.

An unusual book about 3 men who worked together on a lighthouse before automatation. It is a story based on a true life event. It flips from the present back to before they went missing so you eventually discover what happened. An author has decided he wants to write a book about the tradegy and has to persuade the wives and girlfriend to speak to him. It is well written and evocative of how bleak it must have been working and living together in such a small space for months at a time. I look forward to reading more by this author.

Based on a true story of three lighthouse keepers, who disappear, without trace in Cornwall around the turn of the century. Did they drown or did something more mysterious happen. No one can explain.

The story is told from the perspective of all three lamplighters, and their partners spanning 70 or more years. Everyone has a story to tell and secrets to share.

The story unfurls with the help of a reporter, who is trying to find answers to this mystery. It’s an unusual style of writing, but a clever way of making it feel like you’re part of this investigation in quite an intimate way.

The ending for me was a bit disappointing, but maybe that was because I was looking for a conclusion that I didn’t find. Definitely worth reading.

What a novel! I'd give this one ten stars if possible. It's such a cleverly plotted, riveting read. I've read a memoir of someone who once lived and worked in a lighthouse similar to the one in the book and i did wonder how authentic the writer's lighthouse would be. She has clearly done her research and understands not just their pull and isolation but their claustrophobia and how unforgiving the sea can be.
The Lamplighters follows two different timelines, what happens when three men all disappear from a locked lighthouse tower out at sea. The door is bolted from the inside. Both wall clocks have stopped at exactly the same time. Twenty years on their wives/partners still haven't come to terms with just how those three men disappeared.
An author wants to give each woman a chance to tell her side of the story and that's when we learn about each of those men, why they so coveted the chance to work out at sea and just what really happened when they disappeared. We also discover precisely why each woman has had nothing to do with the other two since the tragedy occurred.
Some passages took my breath away. There are pages I'd read again and again for their hauntingly brilliant descriptions of the sea, fog and eeriness associated with isolation. This is a triumph and look forward to reading more from this author.

Perhaps I didn’t read the summary carefully enough but this is not the book I thought I had decided to read. Don’t get me wrong; it’s got plenty of positives but the eventual reveal at the end of the book of the ‘mystery’ of three lighthouse keepers disappearing without trace from a manned lighthouse in 1972 has little to do with the unfolding narrative in the main body of the book.
So, let’s review the strengths: the writing is very effective at establishing an atmosphere - time, place, the ‘feeling’ of the relationships; the use of six separate perspectives in telling the story allows the reader to spend some time in the heads of each character - a clever plot device; and the writing exhibits flashes of particularly fine phrases, even if they do feel a bit too contrived sometimes.
For this reader, however, the unsurprising explanation of the disappearances the lighthouse keepers, the rather dreary lives of the central characters and the sense that, sometimes, the writer was trying too hard to write a ‘good book’ meant that it left a sense of disappointment on completing the novel. This was especially the case given that the tempo of the writing had meant that it was read very quickly, so an ending tinged with anticlimax was particularly disappointing. Clearly, however, my views represent a minority opinion amongst the readers of the book!

Although this was a very interesting story with an original theme I struggled to connect with both the characters and concept at the centre of the disappearance in which the novel revolved around. If you're interested in lighthouses then you might enjoy it more than I did, with a story revolving around those who work in the lighthouses and those who are left behind when a group of men mysteriously disappear from a lighthouse built on a rock of the Cornwall coast in a story set in the early 1970s. Although It is a combination of fiction with some factual elements thrown in based on a real incident from the 19th century I found it hard going with a plot which moved backwards and forwards in time with a non-fiction writer investigating the mystery many years later.

I found this book quite hard going. The pressure was great, on a lighthouse on the English cost in the 1970s, where three letters mysteriously disappeared. The book moves forward in time where an author is getting in contact with their wives to try and find out more. I found it a bit hard to keep track of which woman was which, as the two main wives were written in a similar style until we were quite far into the story. I enjoyed the details about what life was like on a lighthouse, but as we find out more about each character it became more dream like and disjointed. There were a few parts where I was not sure what was meant to have really happened, or of it was a hallucination or lie. This might be the result of it being a speculative story based on a real event.

This is a well written and interesting book. currently, there is a fascination with other people's occupations from Baking cakes to Gold Mining in Alaska. In this book you are taken to the period in time when the role of Lighthouse keeper was an essential part of our island nation's history. The loneliness and psycological stresses of the solitary lighthouse life observed within the hierachy and maritime legacy of Trinity house, the governing body make a compelling narative. It opens a facinating window on this traditional hero facing the might of the elements to safeguard our nations seafarers. This story starts with a profound mystery and when the solution comes it has its causes in the entirely believable stresses that extend to the Lighthouse Keepers nearest kin.

An intriguing story. It had me fooled right until the end. A rather disjointed way of telling it but nonetheless very readable.

When I saw this book I automatically requested it. I expected a book full of intrigue and mystery but sadly I just found it quite lacking.

I enjoyed the timeline from 1976 about the activities on the lighthouse and I thought the writing was excellent.

However when it went back to the 90's timelines to the wives, something was lacking but to be honest I can't quite grasp what that is.

It is based on a true story and I am sure I have possibly either read or watched something about it and maybe that didn't help.

What happened to the three lighthouse keepers? This is the mystery that The Lamplighters slowly unravels from the viewpoints of the keepers and their loved ones who were left behind.

I found The Lamplighters to have an almost dream like quality to it, especially when getting closer to the end. It was well written and I really did want to know what happened to the three men. It left me feeling pretty sad, but I’m glad I read it.

What a great mystery, and I do love the fact it is based on a real event.

The story flits between two time frames - the early 70s where three keepers are working on an offshore tower lighthouse, and twenty years later where their partners are still trying to fathom the mystery - the mystery of what happened to the three men.

Where could the men have gone, when the door is locked from the inside, the two clocks have been stopped at the same time, and a fictitious stormy weather log is discovered.

This is a story of relationships - between the keepers, the long distance relationship between their partners, and with the sea. It's a wild and mysterious read, and will keep you guessing even beyond the end given the fact it's based on a real mystery.

On New Year’s Eve 1972, a small boat sets out from the Cornish coast bound for the Maiden Tower lighthouse 15 miles off land. It’s bringing fresh supplies and a relief lighthouse keeper but when the boat reaches the Maiden there’s no-one to meet them. The mystery deepens when a second boat with a 12 man crew arrives the next day to find that the tower door is locked from the inside, that the clocks have both stopped at 8.45am and that only 2 places have been set at the table instead of three. When they look at the weather log it records a raging storm but the sea has been calm all week. No trace of the three lighthouse keepers is ever found and their loved ones were left never knowing what happened to them.
20 years later, a writer called Dan Sharp arrives, determined to solve the mystery, and begins to interview the wives and former girlfriend of the three men; Helen, Jenny and Michelle. But they’re not telling him everything. Instead they’ve lived with the mystery in their own ways and have their own theories.
I loved this book right from the beginning. Its descriptions of the sea: its colours, its moods and the way that it isolates the men by surrounding them and cutting them off from their other lives on land. The women left behind know that the Maiden is their rival. The men look forward to their stints on her as a way to escape. She is their mistress. But it’s a vanishing way of life and the lighthouse keepers cottages are now holiday lets.
It’s a dark tale with betrayal, a love affair and also a strong supernatural atmosphere. As the interviews begin it soon becomes apparent that it is the things that are left unsaid that give the novel its power.
The women have carried on with their lives but the Maiden will keep her secrets to the very end.
One of my favourite books of this year.
My thanks to Picador and Netgalley for an ARC.

I get goosebumps when you read stories based on true life tales and this is no exception. Three lighthouse keepers really did go missing. What happened to them? This author has taken a cracking premise and really made it her own story. It's well written and captivating and so immersive in style and setting. A nod to the past with mystery wrapped round a puzzle waiting to be solved....