Absolutely loved this book, brilliant combination of thriller, mystery, ghost story and love story. Perfect ending too!

This is a very unusual book.

An intriguing concept, based on true events, you are given the lives of the lighthouse keepers and the families they leave behind on land. The description of living on a tower gives you an insight on how life and work would have been, battling with the elements constantly.

Reading about the wives impressions on what may have happened, giving you the impression that you were listening in on a conversation was very clever, however at times, I found myself getting confused as to who was talking and who they were talking about.

Apart from this little niggle, I enjoyed the book.

My thanks to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan for giving me the opportunity to read and review honestly.

Loved this! The mystery, the way it was written. I really enjoyed the chapters where the characters were either talking to the interviewer or themselves - it was really interesting to read. A fabulous read!

Claustrophobic and atmospheric, this is a brilliant 'locked room' mystery, based on true events. Three keepers on the Maiden lighthouse disappear without trace in 1972. Twenty years later, a writer contacts the relatives with a view to writing about the incident in order to solve the mystery. The action flips between the 70's and the 90's, each chapter told from a different perspective, allowing the reader to piece together the whole story. The depiction of life in a lighthouse, the close quarters, the monotony etc, was especially vivid. I thought this was an excellent read.

A stunning, beautifully drawn and immersive read. This book is a slow-burning mystery with the most wonderful setting. I loved it.

The Lamplighters by Emma Stonex
Biscuit Rating: Spiced Stem Ginger Cookies

The novel opens with a newspaper report of a remote Cornish lighthouse, accessible only by boat, found to be completely abandoned. The table had been set for dinner, the clocks stopped, the door locked from the inside, and no sign of the three men expected to be there - Principle Keeper Arthur Black, Assistant Keeper Bill Walker and Supernumerary Vincent Bourne.

Twenty years later, a novel writer, known for his maritime adventure stories, wants to write about the mystery of the missing men, and seeks out the assistance of the three women the men had left behind, as he believes there is still information to discover that may resolve the mystery.

In flashbacks to 1972, we follow the three men’s thoughts and actions leading up to the disappearance. Each is on the lighthouse for their own reasons, and each deals with the solitary life differently. Shifts can last for weeks on end for each man, living in the tight confines of a lighthouse with only two other men and their own thoughts for company. The sea and the weather almost become characters in their own right, with moods and whims that impact the lives of the men, and the environment is so beautifully written, I felt I was living in that small space too. As the days in the tower go by, the time at sea dragging on, you feel the claustrophobia increasing as the walls seemingly close in. And being stranded out at sea doesn’t mean that shore-life can’t catch up with you. With supernatural elements being woven in, you begin to question what’s real, who is telling the truth, and will we ever know what truly happened?

Life on shore has its own loneliness too. The women left ashore, Helen, Jenny and Michelle, are thrown together only by the jobs of their men. Being left to build a life, with their men coming and going for long periods, has its own stresses. And then when the unthinkable happens, and the men disappear - how do you rebuild from that? How do you grieve when there’s no body to grieve over? Will the men return? Each of the women are dealing with their own secrets and issues, and their relationship with each other has become strained or broken. Each of the women deals with living with not knowing in a different way. One is able to move on, another still holds out hope of a return. As each woman talks to the writer, they reexamine past events and secrets begin to see the light of day.

The novel is so well researched and written, I found myself yearning to be near the sea whilst reading it. It drags you in like a rogue current and doesn’t let you go until the end.

Based on true events and the stories of a lighthouse. Makes you want to read on. Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for letting me review this book.

I loved this atmospheric book set on a lighthouse off the Cornish coast.
I really enjoyed how the chapters where the characters were talking to the author were the ladies talking uninterrupted, almost like a stream of consciousness.

This was a book I knew I was going to love, and I really, really did.
It drew me in right from the start and kept me turning the pages all the way through.
All six of the main characters are brilliant. I loved learning snippets of their back stories through the story as to why they are the way they are now.
Learning about life in a lighthouse was fascinating.
And I was fully immersed in the mystery of it all until the reveal. I didn’t see “who did it” until they actually did it.
An incredibly easy 5 stars.

The Lamplighters is a debut novel by Emma Stonex. The story is inspired by the real life disappearance of three lighthouse keepers, who disappeared from the Outer Hebrides in 1900.
Our story starts in 1972, during heavy seas, when the boat carrying the relief keeper arrives. The crew find The Maiden devoid of life, with no sign or evidence of what may have happened to the three keepers.
We switch between timelines, 1972, when the men went missing, and 1992, when an author becomes interested in the mystery. This is when we meet Helen and Jenny, the widows of two of the men, and Michelle, the girlfriend of the youngest keeper.
As I start this review, I’m genuinely unsure how I felt about the book. The book is a slow burner, the language is lyrical and meandering, we learn so much of the daily minutiae of life in a tower light. The sea and the lighthouse itself, are living, breathing creatures, with personalities, feelings and grudges. The keepers have so much time for introspection, so much space, for every aspect of their lives to be over-examined, to the nth degree.
The book is described as part mystery, part ghost story and part love story. Having read the book, written this review, I am still not certain of how I would classify it myself. If you are looking for a read, which is more about the journey than the destination, then you could well be swept away in the pages.
I know that so many others have loved reading The Lamplighters, but it didn’t click with me, it didn’t talk to me like the sea talks to the keepers. Just 3* stars from me.

The Mystery of Flannan Isle is a poem that has always unsettled me. The idea of three men disappearing from a locked lighthouse, a table laid for an uneaten meal and two stopped clocks is unnerving. The remoteness of the lighthouse setting and the effect of such enforced loneliness seems the perfect make-up for something tragic. The knowledge that what happened might never be known means the story is ripe for imagining.
In The LampLighters Emma Stonex takes the bare bones of this story, transposes them to a remote Cornish setting and goes to town in allowing us to consider what might have taken place.
The mystery is definitely one you want answered, but (rather surprisingly) I’m not at all disappointed by the ambiguity of the ending. A myriad of possibilities are offered, all plausible, and it seems fitting that we remain unsure right to the end.
Stonex splits the narrative between the view of the keepers and their partners. We are given an insight into their lives before this unexplained tragedy and the effect of such an experience on those left behind. We learn the minutiae of life in such a remote setting, and the routines that are adopted to make such a life bearable. Along the way we also learn some less palatable truths about each of those involved in this story.
I end the story no closer to knowing what happened, but I found myself caught up in its telling. Thanks to NetGalley for granting me access to this prior to publication.

Very interesting concept for a book. Based on a true story but Emma Stonex has fictionalised it. Three lighthouse keepers go missing in the 1970s leaving their families asking one question of What happened? Flashing forwards and backwards in time with the accounts of everybody involved, the story is well written and offers a variety of speaking voices. I liked this book from its mystery point of view. A great read.

The book is inspired by a real life event in December 1900, where three lighthouse keepers vanished from their remote lighthouse in the Outer Hebrides. This book and it’s characters is, however, a work of fiction. The book has been very well researched and there are some real life accounts in there drawn from the author’s thorough research of life living in a lighthouse. I did love the authors nod to the original story by mentioning a tern which lives in the Outer Hebrides and I enjoyed getting to know what it is like to live on a lighthouse. Not for me at all.

This story is set on the Maiden lighthouse, 15 miles off Land’s End.

I loved the premise of the story which is almost a locked room mystery. When a relieving keeper is taken to the lighthouse, the crew find the steel door to the lighthouse locked from the inside. When they enter the tower, they find nothing is disturbed. The clocks have stopped at 8.45. The table is laid for only two people. Everything is spic and span, the way lighthouse keepers live.

The story is written along a dual timeline by multiple narrators. The 1972 story is written in chapters by the three men living and working on the lighthouse. We get to know the men, about their home lives, their secrets and their psychological state of mind, which goes downhill the longer they are on the lighthouse.

We also have a time line set 20 years later when an author decides he will write a book about the incident in his search for the truth. By interviewing the wives left behind he is opening up old wounds. Not all of those left behind are prepared to talk to the author This timeline has alternating chapters told by the wives.

As the book progresses we delve further into the lives of the keepers and the ones they left behind.

The descriptive writing, especially of the sea, is amazing.

I did find the story hard going as I felt I had to concentrate with all the different characters and their chapters and the intertwining of their stories, same stories from different viewpoints. The characters were not particularly likeable and I didn’t feel I got to know any of them particularly well. I’m also one of those readers where I find reading about animal cruelty horrific and there are a couple of scenes toward the end of the book I don’t feel were necessary.

I wasn’t sure whether the story had supernatural elements or if it was just all in the minds of the keepers.

Thank you to NetGalley and Picador for a review copy of this interesting debut.

This novel has a quiet, haunting quality even in the ‘modern’ setting in 1992 where we hear the voices of the windows and girlfriend of the missing lighthouse keepers from 1972. The speculation, loss, and betrayals weave back and forth between the years. In equal parts mystery and family drama, Emma Stonex has written a novel which will stay with the reader for some time. I also dipped in and out of the audio book which I can also recommend.

Thanks to Netgalley and Pan MacMillan Picador for a review copy.

Locked lighthouse mystery

In an intriguing twist on the traditional locked-room mystery, three keepers vanish after being holed up in a sea-washed lighthouse.

The Lamplighters is inspired by the Flannan Isles tragedy in Scotland in 1900, where three lighthouse keepers disappeared without a trace. As with the real-life case, the lighthouse in the novel is discovered with all the clocks stopped and the table prepared for a meal.

Stonex’s depiction of the claustrophobia of the lighthouse is convincing, as is her evocation of the sea and storms.

Though while the premise was initially intriguing, the reader is perhaps made to travel between too many times and points of view - it got slightly confusing for me.

Thank you so much to Pan Macmillan and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Three lighthouse keepers miraculously disappear one night, the door is locked from the inside and food is on the table, so where did they go? Twenty years later the case is reopened by a famous author who wants to write a novel based on the disappearance but interviewing the wives and girlfriends left behind. But the cover up goes deeper than anyone ever thought..

This is definitely a slow paced, eerie thriller that keeps you guessing. I liked the atmosphere created and how this had aspects of domestic thriller, ghost stories, old fisherman tales and company conspiracies. It was great at exploring both grief and isolation.

However, due to the jumping back and fore, I did find it hard to connect to any of the characters, and found it difficult to follow what was happening on some occasions.

I enjoyed the ending and how we were questioning all three men up until the end. I would definitely consider reading more from this author in the future.

Thank you to Netgalley and Pan Macmillan for providing me with a copy to read!

The Lamplighters by Emma Stonex is a story of the lighthouse keepers and how three men from the Maiden Rock lighthouse disappeared Boxing Day 1972. When the relief crewman came to take over no- one was there although the lighthouse was locked up.
Will the mystery ever be solved? It is coming up to twenty years when the men disappeared overnight. When a writer appears wanting to make a story of the men and the mystery.
Highly recommended.

Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for providing an ARC of this book.

I knew of the real life story that this is loosely based on so I thought I knew what to expect with this book but I enjoyed it even more than I thought possible. The style of storytelling and the details of lighthouse life really engaged me.

I was sent a copy of The Lamplighters by Emma Stonex to read and review by NetGalley. I have to admit I had high hopes for this novel though my actual experience of it was not quite as good as expected. I enjoyed the experience of the men living and working together within the confines of the lighthouse, but I found that the background stories of the women left at home rather lacking. Everything was a bit disjointed and when a book is touted as a mystery/thriller you expect a little tension here and there. Ultimately, I felt that the writing was somewhat cold and matter of fact and I think that much more could have been made of the ghostly/ethereal aspect of the story. I also didn’t think that it was necessary to tie things up so completely at the end.

This was a story full of people's emotions and describing in depth the details of life on and off shore for the lamplighters and their families.I found that it was fascinating to read the parts about life on the Maiden Tower and how lighthouses worked prior to electrification. The book showed that there was a lot of detailed research that went into this aspect.
The story itself was based on two aspects separated by 20 years. life prior to the disappearance and then the lives of the surviving women and how they looked at the disappearance of the 3 men. I found this a very emotive story although I did think that it was slow paced and I never really felt that the disappearance was in the forefront of the story.
The ending did not resolve the situation but it was an unexpected compassionate ending.