Three men are not at the lighthouse when their relief boat arrives. The door of the lighthouse is locked and all the clocks have stopped.

This was a really interesting read and examines the lives of the wives and the families left behind. This book kept me guessing until the end.

Very apt for lockdown and the trapped sensation of being in a house with others. At least I’m not surrounded by the sea!

My thanks to Pan Macmillan/Picador for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘The Lamplighters’ by Emma Stonex in exchange for an honest review.

This work of period fiction was inspired by a real mystery: the disappearance in December 1900 of three lighthouse keepers from a remote rock light on the island of Eilean Mòr in the the Outer Hebrides. The author clearly states at the outset that her characters are fictional, rather than speculating on the fates of the real men who had vanished.

In December 1972 Cornwall both supplies and a relief keeper are ferried out to the remote Maiden Rock lighthouse. Yet they are surprised to find no sign of its three keepers. The entrance door is locked from the inside, two clocks have stopped at the same time, and a partially eaten meal is on the table. No trace is ever found despite a long investigation. All kinds of speculation surrounds the disappearances including alien abduction!

Twenty years later, the women left behind: Helen, Jenny, and Michelle have struggled to move on. Then they are approached by a writer who wants to give them the chance to tell their side of the story.
The narrative moves between events in 1972 and 1992.

I felt that Emma Stonex’s descriptions of the sea with its ever-changing moods was very evocative, as well as her chronicling of the lives of those men who took on the lonely, monotonous role of lighthouse keepers.

Overall, a tribute to a vanished way of life as well as an engaging mystery. I expect that it will be a popular choice for reading groups given its strong characterisations, atmospheric setting, and intriguing mystery.

I was hooked!

What a brilliant book. The narrative alternates between two different years, two decades apart following the disappearance of three lighthouse keepers.
Spanning back and forth between life in 1972 where you hear the accounts of Arthur, Bill and Vince who were currently manning the lighthouse to 1992 where Helen, Jenny and Michelle the partners of the missing men put across there feelings when an author comes along wanting to document the events around the time of the disappearance.

From the very first pages I was hooked with this mysterious page turner, short punchy chapters from multiple perspectives really made this book hard to put down.

The characters were so much more complex than I originally thought they would be, at the start your hooked by the need to know the events surrounding the disappearance, by half way through your hooked by the deceit and lies.. I actually don't think there was a person in the story I didn't like, each of them and their faults which really helped push the mystery element behind the story and the complexity of relationships keeps you guessing till the end.

Emma Stonex really captures the imagination with her writing. You really get to feel the intensity of emotions. Towards the end of the book the way she writes how hightened the atmosphere is within the lighthouse and how the mind starts to play games with their mental state is quite harrowing.

Thank you Pan Macmillan, picdor and NetGalley for my copy for honest review.

In 1972, a relief boat arrives at an empty lighthouse; the table is laid, the clocks are stopped and the door is bolted from the inside. The 3 lighthouse keepers have vanished without trace.

This story flits between 2 timelines, 1972 leading up to the mysterious disappearance of the keepers and 20 years later where an author, investigating the mystery for a book, contacts the remaining family of the missing. Told from the viewpoint of the 3 lighthouse keepers and their wives and girlfriends, I was quickly swept up in both the mystery and the unusual life and temperament required to work the lamps.

This was an absolute joy to read and would make a wonderful film.

This book wasn't quite was I was expecting when I requested it but I was held enthralled by the characters who are so well written. I began by wanting to know the answer to the mystery of the vanished keepers and, while the outcome was satisfying, I loved hearing the unravelling of the characters' lives even more than the final reveal - they were so convincingly drawn that I felt like I knew them intimately. This really is an astonishing debut, I've never read anything quite like it.

For me the mystery in this book is incidental. The tale is so well told and so atmospheric. What makes the lighthouse keepers do what they do and how they cope with their split lives was fascinating. Also how their wives/partners deal with separation too was interesting. In this situation so near and yet so far.
Add to that the histories and secrets of each couple made for a haunting and heartrending read. A book to be read and savoured.
Many thanks to Netgalley/Emma Stonex/Pan Macmillan for a digital copy of this title. All opinions expressed are my own.

The Lamplighters is a historical, mystery novel set across two timelines, based on a true event. We follow the story of three lighthouse keepers who disappeared from their watch in 1972 with no trace. We also see the narrative unfold 20 years in the future in 1992, with the partners of these men reflecting on the event and how it impacted their lives.

The real stand out aspect of this novel is the atmospheric setting and evocative writing. Stonex sets the scene so vividly, managing to inject a sinister tone right from the very beginning with gorgeous descriptions of the Cornish coast, grey and dreary weather and the nefarious sea.

The book uses two narrative devices that I absolutely love: dual timelines and multiple perspectives. We hear the 70’s timeline from all three of the lighthouse keepers perspectives and the 90’s timeline from all three partners perspectives, as well as a few other forms thrown in there as well (interviews, letters, newspaper articles). Although this usually works for me, I found that the characters voices didn’t feel distinct enough and I felt that it was maybe trying to do too much.

The characters themselves are all very interesting, flawed people with complex themes of mental health, grief and infidelity discussed, to name just a few. I did enjoy getting to know each of the characters and what made them tick. The distance, both physically and in time, between the lighthouse keepers and their partners made for a fascinating study of their feelings towards one another. Always a reader of character over anything else, I loved getting deeper into the minds of each of these people and seeing the themes developed more as we progressed through the story.

There is ultimately a mystery at the heart of the novel and I felt the suspense and tension build consistently throughout the reading experience. At times, it maybe lacked a bit of nuance when referring to secrets and key pieces of information we would later find out, but overall I enjoyed the mystery aspect and was compelled to race through the novel in only two sittings.

Overall, this was an enjoyable, sinister romp of a novel. A captivating mystery with vivid writing and interesting themes.

This was sooo good! really excited to recommend to my customers. I think it'll be perfect in my store. A locked room mystery at its very best! I wish I had read this whilst in Cornwall myself- very atmospheric and a fascinating story IRL!

Wow, what a story. I found this subject very interesting and wondered how the author would manage to pull off writing this mystery.
This book is well written and the descriptions of people and places leave nothing to the imagination.
I wasn't sure if I was really enjoying reading this and when I realised a lot of the dialogue is talking to the writer and then it all clicked into place for me.
I will say that by the end this story I was turning the pages faster and not wanting to put it down.
A throughly enjoyable and exciting read,
I received this arc for free and wanted to give an honest review.
Thank you to the author and #NetGalley for this opportunity.

The Lamplighters is the intriguing story of 3 lighthouse keepers who mysteriously disappear from a remote Cornish light house in 1972, the story flicks between the lead up and aftermath of the event in 1972 and the lives of those who had to pick up their lives and carry on dealing with not knowing what had happened to the three men. The Lamplighters in cleverly written and at times you feel like you are part of a conversation with the mens wives.

As the story progresses you are guided down different paths towards what really happened to the three keepers, but the end is a surprise.

A great read.

I was given a copy of The Lamplighters by NetGalley and the publishers in return for my honest review.

A deeply moving tale set amongst the dreamy Cornish landscape that plunges you into the depths of mystery and the deeper psychologies of human life, specifically those working at a lighthouse, away from their families for chunks of time.

I read the first and last 30% of this book, and listened to the 40% chunk in the middle. I absolutely adored both formats of this book. What I really enjoyed from the reading of the novel was the difference between the stories, the letters and the interviews. Entwine that with the multiple points of view and switching between the past and the present and it really worked as a concept for the novel. Listening to the novel, the voices of the narrators were fabulous, I loved the voices, I loved the easy conversation style of Helen, each had their own uniqueness that I was totally absorbed in.

I am blown away that this is based somewhat on a true story, I have so many questions and just want to dive into the truths of what happened, I understand how Stonex became so fasincated.

And that cover, gorgeous!

4.5 stars, rounded up to 5.

Thanks to NetGalley, Pan Macmillan and Emma Stonex for an eArc copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review!

The Lamplighters is a brilliant debut novel. A mystery that is based on a true event that happened back in 1900. It is very well written and very atmospheric. I look forward to reading more from this author. Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book.

Far out to sea off the Cornish coast, the Maiden lighthouse rises 50 metres above the waves; a tribute to Victorian engineering, and home to three men - principal keeper, Arthur Black, assistant keeper Bill Walker, and relative new-comer the supernumerary assistant Vince Bourne.
In December 1972 those men disappeared. The entrance door was bolted from the inside. The clocks stopped at quarter to nine. The table laid for two places. Investigators from Trident House can find no explanation for the event.

Twenty years later, Dan Sharp, a writer of maritime adventure novels, approaches the women left behind. Arthur's wife Helen has tried to accept that the men must have been washed out to sea by a freak wave - the most logical of the various explanations, she believes. Jenny, Bill's wife, refuses to believe any of the theories she's heard, insisting that somehow the men must still be alive. Younger than the other women, Vince's girlfriend Michelle is the only one who's tried to move on, marrying and having children with a man who'll never quite compare to Vince. Talking to Sharp brings back memories the women would rather forget, but maybe this way the past can eventually be laid to rest.

Inspired by the disappearance of three keepers from Scottish lighthouse in 1900, this stunning novel from Emma Stonex is a classic closed-room mystery, and an exploration of the lives of keepers and their wives - love that keeps them together, the independent temperament needed by both, the strains that long separations put on a relationship. And on almost every page, there's the sea - shimmering on a summer's day, raging in storms, calm under a full moon - and the Maiden lighthouse, almost a character in herself, standing firm through the worst weather, forming a third party in any relationship, and through loneliness and monotony ultimately twisting the men's minds.

It is a brilliant book, which had me engrossed from the first page! It has everything I want from a mystery - characters that feel like real people, lots of atmosphere, a satisfying ending, neither too prosaic nor too supernatural.
The Maiden has cast her spell over me too. There's something quite extraordinary about a man-made structure standing alone at sea. A remote island has a certain fascination but with a tower lighthouse there's no surrounding ground - the tower sits solitary above the waves. I've seen them plenty of times off the coast but never really thought about them. Now Emma Stonex has really sparked something in me - a desire to run away to a lighthouse, to feel the waves crash over it and the building shake, but still but sheltered from the elements - that's excellent writing!

This book is based on the real case where a group of lighthouse keepers went missing in the isles of Scotland but now it's England and the 70s. Also, the 90s. Seriously, this has nothing to do with this case. It really only takes the mystery disappearing and conspiracy theories.

This book references Murder, She Wrote and has our gal Jessica Fletcher hiding in a wardrobe which Fletcher has never done. I think. I watched every episode of the show last year and the films didn't exist in 1992. I've looked for this episode, can't find it. There are episodes where secret rooms and wardrobes. Is it asinine to write a full paragraph about whether a Murder, She Wrote episode exists or not, but it was the highlight of the whole novel for me. Okay, that might be overly mean.

I think this novel was not for me. There are things I should have liked. Grey characters. Mystery. I dislike the characters as people which isn't an issue for me, but I find them all boring as well so there's nothing. Everyone deserves each other. Well, the ones we spend the most time with, anyway.

The pacing is slow, this book feels longer than it actually is, I was surprised to find out that this book was only 30o pages long. The novel jumps around from when the keepers went missing to decades later where a writer is interviewing the romantic partners of the keepers as research on a book he's writing. The balance works for the most part.

I really dislike the last chapter, how the things end in the 1990s. It just made me mildly annoyed. The solution presented for the mystery is whatever, makes sense for what is presented through the story. I don't care for it, but it's fine.

Overall, I give this book 3/5 stars for Fishing Line. Sometimes books and readers do not gel together. I have no strong emotions over this book or any real criticism. It just happens sometimes that you don't enjoy something for no actual reason.

A well written and gripping book, cleverly threading superstition, isolation, longing and grief through the story of the disappearance of three lighthouse keepers. The author was able to widen the story to the effect on partners and family as well which added an extra dimension
Thank you to netgalley and Pan Macmillan for an advance copy of this book

This is getting all the hype, and it is all so so deserved. A fantastic tale of 3 lighthouse keepers and their fate. The tale of secrets and tragedy, but a chance to redeem themselves is always a possibility.

Wow - what a jolly good book! Exciting and interesting right from the start until the very end. This book is very different and is so well written that I was intrigued and captivated by the storyline all the way through. I would, without a doubt, recommend this book to readers of any genre as it has ingredients which will suit everyone.

The Lamplighters is a richly-atmospheric and stunning historical mystery 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 all week. And the clocks have all stopped at 8:45. Two decades later, the wives who were left behind are visited by a writer who is 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.

This is nothing short of a spectacular debut with an unforgettable mystery at its heart and written in some of the most exquisite prose I've encountered in a while. The mystery is a refreshingly original one and I found it impossible not to be swept up in its rich descriptions, the slow-burn unravelling of secrets and the exceptional characterisation; quite simply I was blown away by every aspect of this book. Told from the perspectives of the three wives whose husbands vanished never to be seen again, I was profoundly moved by the impact this mystery had on their lives, hopes and dreams for the future. Emma Stonex writes beautifully about the majesty of the sea and the powerful tides of loneliness and grief. The central mystery is utterly compelling, deepening and darkening as each lighthouse keeper’s secrets are revealed. Intoxicating, suspenseful and deeply moving, it’s an beguiling story of isolation, love, betrayal and obsession. This undoubtedy marks the beginning of a thrilling literary career. In this 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. I cannot recommend this highly enough.

Locked room murder mysteries are a classic of crime literature; disappearances from remote locations such as Lighthouses are also classic, though more usually of the psychological or fantasy thriller. As this story opens it is unclear if the plot will take us in one direction or the other, or on a winding path between.
Most lighthouses are on, or very near. the land. Rock lights are that rare type which stand as a pinnacle on a reef or similar rocky area some distance from the nearest occupied territory. Such lighthouses are now automatic but were traditionally manned continuously. The standard practice was to have three men, The Keeper, his Assistant and the Supernumerary, with each being rotated on separate but overlapping schedules.
One night in 1972 the last radio message from “The Maiden” concerned the arrangement for the boat to bring a replacement keeper for the one who was scheduled to leave. The next morning the boat discovered the lighthouse locked from the inside and, once the solid gunmetal door had been forced, deserted. Everything was shipshape and an abandoned meal was laid out in the kitchen. The official investigation was completed in camera and no explanation was established.
Twenty years later, a writer is interviewing the spouses and other contacts of the missing men with a view to solving the mystery. Through the eyes and memories of these people we learn of the dynamics within and between these men and their families. Was it madness, or clandestine affairs, or murder, or ghosts, or external forces from the sea or beyond?
The claustrophobic atmosphere surrounding these people and these events is extremely well drawn. The central role of the sea, as metaphor as well as driving force, is dealt with particularly well – and heightens the poetic style and feel of the book. The ending is consistent with the whole and may well come as a surprise to you.
I would like to thank NetGalley, the publishers and the author for providing me with a draft proof copy for the purpose of this review.

Thanks to the publishers and NetGalley for the ARe-copy in exchange for this honest review.
This atmospheric mystery is beautifully written incorporating evocative imagery, quiet menacing tension and spare poetic prose.
The novel examines themes of isolation, male mental health, identity and truth with a profundity that stay with you long after you have finished reading.
The imagery of the sea representing the men's emotions contrasting with the domestic metaphors of the women effectively contrast the two different worlds they occupy and how divided their relationships became.
The mystery outcome of this book was satisfying for any lover of thrillers but the real beauty of this book comes from the poetry, the emotion and the tragedy of life lived with regret.