The Lamplighters

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.

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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