The Lamplighters

A Novel

By: Emma Stonex

Narrated by: Tom Burke, Indira Varma

Length: 8 hrs and 34 mins

Publisher's summary

“Transported me effortlessly…Haunting, harrowing and heartbreaking, this is a novel that will stay with you.” (Ashley Audrain, New York Times best-selling 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.

©2021 Emma Stonex (P)2021 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

"The Lamplighters is magnificent. It is a debut novel as compelling as a classic ghost story; it is a locked-room mystery that exposes every secret we wish to keep safe at home. This book will take hold of you, guide you over the waves, and then plunge you under. Read it.” (Julia Phillips, best-selling author of Disappearing Earth)

“Beautiful, absorbing and utterly riveting, The Lamplighters is a hymn to loneliness, to the sea, and to the stories we allow ourselves to believe when we are alone. I treasured every moment of this dazzlingly accomplished and completely unforgettable novel.” --Rosie Walsh, author of The Love of My Life

“Superbly accomplished.... The Lamplighters is a whodunnit, horror novel, ghost story and fantastically gripping psychological investigation rolled into one. It is also a pitch-perfect piece of writing.” (The Guardian (London))

Not up to the hype

The story is not good enough and not interesting.
Takes ages to develop and the result isn’t worth it

An Amazing Book

I really enjoyed this. I couldn't stop reading. narrator was fantastic like I was there.

Imaginative & Evocative

Part of what makes The Lamplighters so enjoyable for me is its structure that offers both third person and first person perspectives, and several points of view, plus two time periods. This works very well with the mysterious, unsolved disappearance of the three lamplighters, and their haunted wives. The writing is evocative and occasionally poetic, especially in the description of the weather in the minds of the men in the lighthouse. I am satisfied by the solution Stonex gives to the puzzle of their disappearance.

Performances lacked any type of voice differentiation between characters

Because the female voice didn’t change in tone at all between characters and neither did the male, it was hard to tell who was talking or remembering. This was particularly difficult with this story because it was something that made it much more confusing than it already was. The novel itself would be much better read than listened to.

Three vanish in a locked lighthouse

A writer goes on a quest to find out what happened to three lighthouse keepers that vanished off of a lighthouse that was locked from the inside.
Set 20 years after the fact, each wife is interviewed, all having their own theories and secrets. The narratives includes the keepers themselves, supposedly leading to the actual answers.
It's an interesting listen, exposing the inner thoughts of six people and how things can be misconstrued by others.
The narrators did a nice job, bringing the characters to life.

Go towards the light.....

I was hoping for a real suspense story. What I got was a lot of suspense and a lot of interpersonal relationships. At times the story dragged. But the last several chapters were brilliant

a mystery among an almost forgotten vocation

An intriguing mystery among an almost forgotten way of life. There has long been a romantic notion of what lighthouse keeping is. This book peels back the layers of romance to show a reader, that like all things we think would be blissful and romantic in lifestyle, are certainly not. An enjoyable read and a surprising ending.

Could not stop listening

This book was fascinating. Learning about lighthouse keepers was fascinating. Hearing the story unfold from the perspective of all the different narrators was intriguing and the narrators themselves did a fantastic job with the voices. Sometimes after leaving the book for a bit, I’d come back to it and without even looking, I could tell from the narration which character I was hearing. I recommend this book.

Excellent performance! Thoroughly enjoyed this atmospheric mystery!

Perfect atmospheric novel for a rainy day. A true mystery without gore, made propulsive by jumping back and forth in time and through different perspectives. The audio performance was excellent.

boring

this book dragged on and on, and I would lose track of what was happening.