The Lamplighters: Emma Stonex

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It was the typical “there was something nasty in the woodshed” moment and rather than making the story or characters more intriguing, it just made me guess several of the twists early on.

Flannan Isles Vanishing: the power of an enduring mystery The Flannan Isles Vanishing: the power of an enduring mystery

Bill was struggling with his marriage and felt that he needed to get away from his wife. Vince had been struggling with his identity and felt that he needed to start a new life as a woman. 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? Stars. I wish to extend my heartfelt thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins Canada for this atmospheric and haunting book. Its author, Emma Stonex, was inspired by the mysterious, unsolved disappearance of three lighthouse keepers in 1900 from a lighthouse in the Outer Hebrides. Interesting accounts of this true disappearance can be found by googling the Eilean Mor lighthouse. The sea will turn on you if you’re not paying attention; it changes its mind in the snap of a finger and it doesn’t care who you are.’ I also find it unrealistic in a story that everyone is unhappy, unfaithful, loves another, doesn’t love the one they’re with, loves the one they’re with but they love another, grieving for a loved one… literally everyone was unhappy. Also the culmination saw three people considering murder at the same time, is that likely? I also felt the end, not only with its supernatural element seemed unlikely, surely they would have hit the base of the lighthouse rather than the sea? It was also unrealistic that blood and a struggle could have been totally cleaned up, forensics would have found evidence. How sad the only planted evidence they found pointed to the innocent person.But when they disappear without a trace, leaving behind only a cryptic message in the lighthouse logbook, the mystery begins.

The Lamplighters by Emma Stonex | Goodreads The Lamplighters by Emma Stonex | Goodreads

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 . . . In 1992 a writer, Dan Sharp, approaches the wives of Arthur and Bill, and Vince’s girlfriend at the time. He writes adventure stories based on the sea but now he wants to write about the disappearances from the Maiden. Each of the characters was broken in some way, which just added to feel of this book following on the same trend of cliched mystery novels of recent years. This was not unlike a Ruth Ware novel.Throughout the book, the reader is taken on a journey of discovery, as we learn about the lives of the three men, their struggles, and their secrets. We discover that Arthur had been dealing with guilt over an incident in his past, and felt that he needed a fresh start. An atmospheric, slow-moving, well-rounded mystery centered around a real-life disappearance of lighthouse keepers.