Welcome to my stop on The Lamplighters blog tour! Huge thanks to Pan Macmillan and Midas PR for giving me the opportunity to take part in this! I was provided a copy of the novel in exchange for an honest review.
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
Publication Date: 04/03/2021
Length: 368 pages
Genre: Historical Fiction | Mystery
CW: n/a
They say we’ll never know what happened to those men.
GoodReads
They say the sea keeps its secrets…
Cornwall, 1972. Three keepers vanish from a remote lighthouse, miles from the shore. The entrance door is locked from the inside. The clocks have stopped. The Principal Keeper’s weather log describes a mighty storm, but the skies have been clear all week.
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?
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 . . .
Review
In this novel we get to know Helen, Jenny and Michelle as well as their men, Arthur, Bill and Vince who disappeared twenty years ago. I loved the way that this novel would alternate between the men of the past and the women of the present. Each character is incredibly complex with a lot to uncover as the novel continues. By having the alternating narratives the reader is simultaneously in a positron where they know more than some of the characters, but also filled with even more questions from gaining that information. I also really tried how different the characters were to each over even though they all have similar experiences.
In particular I really liked Helen and Vince, two very different characters. Helen. is Arthur’s wife who is very headstrong and independent. I liked how much of a realist she was, yet she had a really interesting view of the lighthouse tower. Vince was very different from the other men in the lighthouse. He is very new to the job therefore he had a very different perspective compared to the other two who were much more subdued. Although, I did still enjoy Bill’s cynicism and how Arthur felt relief when he was there.
The alternating perspectives that tell this story do an excellent job of building tension and suspense which kept the hooked and unable to put the book down. Not only does Stonex alternate perspectives but she also changes the style of narrative too, as well as the letters and articles I especially loved how the interview scenes were written. I thought by addressing the readers as if they are the author writing about this mysterious and tragic event, was a very clever and engaging way of avoiding what could be just endless dialogue.
Overall, I really enjoyed this novel and can totally understand all the hype surrounding this novel, it is a great mystery that will keep you guessing. If you haven’t proved this novel up yet, what are you waiting for? This should definitely be your next read.
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