Helpful Score: 1
Emma Stonex's The Lamplighters moves between the wives' stories and the mens' last weeks together in the lighthouse. From one narrative to the next, secrets are uncovered, truths are revealed... and sometimes twisted into lies. Readers really have to keep on their toes. Whose narrative should be believed? What on earth really happened? I really liked the fact that this novel is based on a true story. This actually happened. Things like this are a feast for the imagination, and the author's interpretation is an intriguing one.
Stonex has the perfect setting: Maiden Rock, a tower light set on a rock miles from the coast of Cornwall. "Sailors' legend had it she was built on the jaws of a fossilized sea monster." Being fifteen miles southwest of Land's End, it almost sounds like "Abandon hope, all ye who enter here," doesn't it? One of the things that the author does best is to have her characters tell us the differences between being a keeper on a lighthouse on the coast where he has a snug house nearby to live in, possibly with his wife and children, and being a keeper on a tower light, one of those slender columns rising off a rock out in the open sea. Let me tell you, I'd have to be in full-out hermit mode to even consider being a keeper of a tower light.
Although all sorts of imaginative rumors swirl around the keepers' disappearance, it rapidly becomes apparent that the dynamics between the men are what's at fault. There's nothing supernatural about it at all. All readers have to do is read the varying stories the wives tell and watch the men interact with each other in the lighthouse, but it's far from easy to deduce what really happened.
There's a lot to like about The Lamplighters, and I really wish that I'd enjoyed it more. Problem is, I'm the type of reader who has to have just one character that keeps my attention, even if it's the bad guy. The further I read, the less I cared about any of the characters. It became a mere quest to find out what really happened, why and how those three men seemed to vanish without a trace.
The Lamplighters is a worthwhile read for the setting alone, and as for the characters, your mileage may certainly vary.
The Lamplighters by Emma Stonex
Stonex has the perfect setting: Maiden Rock, a tower light set on a rock miles from the coast of Cornwall. "Sailors' legend had it she was built on the jaws of a fossilized sea monster." Being fifteen miles southwest of Land's End, it almost sounds like "Abandon hope, all ye who enter here," doesn't it? One of the things that the author does best is to have her characters tell us the differences between being a keeper on a lighthouse on the coast where he has a snug house nearby to live in, possibly with his wife and children, and being a keeper on a tower light, one of those slender columns rising off a rock out in the open sea. Let me tell you, I'd have to be in full-out hermit mode to even consider being a keeper of a tower light.
Although all sorts of imaginative rumors swirl around the keepers' disappearance, it rapidly becomes apparent that the dynamics between the men are what's at fault. There's nothing supernatural about it at all. All readers have to do is read the varying stories the wives tell and watch the men interact with each other in the lighthouse, but it's far from easy to deduce what really happened.
There's a lot to like about The Lamplighters, and I really wish that I'd enjoyed it more. Problem is, I'm the type of reader who has to have just one character that keeps my attention, even if it's the bad guy. The further I read, the less I cared about any of the characters. It became a mere quest to find out what really happened, why and how those three men seemed to vanish without a trace.
The Lamplighters is a worthwhile read for the setting alone, and as for the characters, your mileage may certainly vary.
The Lamplighters by Emma Stonex
A fascinating tale; it toggles between the events leading up to the disappearance of three light keepers (inspired by actual events) while shedding light into the lives of the men and their wives, and the toll the light keepers' job had on their marriages. Lots of secrets and regrets with no way to make it right. Not only is the what-could-have-been haunting, it's a good mystery with supernatural elements. Definitely worth the read. 4 stars.
