Welcome Readers!
This month the Online Reading Challenge is focusing on mystery. Our main title for February is The Lamplighters by Emma Stonex. Here’s a quick summary from the publisher:
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. – Penguin Books
Looking for some other books that are mysteries? Try any of the following.
- Happiness Falls by Angie Kim
- In the Woods by Tana French
- Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz
- The Beekeeper’s Apprentice by Laurie R. King
- The Last Policeman by Ben H. Winters
- The River We Remember by William Kent Krueger
- The Stranger Diaries by Elly Griffiths
- The Violin Conspiracy by Brendan Slocumb
As always, check each of our locations for displays with lots more titles to choose from!