The Lamplighters

· Picador · Narrated by Indira Varma and Tom Burke
4.0
5 reviews
Audiobook
8 hr 35 min
Unabridged
Eligible
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About this audiobook

This audiobook is narrated by Indira Varma and Tom Burke.

As recommended by the BBC Radio 2 Book Club
'A mystery, a love story and a ghost story, all at once. I didn’t want it to end' - S J Watson

They say we'll never know what happened to those men.
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 . . .

Inspired by real events, The Lamplighters by Emma Stonex is an intoxicating and suspenseful mystery, an unforgettable story of love and grief that explores the way our fears blur the line between the real and the imagined.

Ratings and reviews

4.0
5 reviews
Caroline Price
4 March 2021
Emma Stonex's novel, The Lamplighters is fiction inspired by a real event. The novel tells the story of three lighthouse keepers who vanished from their lighthouse, leaving the door locked from the inside and a log that spoke of severe weather conditions which had not occurred. . The fictional event purports to have taken place in Cornwall in 1972 and, not only does it deal with the lighthouse keepers themselves, but it also follows the three women they left behind. I didn't know what to expect when I started listening, in fact this is a difficult novel to pigeonhole but none the worse for that. It is undoubtedly filled with suspense, but it also deals with the characters' lives and relationships, it is romantic at times and almost poetic at others, it's also quite spooky! The best thing about it is that it's exceptionally well written and I was gripped by it. I must also say that the narrators, Tom Burke and Indira Varma, do a phenomenal job. Definitely recommended.
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Bella Romain
6 December 2023
Excellently written and performed. Fascinating and engaging story about the unraveling of minds on a lighthouse in the 1970s.
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About the author

Emma Stonex was born in 1983 and grew up in Northamptonshire. Before becoming a writer, she worked as an editor at a major publishing house. The Lamplighters left harbour after a lifelong passion for lighthouses and everything to do with the sea; it has been translated into more than twenty languages. She lives in the South West with her family.

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