Last week, I was walking through my local library when this book caught my eye. With its lighthouse on the cover, and after reading the back, I knew I had to read it. I have been sailing my whole life, and from before I can remember, I have been collecting lighthouses. They feel like a safe place when you’re sailing, guiding you home. The book I read is The Lamplighters by Emma Stonex.

This Lighthouse was on an island in the sea. Only with good weather could the men be taken back home. They worked at the lighthouse for around 45 days on and then a few weeks off. In the story, we follow the women years after the three men went missing at the lighthouse. They tell the story through their eyes to a writer who is going to publish a novel about it. 

The story starts with the day the company sends a ship to get Bill, Vince and Arthur off the lighthouse. There had been a storm for the past few days, and when the ship got there, there was no one in the lighthouse. The door was closed from the inside out and there were some strange things inside the lighthouse.

“In all my years, I’ve realized there are two kinds of people: the ones who hear a creak in a dark, lonely house and shut the windows because it must have been the wind, and the ones who hear a creak in a dark, lonely house, light a candle, and go take a look."

Emma Stonex, The Lamplighters

Throughout the book, you learn more about the workers and their wives. Their backstories are told, and I found out the book is more about the women and the drama that happens around them than the mystery of the lighthouse. I was a bit sad about that because I was hoping for a mystery book. I would recommend this book to someone who loves to read about how grief can affect people and how different women react to losing their partners. 

“The time I think of you the most is when the sun comes up. The moment before, the minute or two, when night yawns for morning and the sea starts to separate from the sky.”

Emma Stonex, The Lamplighters

I never really connected to the characters in this book. Most of the women irritated me and only Vince’s background had something interesting.

At the end I gave this book 3 stars.