This has to be near the top of all the great books I've read so far this year. Inspired by a haunting true story, it explores the mysterious disappearance of three lighthouse keepers from the notorious Maiden.
Arthur, Bill and Vince have spent weeks on duty, but when their relief ship arrives just after Christmas, 1972, it finds the lighthouse door locked and no trace of the men. Twenty years later, a writer decides to explore the mystery, piecing together the tragic story from press reports and interviews with the men’s grieving widows.
As the multi-voiced narrative tracks back and forwards across the years, a story emerges of complex relationships between the different parties, of love and friendship betrayed, of past tragedies and unhappy childhoods returning to haunt all three men, just as surely as the “silver man” reputedly haunts the lighthouse. There’s certainly an evil presence about the lighthouse –but is its source human or supernatural?
This is such an atmospheric read – descriptive passages evoke the power and cruelty of the sea as it crashes around the lighthouse, which takes on a persona of its own, guarding its secrets closely. Lights in the sky, albino birds, phantom keepers and chilling fables about the fate other men in other lighthouses keep up a menacing atmosphere against the sometimes prosaic chatter of the women left behind, who, despite their heartbreak, are determined to keep the light of their memories burning.