The Lamplighters
Meet Me At The Lighthouse
The Light Keeper
The Light Between Oceans
The Lighthouse Keeper’s Daughter
The Lighthouse
Every Single Secret by Christina Dodd – CALIFORNIA
Thriller set in SOUTHERN FRANCE
10 Great Books with a Lighthouse at their Heart
8th February 2025
10 great books with a lighthouse at their heart.
Lighthouses, majestic sentinels of the coast, have guided mariners for centuries. These iconic structures, often perched dramatically on cliffs or rocky islands, emit beams of light to warn ships of danger and guide them safely to shore.
From the ancient Lighthouse of Alexandria to the modern marvels of coastal navigation, lighthouses have played a vital role in maritime history.
They stand as symbols of hope and resilience, their beams cutting through the darkness and offering a beacon of safety in the face of stormy seas.
The Lamplighters by Emma Stonex – CORNWALL
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 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.
Meet Me At The Lighthouse by Mary Jayne Baker – EAST YORKSHIRE
A birthday. A lighthouse. And the love of her life…
Bobbie Hannigan’s life is perfectly fine, but that doesn’t stop her from wanting a bit of adventure. To throw caution to the wind and buy a lighthouse. Armed with her new purchase, she decides to turn it into a music venue with the help of local musician, Ross Mason, the first boy she ever kissed.
Determined to keep things professional, Bobbie tried to forget the past, but the happily-ever-after they’re working towards is too good to resist. That is, until someone from the past crawls back to cause trouble. Can Bobbie look past the secrets Ross has been keeping from her? Or will the boy, the lighthouse, and the dream all slip away?
Escape to the Yorkshire coast with this laugh out loud romantic comedy from Mary Jayne Baker!
The Light Keeper by Cole Moreton – EAST SUSSEX
Sarah stands on the brink, arms open wide as if to let the wind carry her away.
She s come to the high cliffs to be alone, to face the truth about her life, to work out what to do.
Her lover Jack is searching, desperate to find her before it is too late. But Sarah doesn t want to be found. Not yet. Not by him.
And someone else is seeking answers up here where the seabirds soar a man known only as the Keeper, living in an old lighthouse right on the cusp of a four-hundred-foot drop. He is all too aware that sometimes love takes you to the edge.
The Light Between Oceans by M L Stedman – SOUTH WEST AUSTRALIA
The story takes place in Southern Australia, just after the First World War. Tom Sherbourne is a lighthouse keeper on a remote island way off the mainland. One shore leave he marries a local girl, Izzie, and she comes to join him on the island. One day a boat washes ashore with a dead man and a baby. The story flows from there as they make their choices.
The Lighthouse Keeper’s Daughter by Hazel Gaynor – NORTHUMBERLAND, RHODE ISLAND
1838: when a terrible storm blows up off the Northumberland coast, Grace Darling, the lighthouse-keeper’s daughter, knows there is little chance of survival for the passengers on the small ship battling the waves. But her actions set in motion an incredible feat of bravery that echoes down the century.
1938: when nineteen-year-old Matilda Emmerson sails across the Atlantic to New England, she faces an uncertain future. Staying with her reclusive relative, Harriet Flaherty, a lighthouse keeper on Rhode Island, Matilda discovers a discarded portrait that opens a window on to a secret that will change her life forever.
To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf – ISLE OF SKYE
To the Lighthouse is the most autobiographical of Virginia Woolf’s novels. It is based on her own early experiences, and while it touches on childhood and children’s perceptions and desires, it is at its most trenchant when exploring adult relationships, marriage and the changing class-structure in the period spanning the Great War.
The Lighthouse by P D James – CORNWALL
Combe Island off the Cornish coast is a restful retreat for the rich and the powerful. But the peace of the island is violated when one of its distinguished visitors is murdered.
Adam Dalgliesh is called in to solve the mystery quickly and discreetly, but at a difficult time for him and his depleted team. Hardly have the team begun to unravel the complicated motives of the suspects that there is a second brutal killing and the whole investigation is jeopardised when Dalgliesh is faced with a danger more insidious and as potentially fatal as murder.
The Lighthouse Keeper’s Wife by June O’Sullivan – GREAT SKELLIG
Life is hard in Ireland in 1867. Eliza Carthy moves with her lighthouse-keeper husband James and sons Peter and Joseph to the remote island of Skellig Michael. Eliza is proud of her husband and his promotion to Principal Keeper and is eager to support him in his work and fulfil her duty as a good wife and mother. But life in this extreme location is challenging.
The island is 54 acres of jagged rock, jutting out of the Atlantic, with no way of communicating from or leaving the island. With no access to a boat, keepers must rely on a tender boat to deliver news, supplies and act as their conduit to life on the mainland. The island is exposed to extreme changes of weather and the landscape is fraught with danger.
When Assistant Keeper Edmund and his wife Ruth arrive, Eliza hopes for respite. But her new neighbours are not what she’d expected. They blow hot and cold, seemingly wanting Eliza and her family to leave Skellig Michael, and making her question her sanity.
Will Eliza be able to keep her family safe at the edge of the world? And can her marriage survive all that the island throws at them?
Why Did You Lie? by Yrsa Sigurðardóttir – ICELAND
A journalist on the track of an old case attempts suicide.
An ordinary couple return from a house swap in the states to find their home in disarray and their guests seemingly missing.
Four strangers struggle to find shelter on a windswept spike of rock in the middle of a raging sea.
They have one thing in common: they all lied.
And someone is determined to punish them…
WHY DID YOU LIE is a terrifying tale of long-delayed retribution from Iceland’s Queen of Suspense.
You, Me & the Sea by Elizabeth Haynes – FIRTH OF FORTH
Rachel is at crisis point. A series of disastrous decisions has left her with no job, no home, and no faith in herself. But an unexpected job offer takes her to a remote Scottish island, and it feels like a chance to recover and mend her battered self-esteem.
The island’s other inhabitants are less than welcoming. Fraser Sutherland is a taciturn loner who is not happy about sharing his lighthouse – or his precious coffee beans – and Lefty, his unofficial assistant, is a scrawny, scared lad who isn’t supposed to be there at all.
Homesick and out of her depth, Rachel wonders whether she’s made another mistake. But, as spring turns to summer, the wild beauty of the island captivates her soul. For the first time in years she sees the hope of a better life – if only she can break the deadlock between two men who are at war with one another, and with themselves.
BONUS BOOKS
Every Single Secret by Christina Dodd – CALIFORNIA
Never whisper the truth. Never reveal the past.
In an isolated lighthouse on the California coast, Rowan Winterbourne lives a solitary life with only her secrets for company. For she has a mission that drives her—to avenge herself against Gregory Torval, the powerful drug and arms dealer who murdered her mother and vowed to eliminate everyone in her family.
Then Joe Grantham arrives at her door and, for the first time, Rowan lets her guard down—a dangerous mistake when he blackmails her to go with him to Torval’s private island. There Torval’s decadent birthday celebration rages, and while Joe pursues his own agenda, she’ll provide the perfect distraction.
On Raptor Island, Torval’s will is law and Joe, the closest she has to an ally, is an enigma she can’t trust. One false move, one careless word, and Rowan will die. As dark truths are uncovered, one by one, Rowan recognizes her last chance for the revenge has come. But is it worth everything she must sacrifice to get out alive?
The Woman At The Light by Joanna Brady – FLORIDA KEYS
One afternoon in 1839, Emily Lowry’s husband vanishes from Wreckers’ Cay, an isolated island off the coast of Key West where he tends to the lighthouse. As days stretch into months, Emily has no choice but take charge of Wrecker’s Cay and her husband’s duties tending the light to support her three childrenand a fourth on the way. Unexpected help arrives when a runaway slave named Andrew washes up on their beach. At first, Emily is intensely wary of this strange, charming man, whose very presence there is highly illegal. But Andrew proves himself an enormous help and soon wins the hearts of the Lowry family. Andfar from the outside world and society’s ruleshis place in Emily’s life, as steadfast now as the light, will forever change their futures. When Emily’s family is ripped apart once again, she faces untold hardships that test her love and determination and show how the passionate love of a defiant, determined woman can overcome any obstacle.
We hope you enjoy our selection of books with a lighthouse at their heart! Any of your favourites we’ve missed, please add them in the Comments below.
Tony For the TripFiction team
Join team TripFiction on Social Media:
Twitter (@TripFiction), Facebook (@TripFiction.Literarywanderlust), YouTube (TripFiction #Literarywanderlust), Instagram (@TripFiction) and Pinterest (@TripFiction) and BlueSky(tripfiction.bsky.social) and Threads (@tripfiction)
Please wait...
The Woman at the Light by Joanna Brady is another good one. Historical novel set in the Florida Keys.
1 Comment
Thank you so much, really helpful!!