British author Peter May has written another thrilling murder mystery in which the Eilean Mor Lighthouse has a prominent role. The lighthouse is located on an island of the same name in the Flannan Isles off the west coast of the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. In December of 1900 all three lightkeepers vanished without a trace. In the novel, titled Coffin Road, the main character in the novel regularly visits the island, supposedly writing a book.
For those who went on the lighthouse trip to the Outer Hebrides in 2015, trip leaders Chris and Janet Brookes introduced us to Peter May by giving everyone a copy of another murder mystery, The Blackhouse, so participants could get a sense of life in the Outer Hebrides.
Coffin Road was published in Great Britain in 2016 by Quercus, ISBN 978-1-78429-313-0.
Submitted by Dick Richardson, U.S. Lighthouse Society member, February 6, 2017
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U.S. Lighthouse Society News is produced by the U.S. Lighthouse Society to support lighthouse preservation, history, education and research. Please consider joining the U.S. Lighthouse Society if you are not already a member. If you have items of interest to the lighthouse community and its supporters, please email them to candace@uslhs.org.
Candace was the US Lighthouse Society historian from 2016 until she passed away in August 2018. For 30 years, her work involved lighthouse history. She worked with the National Park Service and the Council of American Maritime Museums. She was a noted author and was considered the most knowledgable person on lighthouse information at the National Archives. Books by Candace Clifford include: Women who Kept the Lights: a History of Thirty-eight Female Lighthouse Keepers , Mind the Light Katie, and Maine Lighthouses, Documentation of their Past.