The Lamplighters and The Rule of Four

The Lamplighters by Emma Stonex

This is a quietly creepy mystery about three lighthouse keepers who simply vanish in 1972. When a relief boat arrives they find the lighthouse empty, locked from the inside, all the clocks set to 8:45, and the table set for a meal. The weather log-book records a storm when there had been none. 

The story moves back and forth from uneasy lighthouse scenes where relationships are strained among the keepers, to two decades later when the keeper's wives, still bearing the emotional scars of the disappearance and resulting questions and accusations, are interviewed by a writer trying to find out what really happened to the men that day. 

This book was hard to put down. The author is adept at creating unease - between the men, and later among their wives - and of bringing the setting to life almost as a character itself. Dangerous waters, conflicting personalities, secrets kept by the wives for years, the pristine condition of the empty lighthouse, and the cover up by the lighthouse keeper's employer all add up to a deliciously tense mystery, making me resent anything taking me away from the book.   

Loosely based on a similar actual event in Scotland in 1900, an inscription says the book is written "in respectful memory" of that event but that these characters and their lives are purely fiction.

The Rule of Four by Ian Caldwell

This is about a group of male friends and their adventures and misadventures in their senior year of college. One of them is writing his thesis on an ancient book called the Hypnerotomachia (a book that actually exists in the real world), a diary full of convoluted clues presumed to lead to a hidden treasure. It's all fun and excitement until someone is killed for what they know about the book and they begin to realize that continuing their quest will put them in serious danger. 

Though the mystery of the diary and the unraveling of the clues was compelling reading, I'm not a fan of boy's stories generally, and college seniors or not, these guys are still just boys in so many ways. I find their ill-considered escapades and bad decisions more tiring than entertaining. I want to yell at them - Life is too short...You'll want these years back some day...Don't sabotage your future! I'm probably too old, or have seen too many things go wrong, to be a good reader of adventure stories anymore, but it is an interesting literary mystery.