The Lighthouse Keeper by Alan K. Baker (2020 fiction)

In December of 1900, the three lighthouse keepers on the island of Eilean Mòr went missing. The bodies were never found. This much of the story is true and forms the basis for the fictional story that follows. In 1999, five researchers set up camp on Eilean Mòr. It’s a rough area, so they’re committed to a three-week stay. Almost immediately their instruments pick up an impossible artifact within the ocean itself. Then one character stumbles across a journal written by one of the replacement keepers in 1901. Things start driving out of control pretty quickly from there. The story switches between the events of 1901 and those in
1999, and it’s pretty clear that whatever happened then repeats itself. The story veers between supernatural and science fiction. It’s quite a ride, and admittedly sometimes too chaotic to easily follow. But somehow something different than I expected ended up being just what I wanted.

Reviewed by Amber Marsh