The Lighthouse Witches - Softcover

Cooke, C. J.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 059333423X ISBN 13: 9780593334232

Verlag: Berkley Books, 2021

Inhaltsangabe

A Most Anticipated Novel by Pop Sugar * Book Riot * Betches * Bustle * and more!

"Utterly spellbinding....Witchcraft meets thriller."--Pop Sugar

Two sisters go missing on a remote Scottish island. Twenty years later, one is found--but she's still the same age as when she disappeared. The secrets of witches have reached across the centuries in this chilling Gothic thriller from the author of the acclaimed The Nesting.

When single mother Liv is commissioned to paint a mural in a 100-year-old lighthouse on a remote Scottish island, it's an opportunity to start over with her three daughters--Luna, Sapphire, and Clover. When two of her daughters go missing, she's frantic. She learns that the cave beneath the lighthouse was once a prison for women accused of witchcraft. The locals warn her about wildlings, supernatural beings who mimic human children, created by witches for revenge. Liv is told wildlings are dangerous and must be killed.

Twenty-two years later, Luna has been searching for her missing sisters and mother. When she receives a call about her youngest sister, Clover, she's initially ecstatic. Clover is the sister she remembers--except she's still seven years old, the age she was when she vanished. Luna is worried Clover is a wildling. Luna has few memories of her time on the island, but she'll have to return to find the truth of what happened to her family. But she doesn't realize just how much the truth will change her.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

C. J. Cooke is an award-winning poet and novelist published in twenty-three languages. She teaches creative writing at the University of Glasgow, where she also researches the impact of motherhood on women's writing and creative writing interventions for mental health.

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

LIV, 1998

 

L˜n Haven

 

The Black Isle, Scotland

 

I

 

The lighthouse was called the Longing. Pitched amidst tessellations of rock black as coal, thrashed for over a hundred years by disconsolate squalls, it needled upward, spine-straight, a white bolt locking earth, sky, and ocean together. It was lovely in its decrepitude, feathery paint gnawed off by north winds and rust-blazed window frames signatures of use and purpose. I always thought lighthouses were beautiful symbols, but this one was more than that-it was hauntingly familiar.

 

Night was drawing in and we hadn't yet met the owner. We'd driven hundreds of miles over mountains, through sleepy villages and winding roads, usually behind herds of cattle. We had taken a ferry, and got lost four times, on account of using an outdated, coffee-stained A-Z road map with several pages missing.

 

I parked up behind an old Range Rover. "We're here," I told the girls, who had fallen asleep against one another in the back. I wrapped my raincoat around Clover-she was wearing only a swimsuit over a pair of jeans-and lifted her up to walk a little way along the rocky beach daubed with spiky patches of marram and tough white flowers.

 

The four of us scanned the bay. It was a raw scene: a full moon hiding behind purple cloud, ocean thrashing against black cliffs. Gulls wheeling and shrieking above us. Trees stood like pitchforks, flayed by the wind. They hemmed the island, watching.

 

II

 

The lighthouse keeper's bothy was a squat stone dwelling built close to the lighthouse. Smoke plumed from the chimney, pressing the earthy smell of peat into our noses. A woman stepped out to greet us. "Olivia?" she said.

 

"Hi," I said. "Sorry I'm earlier than expected . . ."

 

"No trouble at all. Come on in out of the cold."

 

We found ourselves in a cramped hallway, where someone had pinned a shark's jawbone to the inner wall. Luna reached out to touch one of the teeth and I tugged her back.

 

Saffy nodded at it. "Is that from a great white?"

 

"Porbeagle shark," the woman-Isla-said with a tilt of her chin. "We don't get great whites. Porbeagles are just as big, mind, and every bit as dangerous."

 

"I don't like sharks, Mummy," Clover whispered.

 

"We have a basking shark that tends to hang around the bay," Isla said. She glanced down at Luna, who threw me a panicked look. "You'll be fine with a basking shark. No teeth, you see. Basil, he's called."

 

"Is this where we'll be staying?" Saffy asked warily, eyeing the shark jaw.

 

"It is indeed," Isla said. She turned to the girls. "I'm Isla Kissick, and it's absolutely thrilling to meet all of you. But I'm afraid I only know your mummy's name. Why don't you tell me your names?"

 

"I'm Luna," Luna said. "I'm nine."

 

"Luna," Isla said. "What a lovely name."

 

"It means 'moon,'" Luna said, a little shy.

 

"Mine's Clover," Clover said, elbowing Luna out of the way. "I'm seven and a half and my name means clover, like the plant."

 

"Also a lovely name," Isla said. "And I bet you already know that clovers are meant to bring good luck?"

 

Clover nodded. "Mm-hmm. But my mummy said you make your own luck."

 

"Very wise," Isla said, glancing at me approvingly. She turned to Saffy, who flushed red.

 

"And who might this lovely one be?" Isla said.

 

"Sapphire," Saffy mumbled to the floor. "I'm fifteen."

 

"Well now, that's lovely," Isla said. "My daughter, Rowan, is fifteen. I'm sure you'll meet soon enough. Now, come and sit down. I've made you all some supper."

 

I nodded at the girls to leave their bin bags in the hall before following Isla to a kitchen at the back, where the smell of freshly baked bread and tomato soup made my mouth water.

 

I'd supposed that Isla was Mr. Roberts' partner, but she turned out to be his housekeeper. She was short and lithe with long copper hair neatly pinned up, and her quick, round eyes searched all of us up and down. She had a beautiful Scottish brogue and spoke fast, as though the words were too hot to hold in her mouth for long. She was smartly turned out-a crisp white shirt, gray check trousers, polished ankle boots. The bothy was incongruously old-fashioned. I would learn that L˜n Haven, its inhabitants included, was full of skewed time spheres. The absence of modern retail chains and its breathtakingly rugged landscapes made the place feel like you'd stepped back in time, perhaps to the very beginnings of the earth. The lighthouse itself was built upon an ancient Scottish broch that was built upon a Neolithic fort, which in turn was built upon late Jurassic rock, like an architectural babushka doll.

 

III

 

"There you go," Isla said, placing bowls of steaming hot soup before each of us. I apologized again for the mix-up about our arrival. I'd planned to begin the commission a few weeks from now but decided to head north on the spur of the moment. Or the middle of the night, to be exact. We'd driven the whole way from York to Cromarty, only to find that the ferry was canceled for the day on account of high winds. The girls and I had to endure a very cold and uncomfortable night at a rest stop, sleeping in the car.

 

"It's no trouble," Isla said. "Mr. Roberts is away, of course, but I'm to take care of everything until he returns."

 

"Are we sleeping in the car again?" Clover said, wiping her mouth on the back of her sleeve.

 

"In the car?" Isla repeated, looking to me for explanation.

 

"I'm sure there are plenty of beds for all of us," I said quickly, and this time I was the one to look to Isla for confirmation. I didn't want to mention that we'd had to sleep rough.

 

"Of course there are," she said. "Shall I give you the grand tour?"

 

The bothy was small but efficiently organized. A door at the rear of the kitchen led to a scullery with a washing machine and loo. Three bedrooms provided ample sleeping space with freshly made-up beds, and there was a bathroom with a shower cubicle.

 

We followed Isla to the living room at the front of the house, overlooking the garden.

 

"Now, you'll have noticed it's a bit chilly on the island. So you're not to worry if you need to turn the heater on." She nodded at the wood-burning stove. "You'll find a shed at the side of the bothy stocked with wood. And I've put plenty of blankets in the cupboards for you to get cozy in the evenings. Which reminds me. Sometimes the electricity goes off. Nothing to worry about. You know how to manage an oil lantern?"

 

I followed her gaze to an old-fashioned oil lamp in the windowsill, which I'd assumed was for decoration. I caught Isla rolling her eyes as it became clear that no, I didn't know how to manage an oil lantern.

 

"I'll be sure to leave instructions," she said with a tight smile.

 

"Does Mr. Roberts live here?" Saffy asked.

 

"This is one of his properties," Isla said. "But no, he doesn't live here. His main residence is north of here, twenty minutes or so by car."

 

"Will you tell him I've arrived?" I asked.

 

"Well, I'd love to," Isla said brusquely, "but he's at sea just now."

 

"At sea?"

 

"Aye, for all he has a half dozen houses dotted about the place, he prefers to be out on his boat."

 

"I have a boat," Clover...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Berkley Books
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2021
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 059333423X
• ISBN 13: 9780593334232
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 350
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: BERKLEY; https://www.penguin.com/?s=BERKLEY; ; Unit 2 Limavady Business Park; Limavady; County Londonderry; BT49 0HR; Vereinigtes Königreich
• Verantwortliche Person: preigu; mail@preigu.de; ; Lengericher Landstr. 19; Osnabrück; 49078; Deutschland