A lonely windswept lighthouse island in Bass Strait hides a dangerous secret hundreds of years in the making… Secrets and sabotage keep readers guessing in the new novel from Australian author Kaye Dobbie.
1882. Laura Webster and her father are the stalwart keepers of Benevolence Island Lighthouse, a desolate place stranded in the turbulent Bass Strait. When a raging storm wrecks a schooner just offshore, the few survivors take shelter with the Websters, awaiting rescue from the mainland. But some of the passengers have secrets that lead to dreadful consequences, the ripples of which echo far into the future …
2020. Nina and her team of volunteers arrive on Benevolence to work on repairs, with plans to open up the island to tourists. Also on the expedition, for reasons of his own, is Jude Rawlins, a man Nina once loved. A man who once destroyed her.
But the idyllic location soon turns into a nightmare as random acts of sabotage leave them with no communication to the mainland and the sense of someone on the island who shouldn’t be there.
The fingers of those secrets from the passengers lost long ago are reaching into the present, and Nina will never be the same again.
Kaye Dobbie is an award-winning author whose previous historical fiction titles include The Road to Ironbark and Sweet Wattle Creek. She has also written for US publishers under the name Sara Bennett, and five Australian historical fiction titles as Lily Sommers. This is a genre she has honed to perfection, consistently delivering rich historical narratives filled with mystery and romance. Her latest novel, The Keepers of the Lighthouse, continues in this tradition.
The novel is set on the small island of Benevolence in the Bass Strait, midway between Tasmania and the mainland, and adopts a dual timeline, following two women separated by centuries. Both women are strong, capable and extremely likeable protagonists with compelling storylines that Dobbie deftly weaves together with surprising results. The island of Benevolence serves as the perfect backdrop for the intrigue that occurs, and Dobbie brings this rugged, windswept setting to life with rich and vivid detail.
If you love dual timeline historical novels featuring strong, feisty heroines, then you’ll enjoy The Keepers of the Lighthouse. It’s a haunting read that has stayed with me days after the final page.
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