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The Lighthouse Keeper: A Beckoning Death (Grace Marsden Mysteries)

Luisa Buehler
Echelon Press (2007)
ISBN 9781590805640
Reviewed by Audrey Larson for Rebeccas Reads (3/08)

Luisa Buehler has written a thrilling 287-page, action-packed murder mystery set on a Canadian Island.  The first fascinating mystery discovery appears right on the first page, and you are pulled into it right away.

Grace Marsden, the main character, has joined friends, along with her brother Marty, in an island cottage for a vacation.  It is off-season, the weather is turning colder, and they set out to explore Christian Island’s old lighthouse.  They begin to uncover some of the island’s deep, dark secrets, long-buried history, and then the first murder occurs. As they continue to delve into ancestral history on the island, they discover an old graveyard set in a circular pattern, old bones, underground tunnels, hidden treasure, and another murder.  Not all of the island’s natives are friendly, as they are considered “cottagers,” and they are not sure whom to trust.

The island’s native police chief, Danny King, is a rather mysterious fellow, and they’re never quite sure whether to trust him or not.  Grace has a condition she calls “OCD,” and along with her “sightings” of lights, voices in her head, and ritualistic behavior at times, she sees and does some very strange, surprising things. 

As things heat up, the seven people in the cottage begin to suspect each other of being possible murderers, and they are in increasing danger of being murdered themselves.  To add to all the mysterious goings-on, there is also the ghost of an old lighthouse keeper.  The island natives also believe they see him, so Grace really doesn’t think she is “crazy,” when she does.

Old island markers, called inukshuks and inusuits, add to the mysteries, as they seem to point the way, but also are meant to confuse anyone who can’t decipher their mysterious codes.  It is enough to send cold shivers down your spine just reading about them.  There are mysterious markings in the old graveyard, a hidden underground room, and Grace gets lost in the tunnels and doesn’t know whom to trust to help get her out, who may be trying to kill her, whose voices she hears in the tunnels, and she is not sure how to interpret the old markings.  It is all very spooky, frightening and thrilling.

Grace’s life is in danger again when she is buried in packed snow, and she is sure someone is trying to kill her.  Later, she is trapped in a fire, with no way out.  But she has a “sighting,” and finds a way where there was apparently none before.  She keeps seeing mysterious lights in her times of peril, but has no idea who is trying to kill her.  There is intense danger, mystery and intrigue right to the end of the book. 

The book is thrilling and fantastic reading all the way through.  It would make a wonderful movie, and one can just picture the Native American actor Graham Greene playing island policeman Danny King! This reader/reviewer gives author Luisa Buehler and “The Lighthouse Keeper” two thumbs up, five stars (the best), and my highest recommendation!

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