The Lighthouse: A Novel of Terror

by Bill Pronzini, Marcia Muller

Jan, a young professor, and his wife, Alix, move to Cape Despair, Oregon, where they encounter a mysterious killer

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Horror, Thriller, Mystery Thriller

296 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1987

About the author

Mystery Writers of America Awards "Grand Master" 2008
Shamus Awards Best Novel winner (1999) for Boobytrap
Edgar Awards Best Novel nominee (1998) for A Wasteland of Strangers
Shamus Awards Best Novel nominee (1997) for Sentinels
Shamus Awards "The Eye" (Lifetime achievment award) 1987
Shamus Awards Best Novel winner (1982) for Hoodwink

Married to author Marcia Muller.

Pseudonyms:
Robert Hart Davis (collaboration with Jeffrey M. Wallmann)
Jack Foxx
William Jeffrey (collaboration with Jeffrey M. Wallmann)
Alex Saxon

Reviews

[Pamela Mclaren · Rating 3 out of 5]

A California academic and his artist wife travel to Oregon to spend a year at the Cape Despair lighthouse. the area is far from any major town and the small community there is suspicious of strangers and slow to welcome the couple, especially after an accident in which the husband, Jan, kills a neighbor's dog.

Jan has been diagnosed with a disease in which he is slowly going blind and he hasn't told his wife about that. He has also been getting blinding headaches -- that she does know about but not to the extent that he is now suffering blackouts.

The couple hope that the community will slowly warm to them but not when there is much to resent in this town and so many secrets abound. Things can only go worse, and they do, in this thriller.

[Read with Demi · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a slow burn. The book built tension well but took a bit too long to get into the action, and the dialogue was a bit stiff. The multi-pov was interesting, and it definitely had that 80's thriller vibe. Overall, I enjoyed it, though I wouldn't read it again.

[Kimberlyn · Rating 1 out of 5]

difficult to want to read

[Elysse AKA EILIS Heller · Rating 4 out of 5]

WOW, I certainly didn't expect this "novel of terror" from Muller. I have read all the Sharon McCone books in that series and enjoyed them. This book, "The Light House: was absolutely terrifying! I really enjoyed it but it did keep me up at night wanting to hide under the bed. Totally different from the Sharon McCone series but a totally unexpected, terrifying good book to read.

[Barbara Nutting · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read 2007

[Danielle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good plot.

[Kim]

It was a page-turner, but I didn't like the depiction of all the locals as unpleasant.

[Valerie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book on my Kindle Fire, and I thought it was a very good story, although there are an awful lot of typos in the text; many of the words were so misspelled they didn't make sense unless you were able to guess how they fit into the context of the story. I personally felt the book was not worth $9.99 considering all the grammmatical and spelling errors in it. Surely the proofreaders can do a better job than this! The book was originally published in 1987, and because I like the northern CA coastal area and the OR coastal area, the story held much more interest for me than a lot of other books, although the lighthouse named in the book does not exist, nor does the town, which is located a short distance from Bandon which is one of my favorite places.

The story concerns a married couple from Palo Alto, CA who decide to spend a year in OR so that the husband, a professor at Stanford can write his magnum opus on the history of lighthouses, before they return to CA where his wife plans to open an art gallery with a friend. Unfortunately, the economic situation in the town is very bleak and the fishing industry has just about fallen to nothing, so the couple encounter a lot of hostility from the people who live there. (This used to be a rather common attitude that some Oregonians held for people from CA although I have not encountered it in many years). Needless to say, the couple's plans all go awry, and there are some career criminals on the loose who complicate everyone's lives.

[Linda Branham · Rating 4 out of 5]

A mystery in a Lighthouse from 1987. I read it way back then... and for some reason help onto it. Maybe it deserves a reread

[Helen Fleischer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Intense suspense novel. red herring in prologue

[Lisa · Rating 1 out of 5]

found myself plodding through it----sorry

[Michele · Rating 3 out of 5]

she writes this one with her husband and I don't care so much for his style - it's much coarser

[Eliana]

Old style detective series with excellent writing, plots and characters throughout