Cover Reveal + Q&A: THE LIGHTHOUSE WITCHES by C.J. Cooke
Available October 15, 2021 from Berkley
Last year, I read and got totally hooked on author C.J. Cooke’s Gothic suspense novel The Nesting, a sinister story set in the wilds of Norway. This October, just in time for Halloween, C.J. Cooke is back—and this time, she is bringing readers along on a bookish journey to a remote Scottish island, where the secrets of Scotland’s history are reaching across the centuries. THE LIGHTHOUSE WITCHES will be published October 15, 2021, and in today’s blog post, I’m so thrilled to reveal its gorgeous and creepy cover, and to give CBTB readers a sneak peek into this chilling upcoming thriller. In THE LIGHTHOUSE WITCHES, two sisters have gone missing on a remote Scottish island. Twenty years later, one is found… but she’s still the same age as she was when she disappeared. To uncover the secrets of her sister’s fate, this book’s protagonist will have to travel back to the remote island from which her sister disappeared over two decades ago. THE LIGHTHOUSE WITCHES is a story of Gothic suspense that incorporates an exploration of witch trials in Scotland’s history, and looks absolutely perfect for anyone looking to add a sinister, extra-creepy suspense tale to their Fall 2021 wishlist. I cannot wait to dig into THE LIGHTHOUSE WITCHES as part of my Halloween reading this fall, and I’m absolutely thrilled to give readers a glimpse into C.J. Cooke’s newest release today. Read on to learn more about THE LIGHTHOUSE WITCHES, check out its gorgeous cover, and get the inside scoop on the book through a Q&A with C.J. Cooke!
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THE LIGHTHOUSE WITCHES by C.J. Cooke
Available October 15, 2021
About the Book:
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.
Q&A with C.J. Cooke
A Sneak Peek into C.J.’s New Thriller THE LIGHTHOUSE WITCHES
Crime by the Book: Thank you so much for stopping by CBTB to give us the inside scoop on your newest thriller! I'm so looking forward to reading it this fall, and so excited to give the CBTB community this sneak peek into the book. Was there a particular moment or experience that sparked the idea for THE LIGHTHOUSE WITCHES?
C.J. Cooke: I find a lot of the ideas for new books come from the ones before. In this case, I had just finished The Nesting, which has a strong folklore element, and I’d also spent a lot of time in the Arctic researching it and thinking about ideas of wildness and rewilding, and about how we were impacting nature. This all spilled over into The Lighthouse Witches.
At the time we were still living in Whitley Bay, north-east England (we moved to Scotland a year ago) right beside a lighthouse that we often walked by and the setting certainly found its way into The Lighthouse Witches. And the more I researched folklore, the more I came upon historical information about witches. As we were preparing to move to Scotland, I happened upon the Scottish witch trials. It was stunning to learn that the beautiful place to which we were relocating had a terrifying history of witch hunts, and I saw parallels both with the current moment (particularly the #MeToo movement) and my thinking around wildness.
CBTB: Tell us about the characters at the heart of this story. Who are the protagonists of THE LIGHTHOUSE WITCHES, and how would you describe them to someone meeting them for the first time?
C.J.: Liv is a single mother to three daughters, one of whom is in the thick of teenage angst. Liv is a talented artist and I admire how strong and independent she is. But she’s still reeling after the death of her partner four years earlier. She’s drowning financially and emotionally, barely keeping her head above water, and to top it all off, she’s single-handedly raising a teenager, which is no picnic! So there are things in her life that she’s just not able to confront - she has way too much on her plate already. But when she takes on the art commission at the lighthouse and moves to Lòn Haven (a fictional island off the Scottish coast), she’s forced to face up to these things, and it makes her stronger.
Sapphire is the teenager I mentioned, and I loved writing her – she’s smart, surly, and she thinks she hates her mother, but really that hate is just grief at losing her stepdad. She’s also vulnerable and craving someone to fill the hole her stepdad left, and unfortunately this leaves her wide open to predatory behaviour.
Luna is the main character from the contemporary storyline. She’s an adult now, and pregnant. The pregnancy is very much wanted but she’s torn over her relationship. We learn that she’s been in rehabilitation for many years after what happened on Lòn Haven. Like her mother, Liv, she’s tough, but she also needs to confront things. She was abandoned at the age of nine and has never worked out why. It haunts her.
CBTB: I am so in love with the creepy, intriguing cover of your new book! Tell us about your thoughts on the cover. What do you love about this cover design?
C.J.: I love this cover. Lighthouses are such iconic buildings that I had imagined the cover would feature one from the outside – instead, this one shows the spiralling staircase, which is utter genius. The thing that always intrigued me about the lighthouse we lived next to was how beautiful it was from the outside, but how terrifying it was once you climbed the stairs and looked down into the abyss! It captures the gothic undercurrent of the story, and of course the witch symbols gesture towards the history of the island which comes crashing into the present.
CBTB: I was such a fan of your previous novel, THE NESTING. What does THE LIGHTHOUSE WITCHES have in common with your previous book? How is it different?
C.J.: I think The Lighthouse Witches grew organically from the writing of The Nesting, especially in terms of folklore and my ideas of wildness and nature, but they’ve ended up as very different books and very stories. This is a relief, actually, as I was so stuck in Lexi’s voice while writing The Nesting that I found it quite hard to ground myself in the next book! But gradually it came and I loved writing it. The setting is different, too, with The Nesting set in the Norwegian wilds and this one on a Scottish island, and there is much more of a historical context to this book. I’m always interested in the relationship between the past and the present and here I was enthralled by how Scotland’s history of witches is super low-key – for instance, there was a witch trial 20 minutes from my home and there’s barely any commemoration for the women who were murdered. Four thousand people – mostly women – tortured and murdered, their names and memories tainted forever, because of this crazy belief system. It fascinates and disturbs me, because four hundred years later we still use the term ‘witch’ to slander women.
CBTB: Last but certainly not least: as we look forward to the publication of THE LIGHTHOUSE WITCHES this fall, what are you most excited about?
C.J.: I’m so excited to see this book out in the world. I also have a poetry collection coming out this fall (We have to leave the earth) and am currently working on my next book, which has also emerged from writing The Lighthouse Witches.
Book Details:
THE LIGHTHOUSE WITCHES by C.J. Cooke
Available October 15, 2021 from Berkley | Learn More Here
Pre-Order THE LIGHTHOUSE WITCHES: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org
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