The Lantern Man
Author: Adrien Leiza (author page)
A lantern procession. A cliff path. A watcher who doesn’t help.
Price: $ 5.99
Blurb
On the Breton island of Kernaez, the Lantern Vigil is supposed to stop people from sneaking to the cliffs alone. One night each storm season, the whole village walks the headland path with lanterns for the dead and a public blessing for the living.
This year, under hard wind and bad visibility, a tourist goes over the edge in front of local doctor Lena Kervadec.
When the insurer threatens to pull cover, the council is forced to accept an outside audit. They get Maël Larralde: Maritime Gendarmerie officer, ex–rescue diver—and the man who turned a launch back the night Lena’s younger brother vanished in a wreck off Kernaez.
Maël’s orders are simple on paper: walk the route, check the barriers, sign off a safer Vigil.
On the ground, nothing is simple. Old injuries and near-falls cluster around the same stretch of path. A retired keeper remembers seeing a lone figure with a light on bad nights. An idealistic clerk dies in a “training accident.” And the insurer’s risk assessor, Camille Roussel, is always close enough to hear what Maël chooses not to say.
As another storm builds over the island, Maël has one more chance to do what he didn’t do on the night of Avel Mor: step outside the script, call a pattern what it is, and decide who he’s willing to lose to keep the living away from the drop.
Story
(Excerpt from “The Lantern Man” by Adrien Leiza)
“I told myself it was a steward,” he said. “Someone out of position. I’ve told myself that for fifteen years. But stewards shout. They wave their arms, blow whistles. They don’t… watch.”
The difference in the words landed heavy between them.
Maël shifted, the metal of the chair cold under his thigh.
“You called him Lantern Man,” he said. “At the café. In your stories. You and the old hands.”
Yann’s mouth twisted.
“You heard that,” he said. “Sloppy of me.”
“You didn’t deny it,” Maël said.
Yann stared out toward the darkening line of cliff.
“We joked, at first,” he said. “You have to understand that. When you watch storms all your life, you start naming things. The bad buoys, the clumsy captains, the gulls that steal bait. It’s how you cope. ‘There goes so-and-so, late again.’ ‘There’s the grey wave; she always breaks early.’ We saw that light three times, four, and someone said, ‘Ah, there’s the Lantern Man, taking attendance.’”
Format: Ebook
Paperback: Coming soon
Length: Full-length novel, approx. 145,900 words · 376 pages
Genre: Coastal mystery thriller / Procedural suspense
Story scope: Book two in The Lantern Coast series
Tone: Tense, windswept, grounded; community pressure and controlled dread rather than gore
Facts
Good to know: The core set-piece is the island’s lantern Vigil on a cliff path, with real-world safety logistics (stewards, barriers, sea-rescue readiness) woven into the suspense.
Explore further
More titles by Adrien Leiza are available on the
books page.
Ideal for readers who like: Small-community secrets, maritime atmospheres, investigations built from witness accounts and weak infrastructure, and thrillers where “procedure” can protect—or conceal.
Content note: Death by falling/accidents, references to drowning/shipwreck loss, grief and sustained tension.