Ships are breaking apart on the rocks below Harrowmere.

The villagers blame storms, treacherous currents, and a coastline that has claimed sailors for generations. But the survivors tell a stranger story.

They speak of lanterns.

Lights appearing high upon the cliffs in the darkness. Lights that seem to mark safe passage through the reefs. Lights that move where no lantern should be able to move—and disappear the moment a ship strikes the rocks.

Sir Alaric of Wrenmere arrives expecting to investigate a series of maritime accidents. Instead, he finds a bleak coastal village where questions are unwelcome, witnesses contradict one another, and everyone seems to know more about the lanterns than they are willing to admit.

Then Alaric begins noticing other things.

Cargo missing from the wrecks. Goods appearing where impoverished fishermen should never have possessed them. Hidden paths above the shore. And a village whose uneasy silence has endured far longer than the latest storm.

Among the few willing to challenge that silence is Mira, a sharp-eyed young woman who has spent her life in Harrowmere and knows its people, its cliffs, and its secrets better than any outsider could.

As another storm gathers over the coast, Alaric must determine whether the mysterious lights are warnings, legends born from frightened sailors—or something deliberately placed upon the cliffs.

Because if the wrecks are not accidents, someone in Harrowmere has learned how to make the sea kill for them.

The Lantern Men is the fourth book in The Alaric Investigations, a historical mystery series of isolated communities, hidden crimes, and truths that become more dangerous the longer people learn to live beside them.