Book 4 - Some Strange Scent of Death

Some Strange Scent of Death by Angela J Elliott – first published 2005

The Flannan Isles are located 21 miles west of Gallan Head on the Isle of Lewis.  They are comprised of  7 islands and numerous rocks.  There are 2 main islands - Eilean Mor and Eilean Tighe. 

This is a fictionalised account of the real life disappearance of the 3 lighthouse keepers from the island of Eilean Mor on the Flannan Isles in December 1900.  All the main characters in the book, except for a very persistent American journalist, were real people and the text is interspersed with the Northern Lighthouse Board’s original records of the incident.  The plot is a little thin, as it is widely accepted that the keepers were washed off one of the landing places by exceptionally large waves and that is all there is to the story.  However this is a very readable book, which examines the effect of the disappearance of his friends and colleagues on the mental health of the remaining keeper, Joseph Moore.  He was at the shore base at the time of the incident and he discovered their disappearance on his return to the Flannan Isles.  The book also explores the other theories about the incident, including the notion that the keepers had been spirited away by a phantom, captured by passing pirates or swallowed by a sea monster!  The title of the book is taken from a quotation from the poem The Flannan Isle by Wilfrid Wilson Gibson.   7/10

Islands covered - Eilean Mor, Flannan Isles and Isle of Lewis, Outer Hebrides 

Looking west from Garenin on the Isle of Lewis towards the Flannan Isles