Some Strange Scent of Death

by Angela Elliott

The tale of the dramatic disappearance of lighthouse keepers from the Flannan Isles lighthouse in 1900 - based on fact

256 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2005

About the author

Angela Elliott is a novelist and screenwriter represented by Julian Friedmann at Blake Friedmann.

Her novels include Some Strange Scent of Death, inspired by the unexplained disappearance of the three Flannan Isles lighthouse keepers and published by Whittles Publishing. The book attracted substantial press coverage and led to Angela appearing on the Discovery Channel programme Unexplained to discuss the mystery.
Her historical fiction includes the Georgian crime novel The Finish and The Nine Lives of Antoine Montvoisin, set against the Affair of the Poisons at the court of Louis XIV and shortlisted for the 2022 Mslexia Novel Competition, judged by Hilary Mantel.

Alongside her fiction, Angela has an extensive background in film and television, developing drama and feature-length screenplays for producers and production companies. Her television work includes originating more than thirty documentaries for Tartan Television's Norrie Maclaren, formerly an assistant to Stanley Kubrick. Her screenwriting has included development projects with executive producer Bernie Williams.

Angela came to writing by an unconventional route. She studied Fine Art, worked as a graphic artist and retrained as a semiconductor engineer before later becoming a counsellor working with victims of serious crime and people bereaved by homicide. She began her writing career while raising her son as a single parent, developing her work alongside the demands of parenthood and earning a living in London.

Her interests continue to cross disciplines. She has written and performed jazz poetry and is an active bellringer and editor of the quarterly Middlesex Bell News.

She lives in London.

Reviews

[Duntay]

With it's basis in a true story, this could have been a tale infused with myth and legend, full of dark imagery. It could have been an exploration of the mental stress imposed on those working in extreme geographic isolation.

It is neither of these things. Instead this book unfurls upon a cardboard landscape mired in turgid prose and peopled by stereotypes, the central mystery lost in a blizzard of Christmas ceilidhs (!) and Och Ayes.

The most interesting bit was the appendix telling what happened to some of the real-life characters. Luckily, the most loathsome character ( who is also completely unnecessary to the story) was created by the author. Unfortunately, the author seems inordinately pleased with her creation.