It has been two years since the last book. Nelson continues working and living in King’s Lynn. King’s Lynn is a seaport and market town in Norfolk, 158 km north of London.
Ruth is now living in Cambridge with Frank and Kate. Cambridge is a university city and the county town of Cambridgeshire, on the River Cam approximately 89 km north of London.
The book and its title is based on the legend of the lantern men. A lantern man is an atmospheric ghost light, in the folklore of The Fens of East Anglia, seen around Wicken Fen and other areas. The lights, believed to be evil spirits trying to draw victims to their death in the reed beds, were drawn to the sound of whistling and could be evaded by lying face down on the ground with your mouth in the mud. The phenomenon, which seems to be a variation of will-o’-the-wisp folklore, is now dismissed as the result of combustible marsh gas.
The pub where the three bodies are found is in Cley. This is where the cycling race starts. Cley next the Sea is a village and civil parish on the River Glaven in Norfolk.
Heidi’s body is found in the Cley marshes. Cley Marshes is a 176-hectare nature reserve on the North Sea coast of England just outside the village of Cley next the Sea.
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