A Light in the Dark

A young diver braves the "Graveyard of the Great Lakes" to explore a shipwreck that holds the key to unlocking her family's deepest secret. A sweeping multigenerational mystery from bestselling, award-winning author Erin Soderberg Downing!

Three kids across three generations.

The lighthouse that guides them.

The shipwreck that haunts them all.

NOVEMBER 1940: JP is a thirteen-year-old boy with big dreams and bright stage lights ahead of him, working aboard the Willard H. Norman’s last ocean-bound journey for the season. But as the ship chugs out of port that day, as the winds whip and the tides rise, JP and the crew have no idea that it will be its last run ever.

OCTOBER 1970: Alice has grown up in the keeper’s cottage on the grounds of Beacon Point Lighthouse, surrounded by her ailing father’s stories about the treasure that lays buried at the gravesite of the Willard H. Norman. And then one night, Alice finds herself alone in the lighthouse when the power goes out, while a lone ship’s lights flash desperately for help.

AUGUST 2025: Greta has always been obsessed with the shipwrecks of the Great Lakes, especially her grandmother’s stories about the ship that holds her grandfather’s most cherished possession. So much so that she’s become a certified scuba diver and sets out alongside a group of divers making their plunge into the deep to find the ship’s gravesite. But when her light hits something shiny, she’ll risk everything…even what’s left in her oxygen tank…to find out if it’s what she thinks it is.

In this alternating narrative that spans decades and crosses generations, three kids will each face their own journey for survival while the fate of their family and future hang in the balance.