The Lantern Bearers is the twelfth novel by Scottish author and playwright Ronald Frame. It won the Saltire

Saltire

A saltire, or Saint Andrew's Cross, is a heraldic symbol in the form of a diagonal cross or letter ex . Saint Andrew is said to have been martyred on such a cross....

 Book of the Year award in 2000.

Frame’s novel is set in Scotland where Euan Bone, a young composer, lives with his homosexual partner Douglas Maitland. Bone is struggling with a major work based on The Lantern Bearers, an essay by Robert Louis Stevenson

Robert Louis Stevenson

Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson was a Scottish novelist, poet, essayist and travel writer. His best-known books include Treasure Island, Kidnapped, and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde....

. The story is told by a gay 35-year-old Neil Pritchard who, as a pubescent 14-year-old, visited the village where Bone lived. Bone was searching for a boy treble

Boy soprano

A boy soprano is a young male singer with an unchanged voice in the soprano range. Although a treble, or choirboy, may also be considered to be a boy soprano, the more colloquial term boy soprano is generally only used for boys who sing, perform, or record as soloists, and who may not necessarily...

 to sing for him and help inspire the composing process and young Neil ends up as his muse

Muse

The Muses in Greek mythology, poetry, and literature, are the goddesses who inspire the creation of literature and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge, related orally for centuries in the ancient culture, that was contained in poetic lyrics and myths...

, singing for him every afternoon.

The relationship between Bone and the boy develops from a professional one to one of mutual affection. Neil describes his emerging homosexual urges, but there is no suggestion of sexual activity. Maitland becomes more and more upset by Bone’s love for Neil and his behaviour becomes erratic. Neil is then cursorily rejected by Bone when his voice breaks this has a traumatic effect on the boy. Neil cannot understand or accept the rejection and follows Bone around the village. Bone ignores him.

Neil’s obsession leads him to steal the manuscript of the Lantern Bearers and plant it in Maitland’s car (having lovingly copied it) and this spontaneous adolescent action accelerates the breakup the Bone/Maitland partnership. Neil ultimately is driven to invent a rumor of child molestation against Bone. Alerted by Neil's father, the police pursue Bone, who dies in a sting operation

Sting operation

In law enforcement, a sting operation is a deceptive operation designed to catch a person committing a crime. A typical sting will have a law-enforcement officer or cooperative member of the public play a role as criminal partner or potential victim and go along with a suspect's actions to gather...

.

The adult Neil eventually discovers that Bone had had an earlier relationship with Simon, a boy treble in England, that there was evidence of sexual activity, and that the police were involved.

Neil is commissioned to write a biography of Bone and returns to the Scottish village to unearth the hidden manuscript.