The Haunting of Hero's Bay by Amanda Block

The sea doesn't forget. It knows all of this has happened before. And will happen again 

. . . 1840

As a vast ship loses its way in the night-time mist, shattering against the cliffs of Crescombe, North Devon, a daring young artist dives into the murky sea.

But it's not for heroism he is risking it all: something - or someone - is drawing him into those dark, perilous waters . . .

When Finley arrives in Crescombe for the summer, he suspects he's not alone in his attic bedroom. Before long, he is uncovering secrets the remote seaside town has kept for almost two centuries: about ghosts and curses, about a ruthless old smuggling family, and about the young women whose bodies have washed up along the town's rocky shoreline, just below his porthole window.

Yet the more Finley learns, the closer he's bonded to those who have gone before him - and the closer he comes to meeting the same watery end...