A Flicker in the Dark by Stacy Willingham #bookreview #thriller

Title: A Flicker in the Dark

Author: Stacy Willingham

Publisher:  Minotaur Books

Publication Date: January 11, 2022

Page Count: 356

My rating: 3 1/2 stars

About the book:

When Chloe Davis was twelve, six teenage girls went missing in her small Louisiana town. By the end of the summer, her own father had confessed to the crimes and was put away for life, leaving Chloe and the rest of her family to grapple with the truth and try to move forward while dealing with the aftermath.

Now twenty years later, Chloe is a psychologist in Baton Rouge and getting ready for her wedding. While she finally has a fragile grasp on the happiness she’s worked so hard to achieve, she sometimes feels as out of control of her own life as the troubled teens who are her patients. So when a local teenage girl goes missing, and then another, that terrifying summer comes crashing back. Is she paranoid, seeing parallels from her past that aren’t actually there, or for the second time in her life, is Chloe about to unmask a killer?

From debut author Stacy Willingham comes a masterfully done, lyrical thriller, certain to be the launch of an amazing career. A Flicker in the Dark is eerily compelling to the very last page.

A Flicker in the Dark by Stacy Willingham is a thriller novel. The story in this new book is one that is told in a current timeline along with flashing back to the past that the main character is still living with daily.

As a child Chloe Davis went through a traumatic experience that has shaped the rest of her life. At twelve Chloe’s father was arrested and sent to prison labeled a serial killer after six teenage girls had gone missing in their small Louisiana town.

Now as an adult Chloe is a psychologist with twenty years having passed since that time in her life. With her own private practice and preparing for a wedding with her fiance Chloe felt she may have moved past her childhood but when another girl is found murdered it is all brought back to the surface and things are much too close to home.

A Flicker in the Dark was a solid debut novel from author Stacy Willingham. The story was a compelling one to read with an unreliable flawed narrator and plenty of red herrings among the twists and turns. I will say though as someone that reads a lot of thrillers I didn’t find the outcome shocking to me but it may be to others. Overall though I did enjoy this one and would rate it at three and a half stars and would read the author again in the future.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

Find this book online:

Goodreads  /   Amazon*

About the authors:

Stacy Willingham’s first novel, A Flicker in the Dark, is scheduled to be published in January 2022 by Minotaur Books, an imprint of Macmillan, and HarperCollins UK.

Prior to writing fiction full time, Stacy worked as a copywriter and brand strategist for various marketing agencies. She earned her BA in Magazine Journalism from the University of Georgia and MFA in Writing from the Savannah College of Art & Design.

She currently lives in Charleston, South Carolina, with her husband, Britt, and her Labradoodle, Mako.

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