Chloe has had a tough life. When she was young, her father was arrested for the murder of 6 young girls. Her mom basically had a mental breakdown and couldn't deal with it, and she and her brother were left to fend for themselves. She's now all grown up (and working as a therapist) with a fiance and a decent life... when girls start disappearing again. Chloe is clearly triggered and instead of going to the police with some of the sketchy things going on, she decides to play armchair detective.

I despise armchair detective.

And I think that is what made a perfectly good book that I wanted to keep reading only 4 stars for me. Also, there was some very odd behavior that was mostly explained by the end, but it seemed a little eh. I did guess some of the twists, but that's fine.

4.5 stars!! This was good — and dark. I went back and forth on who/what happened but even in my guesses I missed something’s and were wrong about others. What creepy fun! Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a free copy.

Twenty years after her father's conviction as a serial killer, Chloe believes she has worked her way to redemption for her father's crimes and deserves a better life. But this not to be.....the story line and the back story merge quickly to keep readers engrossed in figuring out which clues point to this new run of killings. Stacy Willingham does an excellent job of building the tension and questions until you have to stop yourself from skipping to the end to see who did it. 5 easy stars.

I received this as a digital Audiobook. Thank you.
I loved the narrator's reading of the audiobook.

Things aren't what they seem and as you read more you think you know who did what but there are so many twists and turns that will keep you guessing and not wanting to stop listening. The characters come alive by narrrator's reading and Stacy Willingham is a sure bet author. You don't won't to miss this title.

4.5⭐️ Really loved A flicker in the Dark! I felt like I was in Chloe’s head. One of my favorite ways to read a psychological thriller. The story flowed perfectly between past and present. Can’t wait to read more by this author. Thank you Netgalley for the arc! 🤍

Chloe Davis has been running from her childhood her whole life. When she was twelve, there was a series of teenage girls who went missing and were never found. Chloe was the person who found their jewelry tucked away in a box in her parents' closet and gave it to the police. Her dad confessed and has been in prison for the last twenty years.

Chloe had a horrific six years after his imprisonment with her mother becoming so depressed that she ignored the children and people in town determined to take out revenge on someone in the family. Her daily life was taunts, smears and sometimes physical violence from those who lost a sister, daughter or friend. She got out as soon as she could like her brother Cooper did, went to LSU and got a degree that lets her now practice as a psychologist. Recently, she has become engaged to Daniel and she thinks she has finally put the past behind her.

But the past isn't done with Chloe. Twenty years later, girls start missing in Baton Rouge where Chloe now lives and the missing girls have connections to Chloe. One is a patient and another a girl she had met while shopping. Who could be doing this? Who is copying her father? A New York Times reporter comes to town to do an article on her father after twenty years but stays to report on this new, more exciting story. He asks Chloe to help him and reluctantly she agrees. Can they find the killer?

Stacy Willingham has created an interesting look at what happens to the families of killers. The killer is often locked away, safe from victims' families revenge but the killer's family is left to deal with what the killer has done. They feel guilty, persecuted, unable to believe they were blind to what was going on and unable to believe any good memories they might have. As Chloe stumbles from one theory to another, the tension increases until all is revealed. This book is recommended for mystery readers.

This was the first book I've read by this author, and I was very impressed. Admittedly, I had the killer scenario worked out early on, but it did not detract from the novel in any way. I really enjoyed the writing style, pacing, etc, and I had a hard time putting this one down at night. It was interesting to see how far a parent would go to protect their child, even if it means sacrificing literally EVERYTHING. Just a really well done book all around, and can't wait to read more by Stacy Willingham.

I thought the plot was very thin and not very well executed. Still it was a bingable read, good for the pool / beach but not as satisfying as multiple other murder mysteries I’ve read.

"A Flicker in the Dark" by Stacy Willingham is a captivating and atmospheric read that will keep you intrigued by its shadows and secrets, igniting your curiosity.

I enjoyed this thriller, though I was able to figure out who did it relatively quickly. I didn't love that the alcohol and drugs made the narrator unreliable.

Good book that was a bit slow to start. However it picked up in the middle and was really good towards the end.

This book was sooo good. I kept thinking I knew what was going on but in her true fashion - Stacy Willingham keeps you guessing and turning the plot. The relationship of Chloe with her friends, brother and fiancée are constantly changing as she navigates life and living in the aftermath of her father’s incarceration.

Thank you NetGalley for my review copy.

What I Liked:
Unreliable Narrator
Decent twists throughout the story

Issues:
Figured out the killer within the first 40 pages. Soon as they came on the page. 🥴

The audiobook narrator was really good and did a great job portraying Chloe especially as she was spiraling throughout the story.

This book had all the ingredients I tend to look for in a thriller. I was so certain I would love it. Though there were parts I enjoyed, overall I didn't manage to really connect with it. I think one of the challenges of reading a lot of psychological thrillers is that it becomes very difficult to be surprised. From my perspective this is probably a great read for those readers who are either looking to branch out into psychological thriller genre or enjoy it but not excessively.

What worked:
- Both the beginning and the end had quite a bit of action and were engaging
- I like stories about psychologists (for personal, hm professional reasons lol)
- small town Louisiana is such a great setting
- we had lots of material for discussion in our group chat because our individual experiences of the book were so vastly different

What didn't work for me:
- the middle part of the book was extremely slow paced and I really wished for more action
- I guessed every single twist that was coming in the first 1/3 of the book (sigh)

What I learned:
- I always prided myself on the fact that I truly do not care if the characters are likeable or relatable but apparently the one thing that does bother me is if I find the main character annoying

I think it's no accident that so many readers loved this book and I can see this being a fun read for those who are either new to these types of reads or not too bothered by the same things I am. I found enough to enjoy in this story to pick up All the Dangerous Things and am hoping that I'll be able to connect better with that one.

A big thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press/Minotaur Books for my copy of the book in exchange for an honest review!

Chloe is forced to revisit her traumatizing past when a copycat of murders that rocked her family two decades earlier appears.

The pacing of this was great and I did feel for and connect to Chloe. I found the ultimate reveal to be predictable but didn't anticipate a big twist along the way. Elements to the investigation and the way some plot points played out were just too unbelievable for me. Overall I enjoyed this story in regards to its thriller/suspense genre, but there are also so many out there that rank above it that I couldn't really do more than a 3.5 rounded down to a 3.

Chloe Davis was twelve when her father was imprisoned as a serial killer when six teenage girls went mission. Chloe provided the evidence that incriminated him. She, her brother and mother had to live with the shame of what had happened. She's now a psychologist with a practice in Baton Rouge, working with troubled teenagers and preparing for her wedding to Daniel. She is still fragile, but has finally found happiness, until two girls go missing. There are so many similarities that Chloe begins to spiral. Is this a copycat killer? What is going on?

Wow, this is a debut and I really enjoyed it. It kept me on the edge of my seat and listening long after I should have been doing other things. I even went for an extra walk so I could listen to this story while getting some exercise. Often I thought I had it figured out, but then again, I was wrong. There were several suspects but then a twist would send me in another direction. The story was very well written with well developed, multi-layered characters. They had flaws and were damaged, but they were relatable and realistic. There were crimes committed, but the descriptions weren't too graphic or grisly but they still left me with a creepy feeling. As Chloe got more involved in the case of the missing teenager, she tried to share her theories with the police. They placated her, but as her theories kept changing, they became exasperated and stopped listening. I don't want to say much more, but if you haven't read A Flicker in the Dark and you like a good psychological thriller, I recommend you pick this one up.

A Flicker in the Dark is a solid debut by Stacy Willingham, with a rich coterie of characters (presenting many viable suspects for "whodunit"), and a twisty, fast-paced quality that made the book a classic page-turner. Female protagonist, Dr. Chloe Davis, is presented early on as a complex, and possibly unreliable, narrator, She's a psychologist working with troubled teens who simultaneously is battling her own childhood trauma stemming from the arrest of her father as a small-town serial killer when she was just 12. Her family life is fractured after the trial and she is left with an overprotective older brother who goes head-to-head with Chloe's charismatic fiance. When eerily identical murders ensue decades later, Chloe is determined to uncover the perpetrator and whether they are the same as the original killer from years ago, or a new copycat killer and why. The shifting spotlight from one probable suspect to another was frenetic and there were some genuinely shocking plot twists. A satisfying thriller, 3.5/5 stars.

Chloe is reliving the trauma and horror of her past when teenage girls start to go missing. She starts to see patterns and parallels that she can't believe and is driven to find out what is happening. I couldn't put this book down!

What would you do if your father was convicted of being a serial killer, but 20 years later girls start going missing again?

This is what our main character Chleo is faced with at the beginning of the story. I picked up this book partly because it was set in Louisiana and as someone who was born and raised here I always like reading books set here. I have to say that as a debut I think that this book was done well. I think that the mystery elements were done in a way that kept me wanting to know more.

I did call the big twist at the very beginning, but I felt like the other suspects where given enough agency to make me believe that they could have been the copy cat. My only real grip with the story is that the pacing felt a little off, but as a debut author I can forgive that element being off a little. I also listened to the audio book and I feel like the narrator was not well versed in how to pronounce city names from Louisiana.

I did like how unreliable the main character was though because it made me invested to see what it was that she was leaving out. I do feel like she made some pretty stupid decisions which made it almost hard to believe that she had made it through medical school to be a psychologist. I think that the side characters were also done well and didn't feel flat.

Overall I had a fun time reading this and look foward to picking up her next release.

A FLICKER IN THE DARK by Stacy Willingham is set in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in 2018, wherein thirty-two-year-old Chloe Davis, the daughter of serial killer Richard Davis, works as a psychologist helping others whilst grappling with inner conflicts of her own: panic attacks, hypochondria, insomnia, and nyctophobia.

You see, in July of 1998, in her hometown of Breaux Bridge, Louisiana—when Chloe was twelve years old, her brother, Cooper, fifteen—their father was tried and convicted of killing six teenage girls…

‘Learning to fear should be a slow evolution—a gradual progression from the Santa Claus at a local strip mall to the boogeyman under the bed; from the rated-R movie a babysitter let you watch to the man idling in a car behind tinted windows … For me, the concept of fear came crashing down with a force my adolescent body had never experienced … it made me realize that monsters didn’t hide in the woods; they weren’t shadows in the trees or invisible things lurking in darkened corners.’

‘No, the real monsters moved in plain sight.’

Twenty years later, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, a young girl goes missing…

I have to admit; I had mixed feelings about the familiar narrative as I dove further into A FLICKER IN THE DARK, almost stopping at one point when the bulk content had me skimming. Character action felt off for one particular scene though convenient for a seamless narrative around the eighty percent mark.

However, my need to know won out, so I decided to continue, and I’m glad I did—the ending was *chef’s kiss* perfection.

Thank you, NetGalley and Minotaur Books, for providing me with an eBook of A FLICKER IN THE DARK at the request of an honest review.