A Flicker in the Dark definitely starts out a little different than most thrillers, Chloe, the protagonist, is the daughter of a serial killer. This has led to a career in psychology and a propensity for prescription drugs. While her drug addiction is not ideal or particularly ethical, she’s managed to function and find happiness with her fiancé, Daniel. But when young girls begin disappearing just like they did when she was a girl herself, she finds herself entangled as the girls have a personal connection to her. But is there a copycat killer with their sights set on Chloe, or is the drugs and paranoia making her see things that aren’t there? This was a fun one, and a little more unique. I may have been alone in feeling like I had a pretty good idea how all the twists and turns would play out, but I still enjoyed it anyway. A copy of this book was by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This story was one of the most original and mind blowing plots that I have read in a long time! Parallel timelines and unreliable narration kept me guessing until the very end. I couldn't put this book down and read it in a day, staying up until late at night. This story was a crazy ride, pulling you in different directions and keeps you captivated from the get go. Highly recommend if you’re looking to don your detective hat.

Chloe seems to have it all; a job as a child psychologist, a fiance who is the perfect man, and a lovely home. Yet she feels uneasy especially as the bodies of several teen girls turn up in the town she is living in. The crime details are very similar to the murders that occurred when she was twelve. She can't believe this is happening again. But how can it.? The police caught that murderer. In fact she had a hand in getting her father arrested.
Surely he hasn't been released! Chloe becomes more paranoid as strange events unfold. She feels as if everyone is against her. The police don't listen to her suspicions. She catches her fiance in several lies and she doesn't trust him anymore; her brother is trying to poison her mind about her fiance, and out of the blue, a New York Times reporter appears who wants to save her. Who should she trust? The exposive ending will surprise you.

Read this if you like writers like B.A. Paris who are very good at the art of misdirection , leading the reader to an ending which is a total surprise.

Robyn Heil, Buyer for Brodart Co

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press, and Stacy Willingham for providing me with a digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Chloe Davis was twelve when her father confessed to killing six girls from her Louisiana hometown. Sentenced to life in prison, Chloe, her mother, and her brother Cooper are forced to somehow pick up the pieces of the life they once knew.

Fast forward twenty years: Chloe is now a psychologist living in Baton Rouge and preparing for her upcoming wedding. She still experiences trauma from her past, but she is doing her best to move on. When two local teenage girls go missing back-to-back, Chloe is transported back to the summer her father was arrested, and she can't help but notice the similarities from that time.

This is a very impressive debut novel, so first and foremost kudos to Stacy Willingham. This is a textbook example of a book in which you'll think you know what's happening, only to have the rug pulled out from under you in the end. I was very impressed with the twists this one took, and as an avid thriller reader that is no easy feat.

I'd be remiss not to also offer my compliments to Willingham's writing, as it's pretty sensational. The story was expertly woven and the pacing was perfect. Once again, I find it so hard to believe this is a debut novel. I'm very much looking forward to reading what she publishes next.

A Flicker in the Dark is on sale January 11, 2022!

For a debut mystery/thriller, this is a pretty good one. Chloe, a psychologist who is hiding her own dark past, finds herself becoming involved when teen-aged girls go missing. I enjoyed the building tension and twists. However, I probably read this genre too often, because I had it solved early on. I kept reading to see if I was right. I wish mystery writers would not introduce what I call "convenient characters." It's just too easy. That's all I'm going to say!

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for the ARC.

Well written, tense, psychological mystery.

Descriptive - you feel the Louisiana humidity and heat while following the characters down dimly lit streets.

Some great psychology woven into the how and why characters react as they so - great read from a first time author.

Omg. Omg. Omg. WHAT A FANTASTICALLY ATMOSPHERIC THRILLER!!! I’ve lived in Baton Rouge, so it was as super cool to get the references (Baton Rouge General, mid city, Breaux bridge crawfish festival…) It was a slower burn, which I like, but once it took off, I was willing to miss the LSU game to finish it. Fave thriller of the year, and I can’t wait for more of her work.

The book is great. But I will be completely honest. I guess what I think every book will be and I was right at 15% in. However it’s a great book. I loved the counseling sessions and there psychological parts of it

“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that, in the process, he does not become a monster. If you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.” —Friedrich Nietzsche

When Chloe was 12, 6 teen girls went missing. Within a few months, her father is arrested as the serial killer. When I read the synopsis, I knew I needed to read this one! The psychology behind serial killers has always fascinated me, I love the stories about family members and how it affects them.

As a debut author, Willingham is starting off strong! This has “already been optioned for a limited series by actress Emma Stone.” What? Sign me up! It’s full of suspense, damaged characters, family and more. There are varying timelines where we are given information from the past, only to realize it is coinciding with the present.

I thought I guessed this one, but so many twists got me. I can’t believe I didn’t see it coming! This is well done with hints dropped at every corner, but it doesn’t come together until the end and then it all fits perfectly. Only in hindsight do I see the breadcrumbs as actual puzzle pieces. This is expertly written to surprise me like it did.

“I had a taste of what it really felt like: control. Of not only having it, but taking it from somebody else. Snatching it up and claiming it as your own. And for one single moment, like a flicker in the dark, it felt good.“

This will definitely be an author to watch!.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press/Minotaur and NetGalley for the gifted copy in exchange for an honest review.

The book releases January 11, 2022.

What a wonderful debut novel. Kept me guessing who was the killer non stop. I actually found myself curious and second guessing my thoughts on the regular. Which is something I haven't dont in a while with a thriller. The pacing was medium paced with the writing compelling yet simple. A nice read for bed time and very easy to digest. I look forward to residing more from this author.

What an interesting psychological thriller by a debut author Stacy Willingham. This story draws you in from the very start and keeps hold of you for the majority of the book.

The story mainly revolves around Chloe Davis who at the age of 12 saw her father arrested for the murder of 6 teenage girls. The author does a great job of getting across how psychologically it effected both Chloe, her brother and her mother. How they became prisoners in their own home because of the way people perceived her entire family because of her father.

Jump forward 20 years and Chloe has finally found someone that she believes she can share here life with, Daniel Briggs. Chloe finds it still hard to cope with her past because of her father and has many issues herself. Now, a reporter is bound and determined to get an interview with her about her father and there are young girls that start going missing in the same manner as 20 years earlier. Is it a copycat or was the wrong man actually convicted?

The setting is in Louisiana on the bayou and the author does a beautiful job of giving you the feel of the area.

Overall I enjoyed the book. I found some things a bit predictable and sometimes the book slowed down for me but for the most part an overall really good read.

Thank you #netgalley, #stsimonpublishing for the advance copy of this book.

Where to start with this one!

Chloe Davis is twelve years old when six girls go missing in her Louisiana town. Turns out, it is Chloe’s father who is arrested and sent to prison. Fast forward twenty years Chloe is a psychologist with her own practice. She is preparing for her upcoming wedding. It seems she finally has the happiness she dreamed of her whole life, that is until one of the local girls disappears.

Memories that she thought she buried of her troubled past come back full force. She is a psychologist, she should know how to deal with these feelings, right? She becomes paranoid; this crime is so similar to what happened in her past. Chloe gets tangled in the web made by this new killer on the loose. Will she be able to unravel the mystery?

I loved, loved this book! I thought I knew the ending but I was wrong. It kept me guessing until the end! I flew through this amazing thriller!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this arc.

We follow Chloe Davis, daughter of a famous serial killer. She has spent her entire teenage and adult life thus far trying to escape her path and reinvent herself while working through the trauma that comes with having a father convicted of murdering several teenage girls. And for the most part she has succeeded. She moves to a new town, goes to college, becomes a well respected psychologist, and even finds the perfect man to marry. Everything seems to be panning out for her, until one day teenage girls in her new town start to go missing. Chloe can't let go of the nagging feeling that the disappearances are too similar to the cases from 20 years early when her dad was the culprit. Chloe decides to investigate it on her own, no matter the damage it will cause.

I LOVED THIS THRILLER! It was the perfect mix of spooky and exciting. I had multiple theories along the way, but enjoyed being on the edge of my seat until the very end. I loved the style of writing. Most importantly the character and plot development was excellent and I was truly invested in it all. It was the perfect mixture of flashbacks and present times.

What a terrific debut book! Chloe Davis is a psychologist, living in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, with her fiancé, Daniel. Chloe and her brother are children of a serial killer. Chloe has major issues stemming from her history. This is a compelling story as it all slowly unravels. Willingham is a keen observer and a very talented writer and I look forward to reading more from her.
Recommended!

I really liked this book! I genuinely had no clue what was going on or who was behind it. Aaron really threw me off as well. I wish we would have had more of a story there because I would LOVE to know how that came about! The poor father and mother, This was an excellent read!

When Chloe was 12 years old, her father was convicted of the murder of six teenaged girls in their small Louisianna town. Since then, Chloe has been running from her past, becoming a psychologist to try to help others and shutting out relationships, until she met her current fiancé. But just when things seem to be steady - her private practice thriving and her wedding a mere month away - girls in her adopted hometown of start disappearing. And Chloe can't help but notice the similarities between these new abductions and her dad's crimes. But with her father in prison, that would mean a new killer is stalking the streets...

This book has an amazing atmosphere - Southern gothic with an amazingly dark backstory that just makes chills run up and down your spine. It's so thick, I could almost feel the Louisiana humidity sticking to my skin as I was reading, it was amazing. I was instantly transported into Chloe's world.

The mystery itself was also incredibly compelling. It's one of those where you thin you have a handle on it several times, but then the rug just gets pulled out from under you with each new twist. Also undermining things is Chloe's state of mind, which is very fragile, to say the least. It's really a big mess in the best way.

And trust me when I ay the twists keep coming until the very end. It's just one of those books where things keep coming and coming. Like I said, you never quite have a handle on things until it's all revealed. I loved that about this book. It was unpredictable but it all ended up making sense and working out perfectly in the end - the clues really are all there.

Honestly, this was a great book that I couldn't put down at parts. I highly recommend it to fans of atmospheric psychological thrillers and amazing twists!

From the publisher: 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?

I’ve been reading a lot of psychological thrillers lately, and A Flicker in the Dark is a good one. Actress Emma Stone’s production company plans to produce it as limited HBO Max series. Chapter 1 starts with narrator Chloe Davis in her office with a patient. By chapter two she is ordering a prescription refill for her fiancé – a prescription he knows nothing about and that she uses herself. As soon as I read that, I knew that Chloe was going to make some questionable decisions, and I was right.

Chloe has issues. Many many issues. Not surprising, with her father in prison for murdering six teenaged girls and her mother in a home after a botched suicide attempt. Chloe found the evidence that got her father convicted. Chloe admired and was friends with one of the victims. None of the victims were ever found. Chloe’s overprotective brother doesn’t like her fiancé Daniel. And Chloe is a little too fond of that stash of prescription drugs she keeps close at hand.

I found A Flicker in the Dark compulsively readable. Even though I figured out the Big Reveal early on – there were some additional twists, but I was right – it did not affect my enjoyment of the story. Chloe is a mess who is just hanging on, and I think this novel was particularly enjoyable during a pandemic, when many of us feel like we are just hanging on. She makes mistakes. Her reasoning is often flawed. But she copes. She carries on.

My only real disappointment is that I expected more from and about the father than I got, but that’s a minor quibble. A Flicker in the Dark is a definite recommend from me for fans of psychological thrillers, and I look forward to future titles from this debut author. I read an advance reader copy from Netgalley. It will be available in print, as an audiobook, and as an ebook at the Galesburg Public Library.

I've read enough of the twisty psychological thrillers - but I keep looking for another great one. This one isn't it. It's good enough but there's too many little issues for me. For starters, the protagonist is so stupid. Just keep taking more and more drugs and things will go away. We're seeing the story from this "unreliable" narrator who is just drowning herself in prescription drugs and wine. Everything can go in any direction from there. Lead the readers this way and that way....

Pros: I've been trying to take a break from mystery/thrillers after reading too many in a row, but when I heard the description of this book on a podcast, I wanted to read it because of its Louisiana setting. I've lived in Baton Rouge, so I especially loved reading a book that mentions LSU, the Garden District, etc. Although I haven't lived in Breaux Bridge, I also enjoyed the parts of the book set there and thought the author did a great job setting the scene with descriptions of the crawfish festival. It seems more books should be set in Louisiana because there are so many opportunities for authors to create a strong sense of place in the unique settings of Louisiana.

When I read a mystery/thriller, I find myself trying to figure out the whodunnit from the very beginning, and I often judge the book based on whether/how soon I figured it out. Although I had one part of the mystery figured out from the first few chapters, another part surprised me toward the end, which made the reading experience much more fun.

One thing I appreciate about this book is the title. Many mystery/thriller titles sound the same and don't really mean anything. At first I thought this book would fall into that category, but once I finished reading I understood and appreciated the significance of the title.

Cons: The biggest con for me is that I had a major part of the book figured out from the beginning.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press, Minotaur Books for the opportunity to read this book!

I've shared this review on NetGalley and StoryGraph.

3 stars = I liked it!

Stop what you're doing and commit a full day to reading thus enthralling novel! I was captivated from the first page and the author really managed to escalate the suspense throughout.