I was excited when I received a digital review copy from Netgalley for A Flicker a in the Dark as I had seen so many positive reviews. I read mysteries with an intent of not being able to figure out the who behind it. However, if there is a good story with engaging characters and I don’t mind if I can solve it before the tale ends.

Unfortunately this book and I were not a match. I couldn’t connect with the main character and found I was confused by some of her actions or lack of them. I also figured out who the murderer was and it didn’t surprise me. So A Flicker in the Dark was not a fit for me but I’m curious about what the author will do next and will certainly try them again.

A monster hiding in plain sight. This is how many serial killers are viewed. Chloe’s father is no different. He is presented as a loving father who envelops his little girl in his arms to protect her from the scary things in the darkness. As he confesses to killing six teenage girls, he becomes one of those scary things in the darkness. As the twenty year anniversary of his arrest approaches, more teenage girls go missing and are later found dead. Chloe is overwhelmed with childhood memories of her father’s crimes while trying to figure out how these copycat murders are connected to her.

This book is filled with flawed and damaged characters. They all seem to be hiding things and you wonder if anyone can be trusted. In many respects this book doesn’t present a ‘new’ serial killer story, but that doesn’t detract from needing to see how it all will end. This is a well written debut.

This debut thriller had me engrossed in the story from the first page, and although I thought I knew the murderer, the red herrings in the story line pulled me in to missing the real culprit. Chloe Davis is 12 when girls start missing from her small Louisiana town. Now, at age 32, Chloe is a psychologist starting a private practice in Baton Rouge. She’s engaged and should be happy, but she isn’t. When one of her teenaged girl patients disappears and is discovered murdered, her life becomes a nightmare again. The writing is intense, and the character are well developed. Willingham doesn’t use extra language. The tense feel is intensified in her writing.

Twenty years ago, when she was 12, Chloe’s father was arrested for killing 6 girls. Chloe is now a psychologist hoping to help her patients get through trying times. A New York Times reporter will be doing an article on Chloe and her father and wants an interview with her. After all these years, 15-year-old girls are found missing and dead. again. They can all be tied to Chloe. Lacy, the last missing girl, had been to Chloe’s office before she went missing. Now being questioned, all the events of 20 years ago come flooding back to Chloe. Chloe thinks she knows who the copy-cat killer is, but will anyone believe her before it is too late? Exciting book with characters that are not what they seem.

What a solid debut for Stacy Willingham! If you enjoy twisty thrillers and an unreliable narrator - check out this read!

Thank you St. Martin's Press / Minotaur Books & NetGally for my early copy!

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press/Minotaur, and Stacy Willingham for the e-arc of A Flicker in the Dark in exchange for an honest review.

When Chloe Davis was twelve, six girls went missing from her small hometown in Louisiana. By the end of the summer, her father confessed to the murders and was sentenced to life in prison. Chloe and the rest of her family struggle to move on and come to terms with their new reality.

Twenty years later, Chloe has a tentative grasp on normal. She is a psychologist and engaged to be married. But the young girls around her begin to go missing again, Chloe begins to think there might be a connection between the events of her past and what is happening now.

The timeline for this book is a little strange and took some getting used to. Characters will be having a conversation, but the chapter will end. Instead of continuing the previous conversation, we start the next chapter a few days later with Chloe doing something else or talking to someone else, but thinking back on the conversation we left at the end of the last chapter. It was a little hard to follow at times, but became easier the further in we got.

It felt like not a lot happened in the first half of the book, but it definitely picks up in the latter half. We spent a lot of time in our main character’s head, rehashing the same issues, but through this we get a lot of insight into Chloe’s character and her motivations.

Despite the few issues with pacing, if you are looking for a thriller with a lot of twists and turns, this book is it. It is full of red herrings and false leads and has the ability to keep you guessing until the end.

This novel is getting stellar reviews and even though I didn’t love it, I can see why.

I loved disliking Chloe’s character - she was totally flawed, addicted, naive, and gullible - but it made for a great read. I couldn’t tell if I could trust her at all or if she was a completely unreliable narrator. Her logic in accusing everyone around her of abducting and murdering young girls made sense but was frustrating because you could feel her put up the blinders as soon as she had a suspect in mind.

As far as the suspects, while I guessed pieces of the ending pretty early on, it was fun watching the story unfold. Chloe developed really sound arguments for everyone she suspected and it was hard not to fall for the red herrings (or were they red herrings?). It’s always fun to second guess your theories even if you’re not totally duped!

This really was a well done debut and I’m excited to see what this author releases in the future.

Thank you to Minotaur Books and NetGalley for a copy of this novel.

What a wonderful, captivating debut novel by Stacy Willingham. I will enjoy reading more by this new author.

psychological twists and turns that kept on coming and characters that made me wonder who to was telling the truth and who was not. Plus it showed how far a father would go to proctored his family .

3.5 stars rounded down. Williamson gives us an eerie thriller for her debut novel. It is a solid story with psychological twists and turns. Definitely worth the read!

I didn't love this book; it was disjointed and not nearly as twisty as I prefer. I also didn't get a real sense of the protagonist.

Chloe’s father feels like safety to her as a child. Chloe’s father is a serial killer. As the 20th anniversary of his murders approach, new girls go missing.
Is it a copycat? Are they targeting Chloe? Is she imagining things?
This is a fresh look at the serial killer trope, coming from the perspective of the (innocent) family of the killer.
The book is well-written and I think newer thriller readers might love it. But I figured out the twists as soon as the characters were introduced..and so I spent a particularly tense scene just annoyed that we were wasting time with the wrong direction.

A Flicker in the Dark is one of those mysteries that had me guessing, incorrectly, the whole novel.

Chloe Davis is a psychologist, someone who wants to help others deal with their demons. However, she is still dealing with her own demons from her past. When she was young, Chloe's father was sentenced to life in prison for pleading guilty to kidnapping and murdering 6 girls. Twenty years later, as Chloe has her life together, she begins to relive her nightmarish past as more girls begin to go missing. As her demons come to the surface, she must both deal with her own pain that has resurfaced and her fear of what comes next.

If you like a twisty plot that has you totally taken by surprise, this is for you. Lots of twists, but good twists! Such a great thriller! Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

What did I just read??? Wow it's all I can say. A damaged main character with heart, passion and grit. I went out and bought a copy just so I could read it again and again

I loved this book. It's beautifully written and the plot kept me completely hooked. I couldn't stop reading, but at the same time, I didn't want it to end. What an achievement!

What a great debut thriller! I was very impressed with this one! I'm really good at predicting endings but this one kept me guessing!

I was given. an Arc of this book for an honest review. Thank you Net Galley ! This was an exciting book with lots of thrills and trying to guess the villain was difficult. I actually got it wrong . I really enjoyed it but did think there were just a little bit too many people involved towards the end. I would still recommend this book for sure .

Chloe Davis is a psychologist living in Baton Rouge with a thriving practice after surviving a tortuous childhood after discovering she was the daughter of a serial killer. Chloe is in the midst of planning her upcoming wedding when news of a missing young girl brings back memories of her father's horrific murders twenty years ago. Chloe presents a stable appearance to others unfortunately she still deals with the demons from her past on a regular basis while helping herself to a variety of mind numbing drugs and alcohol that she has easy access to. When another girls goes missing and happens to be a new patient of Chloe's she believes there is a copycat killer wanting her attention but no one seems to believe her but Chloe knows these murders won't stop until she discovers who would want to recreate the horrific crimes that literally destroyed her family and and the small community where she grew up.

This was a clever and well-written book by Stacy Willingham that had me glued to to each page from the first chapter until the final chapter. I thought the storyline was intriguing with well-developed characters having their own back story which helped make the book suspenseful and unpredictable. I enjoyed the very flawed character of
Chloe with all her struggles very
much and was entertained by all the red herrings and twists ​that the writer took to keep the reader guessing.
I did find a few parts questionable yet it didn't affect my enjoyment of the story. I highly recommend this suspenseful book and will look forward to reading more by this author.

I want to thank the publisher " St. Martin's/Minotaur Books" and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book and any thoughts and opinions expressed are unbiased and mine alone!

I have given this captivating story a rating of 4 GRIPPING AND DISTURBING 🌟🌟🌟🌟 STARS!!

A woman is forced to relive the memories of a horrific crime from her childhood when similar crimes begin happening again. As she fights to maintain some normalcy, she begins to suspect that the new crime wave is connected to her. Author Stacy Willingham gives readers a solid debut in the mostly compelling but sometimes problematic novel A Flicker in the Dark.

When Chloe Davis was 12 years old, an awful crime spree hit her small Louisiana town of Breaux Bridge. Someone began abducting young girls and murdering them. The residents of the town held onto their daughters tight, and families began imposing new rules and curfews on their children. Chloe’s idyllic childhood seemed on the verge of cracking apart. Late that summer, when her father confessed to the abductions, Chloe’s world shattered into a million pieces.

Now, twenty years later, Chloe’s done pretty well for herself. She and her older brother, Cooper, managed to grow up, go to college, get jobs, all of those things that define normal for a life that most certainly is not. Chloe lives in Baton Rouge and is a therapist, trying to help people make sense of the trauma in their lives. She also has her own home and love in her life; she and her fiancé, Daniel, are set to tie the knot in July.

On the surface it looks like Chloe is not only surviving but thriving after her father’s terrible deeds. Only she knows how hard it is for her to function; some days she can do it without the prescription drugs she hides in her desk. Other days she counts down hours until she can pop a pill.

Then word breaks that a girl has gone missing right there in Baton Rouge. Days later investigators find her body, and Chloe feels like she’s been sent back twenty years to that awful summer when the man she trusted most in the world—her father—turned out to be a monster. Since that time, Chloe has struggled to reconcile the man she knew with who he was revealed to be.

A second girl goes missing, and Chloe’s world begins to spiral back into the past. What’s worse is that she has a connection to both girls. It might sound crazy, but Chloe gets the strong hunch that the murderer is trying to send her a message.

The police don’t know what to make of her claims, but Chloe is determined not to let any more girls get hurt. With the help of a reporter interested in the upcoming anniversary of her father’s confession, Chloe begins to sift through the information on hand to see if she can find anything that will make a difference. She couldn’t do anything the first time, when her dad committed the crimes, because she was a child. This time, she’s determined things will be different.

Author Stacy Willingham proves her ability to put together a strong mystery in this debut novel. Chloe is well developed as a character, and by writing her in first-person point of view Willingham allows readers to get close to Chloe in a way that enhances the plot. Chloe’s ambivalence toward her father and her fear for the young women in present-day Baton Rouge are convincing and palpable.

The book struggles in putting forward suspects for the new crime spree. Willingham shines a spotlight so brightly on one person that, despite worthy efforts to make them look guilty, it’s obvious they aren’t. More astute readers may guess about halfway through the novel who the killer is and their connection to Chloe; nevertheless, the unfolding of events and careful detailing are engaging to the end and provide satisfaction of finding out whether the guess was correct.

A few small errors might pull readers out of the story and make them ask questions. For the most part, though, the book is a solid read. Those wanting a worthy entry to the thriller genre that falls in line with its contemporaries should check this out.

Okay, WOW!! What a heck a of a debut!! This was such a great thriller! I really like to consider myself “seasoned” when it comes to thrillers and somehow this one still got me! The writing was just beautifully done. I will say in the beginning, things were a bit slow, and I wasn’t quite sure if I was going to like this, but then the story took off like a jet plane. Really enjoyed this one and looking forward to future works from the author!! 4.5 stars!