When 12 year old Chloe finds a box of trophies hidden by her father that belong to girls reported missing she hands them into the police and sees her dad put behind bars for their murders for the rest of his life.
Now twenty years later,living in a new town we learn the impact of the past on both Chloe and her family. Her mother is in a nursing home after a botched suicide attempt and Chloe is addicted to prescription drugs that she is able to obtain through her job as a psychologist. The demons of the past are ever present and when girls begin to go missing near to where she lives in exactly the same circumstances as before her paranoia goes into overdrive and she begins to suspect the people closest to her.
The twists and turns of the story are gripping. I thought I knew the answers and would then be thrown a curve ball changing my suspicions until the final chapter when the story is brought to a satisfying conclusion with all the endings nearly tied. A very good read.

What a read! A Flicker in the Dark is quite an intriguing and intense debut novel. The pace is slow, the suspense is high from the very beginning, and the plot is character-driven with a protagonist I found determined and tough, a survivor who’s been through a lot, but also an unreliable narrator, so that you don’t know if what she’s telling you is real or born from the paranoia caused by all the Xanax that she swallows like candies.

The narrator and protagonist is Chloe Davis. When she was thirteen years old, Chloe’s father was accused and found guilty of kidnapping and killing six teenage girls in their small town in Louisiana. Her father ended up in prison, her mother in a care facility, and the only person Chloe can call family is her older brother Connor. Now in her thirties, Chloe has her own perfect life: her own practice as a psychologist, a beautiful house in Baton Rouge, and a handsome almost-too-perfect fiancé who she is marrying in one month. On the outside, Chloe’s life is perfect, but, in reality, she is still battling her inner demons – often with the help of a self-prescribed pill of Xanax – and when teenage girls start disappearing again, she knows that the nightmare that began when she was thirteen years old is not over…

I had a few suspicions about the crimes and while some of them were right, there were many twists that took me by surprise. The story is brilliantly-written and, as Chloe tries to figure out the truth, you could have cut the tension with a knife. I was on the edge of my seat, so engrossed in the story that I couldn’t stop reading (although, I was forced to by the battery of my kindle suddenly dying). I really enjoyed this dark, gripping, and chilling novel and I am already looking forward to the author’s next work!

Gifted NetGalley e-arc by Harper Collins with no obligation to review.

When Chloe Davies was a child, her father was arrested for a string of murders of teenagers. Now, twenty years later, similar killings take place and the past feels as if it is coming back to haunt her. This is a chilling, nail biting novel that once I got into it I struggled to put down.

The narrative voice is at time seems to become a bit unravelled (though perhaps this is authorial intent to show Chloe’s anxiety and paranoia) escalating and I couldn’t tell at times whether we were meant to think the narrator was unreliable. All round though, a clever book that will keep even a die-hard thriller reader like me guessing (and incorrectly guessing at that!)

A really enjoyable read!

What a brilliant first novel! A well written page turner with lots of twists and turns, and even if you guess some you still have to read to the end to find out the whole picture. My only quibble is how late I stayed up to finish it!
Certainly an author I will look out for in the future
Thank you to netgalley and Harper Collins for an advance copy of this book

Oh where to start

A flicker in the dark is incredibly tense and fast paced, and will keep you on the edge of your seat. Even though I did guess the big twist even before I was halfway through, the story continued to captivate my interest.

Definitely a top class novel- captivating and powerful. One minute you think you know who is responsible for the murders and then- NO! it’s not them! Chloe does not have an easy time of it, what with her own family and her relationships, while thinking she herself has a role in the deaths of the teenage girls. Wait till you read the ending - you are in for a shock!

I thoroughly enjoyed A Flicker in The Dark – it had me gripped right from the start.
When Chloe Davis was twelve, six teenage girls went missing from her small town in Louisiana and she was terrified she was going to be next.
The flashback chapters capture the intensity and fear really well.
By the end of that fateful summer, Chloe’s own father was arrested and imprisoned for being a serial killer and she hasn’t spoken to him since his arrest.
Fast forward 20 years later and Chloe is still dealing with the trauma of her childhood, except now she is psychologist living in a different small town, helping teenagers deal with their own trauma.
Chloe is engaged to be married and although has issues with drugs seems to be happy but still troubled.
She’s working hard and planning her wedding when the rug gets pulled from under her – a local teenage girl has gone missing, and then another and it feels like that terrifying summer 20 years ago all over again!
Is she paranoid, and seeing parallels that aren't really there, or for the second time in her life, is she about to unmask a killer?
Chloe starts to question her own fiancée and teams up with a New York Times journalist in the hunt for this killer.
Her grip on reality is completely tested while on this dangerous path where she faces demons from her childhood, puts her own life in danger and misplaces her trust.
There’s lots of twists and turns, and the reader is kept guessing to who is really behind these heinous crimes.

When reading the acknowledgements at the end of the book I was really pleased to learn that A Flicker in The Dark has already been optioned for a limited series by actress Emma Stone and sold to a dozen countries around the world. I think it will make great viewing! ,
If you’re a fan of Gillian Flynn, as I am, then definitely read A Flicker in The Dark.

I really enjoyed reading A Flicker in the Dark by Stacy Willingham. It was a clever, atmospheric and twisty thriller that kept me guessing throughout and left me shocked by its ending.

A Flicker in the Dark centres on Chloe Davis, she’s a respected physiologist practicing in Baton Rogue, Louisiana. She is also the daughter of Dick Davis, a serial killer who was jailed when Chloe was only 12. The case became notorious and has stalked Chloe’s life like a shadow. Despite trying to move on with her life, she can’t escape the fears and paranoia that follow her, and when nearing the 20th anniversary of her father’s crimes another girl goes missing, Chloe’s life comes crashing down around her.

Willingham has written a very tightly plotted and clever thriller in A Flicker in the Dark. Like Chloe, I had so many theories about who was committing these crimes and yet I was taken totally by surprise by the book’s ending. There were lots of red herrings and misdirections to keep us guessing. There were no lose ends by the end and everything came together very well.

I think what worked so brilliantly was that all along we were being led by what Chloe believed, but she is a great example of an unreliable narrator. Several times throughout Chloe notes how she struggles at times with trusting her own memory and with determining what is real and what’s not. She self medicates further adding to her confusion over events. We’re also presented with an event in her past that makes her look at once vulnerable but also deeply troubled and unreliable. Yet at the same time we come to learn she has been manipulated by someone throughout the story, only learning as such at the very end. This makes for a fascinating read and a brilliant thriller. We are left guessing about the killer’s identity as much as Chloe, but also wondering how much we can trust in what she says.

This was a fast paced thriller that was difficult to put down. It’s atmospheric, unsettling and ultimately gripping. I enjoyed it and will look forward to watching the show that it’s been developed into.

The story follows Chloe, who’s father is convicted of the murders of many young girls when she was just twelve years of age.

She is now a psychologist, due to marry her fiancé. Around the 20th anniversary of her fathers horrific crimes, another girl goes missing.

I loved the sound of the plot and really wanted to love the book, but for me it was just okay and was very predictable.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and of course the author for the advance reading copy in exchange for an honest review.

Chloe Davis was a shy 12-year-old living an ordinary life at home with her parents and older brother when her father was arrested and charged with killing 6 teenage girls.

The story actually starts 20 years after the event, Chloe is now a trained psychologist, planning her wedding to the man of her dreams, then the killings start again.

I really wanted to like this book but I found Chloe very irritating, also the self-medicating with pills and alcohol was just too cliched for me.

There were red herrings galore, but I think it was fairly obvious who the killer was.

Thank you to NetGalley and St Martin's Press for letting me read this book in exchange for an honest review.

When Chloe was twelve her father was arrested for the murder of six young women. She stood right there next to him in their house when the police came and he calmly stood up and let them arrest him. Now she is thirty-two and a psychologist. She has not recovered well from that trauma. She is still popping pills but it seems that she finally found a man she can trust. It is just weeks until she gets married and she is madly in love with her fiancée. But then a young girl goes missing. At first it seems like just another tragic case of somebody snatching a girl from the street. Then another girl disappeared and this time she was one of Chloe’s patients. Soon it seems that there are too many similarities to her father’s murder spree twenty years ago and everything is somehow connected to Chloe.

Chloe is a difficult character. She still struggles to put her past behind her. She is not very reliable, self-centered and she has a tendency to lie to the police and investigate on her own. Which is always a stupid idea. The story seems a bit predictable from the beginning. But there are still enough surprises. It kept me interested all the time and I read it in two sittings. The pace is fast enough and the story is dark and gripping. It is an astonishing debut from an author I will keep an eye out for in the future.

Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book. This hooked me from the first page and was a very good read. Gripping and twisty, though not entirely shocking on the twist front. I’d certainly recommend for psychological thriller fans as it will certainly keep you hooked right to the end.

I absolutely loved this! It was gripping from start to finish. Creepy and unsettling it really was everything I love in a thriller. Although I had an inkling as to the twist I still doubted myself, especially at 85% and the ending was incredibly satisfying. Such a fantastic woven story, can’t wait to see more from Stacy.

Chloe has worked hard to move away from her past and reputation as the the daughter of a serial killer, but when that past comes back to haunt her and young girls are being killed again, can she hold it all together? Can she find out why this is happening again?

This book absolutely gripped me from start to finish. The mystery was really well crafted, each time I thought I had it figured out or that I was a step ahead, I'd be thrown for a loop and left trying to figure it out all over again-thoroughly enjoyable.
I liked how the narrative moved between the past and present; flashback scenes were often triggered with a simple word or phrase and we'd be taken right back there as the narrator remembers, only to be brought back to the present by an overlap in dialogue or circumstance in the 'present day'. I found it to be quite unique and kept us informed while not slowing down the narrative.
I found Chloe as a narrator really interesting because even though she knows she's not entirely reliable, and we know she's not reliable,she was compelling enough that I still couldn't help myself empathising with and believing her, even as she slowly unravelled.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and can't quite believe it's a debut thriller, I'm definitely excited to read more from this author.

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins UK for my e-arc of this title, received in exchange for an honest review.

A physiological thriller about the daughter of a serial killer and now a copycat killer. We follow Chloe the daughter of the serial killer, who is now a psychologist working in a private practice. Chloe appears to be in a much better place until a local girl goes missing and the circumstances are very familiar. The culprit was a little foreseeable but the twists were well constructed. For this reason I have rated it 4 stars.

Chloe Davis' dad is a convicted serial killer jailed when she was a young girl. Now, twenty years later, Chloe is a psychologist who spends her life helping people through their own traumas but she is still haunted by the actions of her father. She trusts no one save for her brother Cooper and her fiancé Daniel. She just can't shake this feeling of paranoia that her world is going to come crashing down at any moment. On the anniversary of her father's crimes, a girl goes missing. Chloe's nightmare becomes reality...

A Flicker in the Dark hits the thriller-loving spot! Tension, suspense, serious plot twists and flawed characters galore, Willingham delivers in this novel. Chloe is a truly damaged protagonist, unable to completely trust anyone and terrified of the dark and what it might hold. She has never fully got over the events that happened twenty years ago and has had to try and escape the stigma of being the serial killer's daughter. No matter how hard she has tried, and no matter where she runs to start afresh, her past is always there lurking in a dark corner. There are many moments in this book where the hair stands up on my arms and I have to admit, it made me take a bit of a second look in the dark when I was out at night.

I didn't want to put this book down and loved the flashbacks to Chloe's childhood which gave the reader insight into what she went through. But as the book is told from Chloe's perspective, we have to question if she is a truly a reliable narrator or whether her paranoia is playing tricks on her medicated mind. The last 25% of the book moves at breakneck/hold your breath speed and there was many an audible gasp when key elements/twists were revealed.

Thriller-fanatics, put A Flicker in the Dark on your list- a must-read this year! A tense, gripping read which will give you goosebumps! Thank you to NetGalley and publishers for the eARC in exchange for my honest review. A Flicker in the Dark is out on the 3rd of February.

A flicker in the dark.

Chloe Davis is a psychologist working in her own practice in a small town in Louisiana. She has rebuilt her life after a major traumatic event in her childhood - when her Dad was found guilty of the murder of 6 teenage girls. Chloe uses a selection of prescription drugs to self medicate her anxiety. Especially now a copycat killer has started recreating her father’s crimes in Chloe’s neighbourhood.
This is a really good thriller. I quite liked Chloe & I especially liked the settings of this story. The descriptions of the Deep South were beautiful. There were quite. Few far fetched aspects of this story - Chloe doesn’t change her name, she moves away from her hometown but remains in the same state & she practices as a psychologist…surely one of her patients, her friends, her fiancé - would have googled her? If her father is such a prolific serial killer? I also figured out whodunnit but I won’t say too much about that and I’ll leave it to you to figure out the red herrings. Chloe’s access to drugs and her abuse of this is also a little strange. But still a solid 3.5 stars for this twisty thriller.

i enjoyed this book and it held my attention, although the beginning could be seen as being abit slow. once it got going it was with a ton of suspense that will keeps you on your toes.

Wow! Stacy Willingham is definitely one to watch, I thought she had planned out this plot seamlessly. She managed to drop all the right hints and lead the reader to a surprise ending. I really enjoyed this and finished it within a day. Need more from her!

"A Flicker in the Dark" hides its strengths in plain sight. It's deceptive. As I settled into this book I found it enjoyable, it just seemed a bit excessive to call it a mystery. Plot points were signposted so clearly you could make it required reading for a course in Urban Planning. So I read on, enjoying the story and feeling there would be a nice simple conclusion with a splash of tension to keep it entertaining. It was the kind of story you'd happily read on a train or plane, knowing that you'll keep up even with distractions.

And then the other shoe dropped.

Out of nowhere, Willingham suddenly showed her hand. That simple story gained incredible depth in a flash. Everything had been building up to this. The pieces all fell into place and it transitioned instantly from an enjoyably light mystery into an intense and riveting one. The final chapters became compulsive reading. It finds a superb balance between light, accessible thriller and a darker, more complex one.

It's a great story of a woman living with the knowledge her father was a serial killer. Her childhood memories of him being arrested and charged with horrific crimes haunted her daily, never more so than when people started to vanish in the same way almost exactly 20 years later. This story has a lot to offer many people, from casual thriller readers to die-hard mystery fans. It taps into so much of what makes the genre work and moulds those details into a story that blindsides you and leaves you hungry for more.