Book Review - A Flicker in the Dark by Stacy Willingham

Title: A Flicker in the Dark

Series: -

Author: Stacy Willingham
 
Description: When Chloe Davis was twelve, six teenage girls went missing in her small Louisiana town. By the end of the summer, Chloe’s father had been arrested as a serial killer and promptly put in prison. Chloe and the rest of her family were left to grapple with the truth and try to move forward while dealing with the aftermath.

Now 20 years later, Chloe is a psychologist in private practice in Baton Rouge and getting ready for her wedding. She finally has a fragile grasp on the happiness she’s worked so hard to get. Sometimes, though, she feels as out of control of her own life as the troubled teens who are her patients. And then a local teenage girl goes missing, and then another, and that terrifying summer comes crashing back. 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?

Now 20 years later, Chloe is a psychologist in private practice in Baton Rouge and getting ready for her wedding. She finally has a fragile grasp on the happiness she’s worked so hard to get. Sometimes, though, she feels as out of control of her own life as the troubled teens who are her patients. And then a local teenage girl goes missing, and then another, and that terrifying summer comes crashing back. 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?
 
Review: Stacy Willingham has come out with her debut novel “A Flicker in the Dark” and was nominated for a Good Reads choice award in the category mystery/ thriller. We meet Chloe Davis, a psychologist, whose father was convicted of murdering several teenage girls twenty years ago. When girls start disappearing again, Chloe is confronted with her past.
 
We follow the story from Chloe’s point of view and since she is on constant medication, she might be an unreliable narrator. We get to know her very well, since we are following to her in various time periods.
 
The start has a slow start, but yet you immediately feel a subcutaneous tension. And you also start questioning the people around her and Chloe’s mental health.  The setting is well-described and I liked the different timelines it was told in. Stacy Willingham’s writing is smooth and she wrote a pretty solid debut novel. I did kind of see that ending coming, even though we were misdirected a few times.
 
“A Flicker in the Dark” is a psychological thriller, with tension, but a not-so-surprising ending. Solid, but not something that will stick with me for too long.
 
Rating: 3/ 5