A Flicker in the Dark
A Novel
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4.2 • 2.5K Ratings
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
A New York Times Bestseller
“A smart, edge-of-your-seat story with plot twists you’ll never see coming. Stacy Willingham’s debut will keep you turning pages long past your bedtime.” —Karin Slaughter
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?
From debut author Stacy Willingham comes a masterfully done, lyrical thriller, certain to be the launch of an amazing career. A Flicker in the Dark is eerily compelling to the very last page.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
You can’t take anything at face value in this taut psychological thriller. Chloe Davis has a great career as a psychologist, a nice house, and an adoring fiancé, but her charmed outer life hides a dark inner truth: Chloe’s father is an infamous serial killer convicted of murdering six teenage girls 20 years ago. And when it looks like a copycat killer might be on the loose, Chloe is forced to revisit the devastating past she’s tried so hard to forget. First-time author Stacy Willingham pushes you right into the deep end of this unsettling mystery. As the gripping plot jumps between the past and present, Willingham throws in some genius red herrings, and Chloe is both a bewitching protagonist and an unreliable narrator. A Flicker in the Dark is an intense story about the fine line between fantasy and reality.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
At 12, Chloe Davis—the protagonist of Willingham's devastating debut—watched in horror as her father pleaded guilty to murdering six teenage girls from Breaux Bridge, La., and agreed to serve six consecutive life sentences in order to avoid the death penalty. Shortly thereafter, her mother attempted suicide, and her gregarious older brother retreated inside himself. Now, Chloe is a 32-year-old self-medicating Baton Rouge psychologist, whose family history is unknown to nearly everyone but Daniel Briggs, the pharmaceutical salesperson to whom she's now engaged following a whirlwind romance. Chloe is already apprehensive regarding the impending 20th anniversary of her father's crime spree, so when a 15-year-old girl disappears from Chloe's neighborhood, she tries not to panic. A few days later, however, another 15-year-old girl vanishes after leaving Chloe's office, forcing Chloe to question whether a copycat killer has found her, or her paranoid imagination is seeing patterns where none exist. Willingham skillfully intercuts Chloe's anxious first-person narration in the present with flashbacks to her childhood, ratcheting up the tension. Atmospheric prose and abundant red herrings amplify the tale's intensity. Willingham is a writer to watch.
Customer Reviews
Loved
This was a great book! I really liked the pacing and the way the story was told from an unreliable perspective. It kept me guessing what was true and what wasn’t, and I definitely didn’t guess the ending, which is always a good thing! Would recommend to mystery/thriller fans.
Meh
3.5 stars - Overall a decent thriller with an interesting plot line. The story was frustrating at times since some of the plot twists were either unnecessary or confusing. The main character kind of got on my nerves at times because she was so clueless it became irritating! In the end I did find it easy and quick to read, but just not up there with some of my other favorite thriller novels
Good story but…
The overall story was good;however, if you’re not someone who likes excruciating detail to the point that you’re skipping lines and thinking to yourself “get on with the story already” - you’ll hate this book. I found it to drag horribly. I don’t need 4 large paragraphs describing every single detail of a room before getting to the dialogue or anything relevant to the story. If you don’t mind that then good for you! You’ll love this! I also didn’t love the ending.