This is an impressive debut novel and I did like the writing style of the author. However, as someone who reads quite a lot of thriller novels I did predict how the ending was going to play out and wasn’t deterred by the red herrings that kept creeping in. Pacing was a little slow to start but went from 0-100 in the last 100 pages or so. Would read from the author again but this book was kind of average for me.

A gripping thriller from start to finish.

Lots of twists and turns and red herrings, I guessed a couple but still an enjoyable read!

I am surprised that this is a first novel as the writing is quite accomplished and I was gripped by the story. The plot is not particularly original, the ending dragged on a bit and there were some loose ends - Chloe's mother? However, I enjoyed reading it.

A Flicker in the Dark by Stacy Willingham is another debut author I’ve enjoyed reading this year. Told from Chloe’s perspective the story alternates between past and present. Beautifully written and highly engaging, this was a book I found hard to put down. I read a lot of mystery and thrillers and this definitely stands up to the high quality established authors are writing. A sharp, twister thriller that has also been optioned. No surprise there.

Although the final conclusion was one you might see coming, it didn’t spoil the tension for me in the least. In fact, it added to the excitement. It’s always the “how” for me rather than the “who”. With Chloe’s father imprisoned for horrific crimes that took place when she was a child, she can’t help being impacted by the aftermath, not only psychologically, but the constant fear of people knowing she and her brother Cooper are the children of a serial killer haunts her constantly. A psychologist, she has her own private practice in Baton Rouge and is a determined and well-educated character. Definitely someone I can easily root for. While Cooper is fiercely protective of her, Chloe’s fiancé Daniel must endure his possessiveness and hostility.

With more young girls going missing, this doesn’t sit well for Chloe. A copycat killer is on the loose threatening to recreate the terrible crimes her father committed twenty years prior. Crimes she’s desperate to forget. With a mother in a home and unable to communicate except by tapping a finger, Chloe feels alone in her search for any tiny piece of detail or information she can glean. With so much misdirection and twists, it’s hard to know where the story will go, but with the help of flashbacks, the second part is absolutely gripping.

What I didn’t like: Not much really. Perhaps an addiction to prescription drugs, but this is an accurate portrayal of childhood trauma.

What I liked: The writing style works really well and is definitely something I look for in a thriller. I don’t think Willingham laboured anything in terms of thoughts, or feelings. I loved hearing every detail that went on in Chloe’s head. It makes for excellent reading. I love the title and the book cover.

Many thanks to Netgalley, the author and HarperCollins, HarperFiction for the privilege of reading an advance copy of this book.

Chloe Davies is the daughter of a serial killer. He went to jail but the impact of his behaviour remains. Although she has a successful career, Chloe has struggled in aspects of her personal life. 20 years later, history starts repeating itself and it feels as though Chile is connected to the person responsible. Chloe doesn't know who to trust and is suspicious of everyone around her.

This was an unusual approach to a serial killer type story. I enjoyed it but at times found the story a bit slow. Chloe is quite a difficult character to like. She skirts dangerously close to being a professional woman who behaves like she has no sense. Fortunately the author does a good job of explaining the struggles Chloe has experienced to offer some insight into her behaviour.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley with no promise of a favourable review.

"A flicker in the dark" is Stacy Willingham's debut novel. I think this is a key element for my review, since I don't feel like I should rate a debut novel in the same way I would a novel by an author that has already built a career and published multiple books.

First of all, let's start with the plot. It's not necessarily the most original but I have learned in this past year that this isn't an issue for me. Often, mystery thriller authors look for the most outrageous plot twist and just make an absolute mess out of a good book. So, as long as the story is well developed, I don't mind if the premise isn't the most original.
In this case, I don't think the book is poorly written, but it definitely showed quite a few weaknesses. Again, being a debut author, I don't mind them as much. I know those are things that get better with experience. However, I do feel like there are a few parts that maybe should have been edited more.

When it comes to the characters, we rely once again on a narrator that we can't fully trust. Chloe is not only affected by the trauma of what happened to her family when she was an early teen but to that we also add some substance abuse. Not my favourite type of character, but I don't feel it was overdone with the confusion. That usually can be quite irritating if not done properly.
The rest of the characters didn't feel as fleshed out, which makes sense when creating the mysterious aura around them. But it also made most of them quite forgettable.

The way the information was revealed didn't work for me. We were fed misdirection in a very "basic" way. There were too many chapters that ended with shock information and it felt a bit overdone.
The resolution wasn't my favourite either, as I feel it was quite easy to guess. I was constantly hoping for a shocking revelation that could redeem the novel for me, but that never happened. Though I have to say one of the character's "ending" was more unexpected and I did enjoy that. It was something plausible but harder to guess and it fit the narrative well.

All in all, I think this was a very solid debut novel. But as someone who reads a lot in this genre, I definitely found more "flaws" than most people would.

I really enjoyed this twisty, tense dark thriller.

Chloe is the daughter of a notorious serial killer which has, not surprisingly, affected her whole life. But she has a career as a psychologist, a house and a fiance, and is doing as well as can be expected - until a copycat murder almost on her doorstep awakens old memories. Worse, Chloe is sure the killer is sending her a message - or trying to implicate her. And as the murders escalate and get even closer to home, Chloe remembers the ultimate lesson from her childhood. She can't trust anyone.

This is the kind of book you need to plan for because I can guarantee you won't want to put it down. And you will probably want to keep the lights on after...

Chloe Davis is a woman with tragedy in her past. She relives the horrors of her childhood daily, relying on prescription drugs to keep her calm. This goes against the fact that she is a medical psychologist, and that she is prescribing the drugs for her boyfriend and taking the medication herself.

There is so much wrong with this story that it’s difficult to know where to start. Chloe Davis is a mixed bag of emotions, but none of them draw the reader in. She makes so many mistakes and wrong calls that it becomes the norm. Surely in her professional role she should have an iota of common sense?

The red herrings come thick and fast, but any seasoned thriller reader will know who the real villain is pretty soon into the book.

This wasn’t so much a flicker in the dark, but a damp squib.

Thank you NetGalley.

My thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for my copy of A Flicker in the Dark. To be honest I found this book quite hard to get into. The plot moved slowly and as much as I sympathised with the situation she found herself in I did not like Chloe nor did I believe in her as a psychologist, and that never changed.
Then the tempo increased and the twists, turns and nightmare scenarios became terrifying and then came the final reveal!!
I'm not sure I'll be brave enough to watch the TV series.

An excellent debut thrilling could not put it down, well drawn characters. Stacy has set the bar high look forward to her next book.
I received this book from HarperCollins UK via Netgalley for a review.

I normally enjoy this type of book, but this one was quite hard going. Chloe Davis still living in fear after her father was revealed as a serial killer in her childhood, tries to live a normal life, but pops pills and alcohol, which she gets easily in her fiance' s name as she is a psychologist. 20 years later a copycat killer emerges ( as they so often do in this type of story) just as Chloe is planning her wedding to Daniel. The tale goes on from there with Chloe trying to "help" the police and solve the new murders. Sorry not really for me. I expected it to be much more interesting than it was, so only 3 stars from me.

Chloe Davis and her brother spent 20 years without a father after he was arrested for killing 6 girls in their neighbourhood. Now 20 years later the killings have started up again. Chloe, now a respectful psychiatrist is in the frame after one of the girls was killed, leaving her office after a psychology session.
This is a riveting thriller and keeps you guessing until the end as there are several links to Chloe. Is Chloe the murderer?? A must read.

As a 12 year old child, Chloe Davis saw her dad taken away by police and locked up for the murders of six teenaged girls. Now, 20 years later, she is a psychiatrist trying to help others whilst still struggling to come to terms with her past trauma.

Whilst planning her wedding to the perfect fiancé, on the 20th anniversary of her dad’s arrest, another teenage girl goes missing - and a journalist appears, wanting to speak to her about her dad and the past that Chloe is trying so hard to forget. But is there some connection to what happened 20 years ago? Is there some connection to Chloe herself?

A Flicker in the Dark is a fabulously gripping debut novel from an extremely talented writer. Every page is loaded with suspense and tension. Parts were just genuinely scary and I read them with a pounding heart, unable to finish reading for the night until I had some answers!

The added element of Chloe’s unpredictability, her dangerous use of prescription drugs and alcohol meaning she herself is a bit confused around what is real and what she has imagined, makes it hard for us to know who to trust in her life and it is easy to see how she begins to suspect everyone around her.

Annoyingly, I guessed a big twist which I always hope I will have wrong, because I love a good surprise, but there were enough parts to it that I had NOT guessed that it didn’t spoil it. And it is testament to how great the book is that I couldn’t stop thinking about it and debating possible ideas with myself/spoiling it for myself in the process a little!

Knowing before I started reading that this is already being made into a tv series made me read it imagining it on the screen - and I can absolutely see it working brilliantly. I can’t wait to watch it and see the story and characters brought to life.

I quite enjoyed this thriller!

Chloe Davis is trying to keep her life together. Daughter of notorious serial killer, Dick Davis, she only has her brother Cooper looking out for her. Now an adult, she works with troubled children as a psychiatrist and is happily engaged to Daniel. Leaving aside her minor drug addiction, Chloe is happy. Until girls begin to go missing again. Chloe knows it must be linked to her… but how?

I wasn’t overly keen on Chloe as a character, she seemed quite unlikeable and made some very daft decisions. However, the overall story is good! I did work out where we were heading, but there are still plenty of red herrings and twists to entertain us on our way!

The writing was well paced and descriptive without being over the top. I was hooked from the start and this was due to the clever and interesting writing rather than the main character, as previously noted. I would read more books by this author. Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for my copy of this book.

Wow wow wow what a roller-coaster read! I must admit I didn't read the information about this book I just picked it out to read and I'm so pleased I did. Chloes dad is a serial killer and behind bars but when a girl is murdered chloe begins to suspect a copycat. I literally suspected every character at some point in the book it had that many twists and turns. A 5 star read. Thanks to netgalley for my advanced copy

The darkness within ★★★★★

Psychologist Chloe Davies has spent two decades trying to move on from the devastating discovery that her beloved father was the man responsible for the murders of six teenage girls. When two more young women disappear, Chloe is afraid that another monster stalks the streets.

As Chloe revisits that terrible summer, she begins to wonder if a copycat is following in her father’s bloody footsteps. How did she not see her father for who he really was sooner? Who can she trust now? Will there always be a monster lurking in the dark?

With the help of journalist Aaron, Chloe starts to dig into the old cases alongside the new ones, desperate to find the connections before the next girl disappears. Time is running out.

A disturbing and compelling thriller which I read in 24 hours. For fans of All The Missing Girls by Megan Miranda and Black Eyed Susans by Julia Heaberlin.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Let me preface this review by saying when I got approved for this arc I literally screamed. I dropped everything to read this as the plot had me completely intrigued. Unfortunately this book did not live up to the hype and it was just average for me.

I have to admit that I’m quite disappointed as this was one of my highly anticipated 2022 releases.

I enjoyed the writing style but felt that there were parts that were very repetitive, and there was major overuse of the word ‘flicker’.

Mysteries are supposed to be mysterious but I had the plot twists predicted from like page 20.

People who are new to the mystery/ thriller genre may however enjoy this more as they might not be able to call what happens later in the book.

I am also generally put off by ‘unreliable narrators’ such as our main character who is a psychiatrist with her own substance abuse issues, and generally finds herself questioning what is real.

Overall, this was not a bad debut but it just did not live up to the hype for me. It would be a 2.5 but rounding up to a 3 as there was some beautiful writing throughout.

I enjoyed this book and would recommend it to others but for me there were a few too many plot holes. When I finish reading a thriller I like everything to be nicely rounded off, but in this case it wasn’t and I was left with quite a few unanswered questions. I didn’t warm to Doctor Chloe Davis, in fact I found her character to be quite unbelievable and at times I wanted to give her a good slap. However, I thought the story was very well written with many twists and red herrings to keep readers guessing right to the very end. I think it will make an excellent film and I’m looking forward to watching it. Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read the ARC in return for an honest review.

A great story with lots of twists in them, finishing on the biggest twist of them all which I didn't see coming! So hard to put down as you need to know what is going on

This is the first book I read from this author however I really enjoyed it. Willingham is excellent at building the background of the characters, the plotline is very exciting and it is difficult to guess the twists and turns. I have to say that I read this very quickly and would certainly be willing to read another. Highly recommended for lovers of crime and psychological thrillers.