This is a book that deals with the potentially upsetting disappearance of teenage girls. The lead character, Chloe, as a twelve year old, discovers hidden items at home that point to her father being the murderer. He confesses and her role in that remains with her. Later, by which time she has met and agreed to marry Daniel, there is a series of copycat disappearances. Daniel too has had a difficult past. Chloe becomes involved in trying to find this later killer because of the similarities to the cases her father confessed too. She is clearly a disturbed personality who finds it hard to trust. The story is brilliantly put together with twists that demolish assumptions about who is going to be identified as the culprit. It is also exceedingly well written. The ending is unlikely to be guessed before it is revealed! This is a gripping story. I recommend it.

A fast paced thriller with so many twists and turns it's hard to keep up. It really does keep you guessing, I thought I had it worked out - but then there was one final move.
I loved it.

Kept me engrossed till the last sentence. How do you live with being the daughter of a serial killer? Life changed dramatically when chloe hands over the evidence of her father's crimes to the police when she was twelve.
Since then she has graduated and has a career as a psychologist. Now due to get married things start to unravel.

A dark, haunting novel which keeps throwing up red herrings and cleverly keeps much hidden until the end. This psychological thriller is unusual as it has a serial killer’s family member as its protagonist, and examines her feelings and trauma at being associated with this. When more killings start happening, she is unsure who to trust, even doubting herself at times. A gripping and fast-paced read.

I enjoyed reading this book and was keen to reach the end to find out what happened but I had worked out the facts before I read them. I was reading to confirm my expectations.
The story is written around the unconditional love of family and relatives doing what needed to be done.
I did find the central character’s behaviour annoying - she failed to ask for help at several points on the story and focused on her own ability to sort things out. In fact when she did ask for help at the end of the book, it certainly did help her!
It is a good read. Recommended

Fabulous thriller which kept you wanting to read more. The plot twists were brilliant and I'm so impressed that this is a debut.

Chloe is the daughter of a serial killer, living with ptsd which she numbs with medication. She is surrounded my men who care for her, Daniel her fiance, he is a mystery to her brother Cooper and Aaron, the journalist who wants to write a story on her father.

20 years after her father was convicted and imprisoned, girls start to go missing again in the same way they did back then.

What's going on? Why now? Could this be a copycat killer?

Looking forward to this authors next book. #Stacey Willingham. Thank you #Netgalley for this ARC

20 years after her father was arrested and jailed for life without parole the murders start up again, girls 15 years of age are taken and their body's discovered dead and minus items of jewellery.

Chloe's life was in track things were looking good she'd got engaged, set up her own clinic helping distressed young people what more could and want. Well apart from being a great author like Stacy not a lot more but the past is back the memories that could never really be lost are ripped wide open and it's like going back to being twelve that's how old she was when this happened before. So the question who is it this time?

The answer well obviously it's in this novel a thriller with twists that knock you over, and there's action all the way through I loved it. You won't know who you can trust so trust no one follow the plot and you will be glued. It has great characters never knowing what to expect isn't this what a great thriller needs. So the ingredients are there what more can you ask for. The right mixing and baking and fit me this has it all.

So what I'm saying is I highly recommend this novel and how you love it as much as i do.

A Flicker in the Dark is an impressive debut novel set in Louisiana. Chloe Davis is a psychologist with a troubled past. Her father has been in prison for twenty years, having murdered six young women, and the unresolved trauma, for which she self-medicates with pills and alcohol, leads her to behave in an irrational and often self-destructive way, imagining connections that might not be there.
The characters are well rounded and believable but flawed, and at some point in the narrative they all look guilty and appear to be hiding something. Stacy Willingham keeps pulling the rug out from under the reader, has you believing one thing then turns it on its head. Several times I thought I had it all figured out, but I was wrong. Unlike most of the other reviewers, I did not guess what had happened, but then again I rarely do.
The writing is atmospheric and creepy, bringing the Louisiana setting vividly to life, but overly descriptive in places. I liked the way Chloe’s memories and flashbacks were woven into the narrative, avoiding the need for the more usual alternating past and present chapters.
There is a cinematic quality to the writing which probably explains why A Flicker in the Dark is to be made into a TV series. I look forward to watching it brought to life on the screen, and will certainly put the next book by this author on my reading list. Thanks to HarperCollins and NetGalley for a digital copy to review.

This is an excellent read that keeps you guessing until the last few pages. Thoroughly recommended. (I put this upfront in case anyone wants to read my review and give up after the first paragraph!)
In the late 1990s a change in my work required lots of travel and hotel stays (yes hard work I know!) and this resulted in my taking up reading much more frequently. For some reason which I cannot remember I had an aversion to books by US Authors thinking them inferior to UK books. Not sure if this was nationalism or stupidity or somewhere between the two. For the last few years getting older gave me more sense and I have read many, many excellent books from US authors.
A Flicker In The Dark is no exception and it joins my long list of 5 star reviews. For once I actually managed to work out 'whodunnit' but I didn't quite get the final 2-3 pages right. Still, I've lost count of the number of times I have got it wrong.
There are only a small number of candidates and you get to feel that all of them are hiding something. Chloe, the hero/heroine/gender neutral equivalent is a difficult character to build some understanding and knowing. The book has a few twists and I have to admit the end few chapters where all candidates are involved in one way or another is really good.
My only gripe is that for me it is a little verbose - I prefer more action and conversation to pages of background text and feelings. Still many readers will love this

Undercurrent Of Menace…
Chloe Davis has rebuilt her life following her father’s imprisonment for heinous crimes. She is now a successful psychologist but has become accustomed to always living under a shadow. When a girl she knows goes missing Chloe comes to the most obvious conclusion. But, is she right? With a credible cast, a compelling but tragic storyline, this is a slow move suspense which maintains an undercurrent of menace throughout.

Thanks to Netgalley, publisher and author for a copy of this book.

Highly recommended. Smart, fast paced and engrossing!

5/5

A story about a serial killer of girls from 20 years ago….as well as a story about missing girls today.

Chloe has spent years hiding from her past but she is unable to run from the present., when history starts to repeat itself. After her dad was imprisoned for life after pleading guilty to the murder of 6 girls, 20 years before, Chloe has gained her qualifications as a psychiatrist, moved away from home and met her fiancé. Life is good….until girls start to disappear again. Who is behind the present day mystery and just what is the link to Chloe?

This book kept me guessing all the way through. I found it really hard to put down and would recommend. Thank you NetGalley for my copy.

At the age of twelve, Chloe Davis’ life changed when her Dad was arrested for the murders of six local girls.

Twenty years on and Chloe had moved away and is a psychologist. She is engaged to be married but still struggles with the fact that her Dad is a serial killer.

When a local girl disappears and there seem to be similarities to what her father did, Chloe feels she must look into it. Is there a copycat killer?

This was an enjoyable read. Each time I thought I had worked out what was going on, I found out I was wrong! Some great twists and turns in this story. Great characters throughout the book, I couldn’t help but have doubts about everyone! This story had an ending I was not expecting!

My thanks to NetGalley and Harper Collins U.K. for my copy in exchange for my honest review.

A phenomenal read!
Chloe is a great character with all the anxieties and hangups you would expect from a woman whose family was torn apart by her murderous fathers actions and then her mothers attempted suicide..
Now settling into her wedding planning whilst also coping with the attention a major anniversary of her fathers arrest brings and her mothers increasingly deteriorating health she finds herself once again embroiled in a world of missing girls-just like before- only this time her dad is behind bars.
The writing is incredibly clever, seeding mistrust of anyone and everyone into your mind and raising suspicions about every character Chloe interacts with.
Fast pace, impossible to put down and really, really clever!

A Flicker in the Dark, Stacey Willingham

Chloe Davis’s father is a serial killer, the bodies of his teenaged victims lost to the Louisiana swamps. Now an adult Chloe has rebuilt her life and tried to move on from her fathers shadow but on the 20th anniversary Chloe feels her world shatter when a girl goes missing…

This one is on the way to being adapted and I can see why. It has a compelling story and unusually for a thriller it does not focus on the victims or their suffering but delves into the family of the initial murderer and how the teenage girl in the family was left to survive.
Did I work this one out? Yes. However I read SO much in this genre very rarely do I find myself surprised. I did enjoy this one and I’m looking forward to the eventual adaption, Chloe was a brilliant, honest and real protagonist.

I blamed the murders on the wrong guy! I base my judgment of the success of a murder mystery by whether I want to skip to the end to see who is the culprit and not want to read the in-betweens. I did not skip to the end though I found some parts of the middle pages a bit hard to get through for some reason or another The ending was also not satisfying as I cannot imagine the tragedy of what the main female character had to go through.

This is a skillfully written book though. I'm sure I would have enjoyed it even more if it were a movie.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book. I found this book a bit slow at the beginning, but once the story moved on it got better. A bit creepy at times too. Chloe has some serious addiction issues. The storyline was great especially that twist at the end, it has me wanting more. Great writing. I look forward to reading more from this author.

A Flicker in the Dark is a dark phycological thriller by Stacy Willingham.
Young Chloe’s dad confessed to murders of young teen girls that he didn’t do, to protect her teenage brother.
Twenty years later teenage girls started being murdered again, and Chloe thought she should help solve the case. But it wasn’t who she thought or why it was done.
“Control: Of not only having it, but taking it from somebody else. Snatching it up and claiming it as your own. And for one single moment, like a flicker in the dark, it felt good.”

This is a story about a young girl growing up in the house of a serial killer and 20 years later, when murders restart, she finds herself in the middle of it all again. Can she find the link to stop the killing? Whilst I managed to guess the identity of the killer this is a very well structured thriller. Recommended.

What a brilliant debut book ,absolutely gripping and so well written with great characterisations This book is a suspenseful psychological thriller which is gripping and very compelling .A story about murder and serial killers ,how do their Family cope when they find out one of them is a serial killer ?This book kept me guessing most of the way through . A very enjoyable read, I look forward to reading the next book by this Author .Many Thanks to the Publisher ,the Author and NetGalley for my free copy in return for an honest review .