A very clever book, full of twists and turns, with a completely unexpected ending. I found it a little hard to get into, but once in, I was completely engrossed. Definitely a book for a long winter evening.

At the beginning of this book I was a bit unsure about it but slowly I became involved in the story and I must admit I became quite intrigued. The plot was managed beautifully with a drip feed of sensations rather than information. Sensations that just niggled and left me wanting to find out more. This became stronger as I neared the end - and I was speed-reading just to find out who, where, what.

This is not a lurid, horror laden, sensational thriller, just a slow burn of a tale well told.

Thank you to the author, publishers and NetGalley for providing an ARC via my Kindle in return for an honest review.

Loved this book.
Chloe Davis is a psychologist with a dark past. Recently has set up her own practice where she meets Lacey Deckler for the first time.
Chloe left her home town of Breaux Bridge after her father was found guilty of murdering young local girls. Now approaching the twentieth anniversary she is contacted by a NY Times journalist Aaron Jansen who’s writing a story about her father.
Chloe is still a bit of a mess, tends to drink a bit too much and taking meds to help her anxiety. Now more girls are dying, in a similar manner to the previous murders.
Chloe, recently engaged starts to investigate these murders, one of whom is Lacey who is found dead behind Chloe’s office.
Well written psychological/crime drama. Lots of interesting characters and diversions.
Highly recommended 4.5 Stars ⭐️

I nearly only gave this book four stars because I worked out the final twist early on, but in all honesty Stacy Willingham had me question myself from that point to the end she deserves five.

I don't want to give any spoilers so I am just going to say this book is brilliantly written, full of twists that are more bends on a mountain road with no protection to stop you rolling off the sides on an adverse camber, and well worth reading.

The truth is there to be found. Just do expect to believe it.

This one had me reading late into the night. A real page turner , fast paced and with plenty of twists and turns. Just when I thought I had it all figured out ……I found I hadn’t. I can imagine this being snatched up for a film or TV series.

"A Flicker In The Dark" is a twisty, compelling read from Stacy Willingham. I thought I had it all figured out - I was wrong! Looking forward to seeing how it transfers to screen.

Ooh this was so good. Twistier than a long maze. Plenty of surprises and hard hitting at times. This caught me off-guard a few times and I had no idea where it would end up. Chloe is a great character and as echoes of her past creep into her present its very cleverly woven together,
Tense and had to keep reading on as I needed to know desperately how this would all work out.
Suspenseful, jumpy, surprising,

This is a great 'read in one sitting' page turner of a book. The twists and revelation reveals in both timelines are paced perfectly to keep you thinking 'just one more chapter' until you're hurtling towards a fast moving, heartbreaking finale.
I did have a minor gripe at some stretches at credibility - is it really possible to call a security company (run by someone with a police record), have them arrive, plan a system without any sales pitch, not be given a quote and have it fitted with no explanation how it works within what feels like the blink of an eye on a Saturday afternoon? Is that normal in America?

That said I loved the small town, weight of the past claustrophobia which reminded me a little of Sharp Objects in atmosphere, and I will be highly recommending to anyone who'll listen to me bang on about this book!

Wow just wow!

I picked this up knowing roughly what it was about but I never expected this.
So many twists and turns in this book.

I had my thoughts on who had done it and i stayed true to them all the way through. I was thrown off the scent once but so glad my prediction was right.

I must admit I moved into this book after reading the first few pages. The main character, Chloe, is engaging and you can really empathize with how her life has been impacted by the looming shadow of a father who is a serial killer. The pace of the book moves at a great rate with some edgy believable plot twists, so much so I read it in two sittings, it was almost unputdownable.

A sharp thriller. I thought I had guessed the end, but no.

Fascinating premise of a serial killer and a daughter looking for answers. Why should there be a copycat killer all those year later. And why does Chloe feel she is right in the middle of the puzzle.

Going to be a film. Sharp writing and a good pace with enough twists and moments of wonder to test your expectations.

Thanks to Stacy and NetGalley for allowing me to read A Flicker in the Dark before publication date.

When Chloe Davis was 12 years old, her friend Lena disappeared. 5 more teenage girls disappeared in the following months.
Chloe’s father admitted to murdering the girls and is sentenced to life in prison, leaving the family fractured.

20 years later, Chloe has moved to Baton Rouge where she is a psychologist with her own private practice.
Her earlier life has impacted on Chloe, leaving her paranoid and leading a chaotic lifestyle.
Engaged to Daniel Briggs, she is planning their upcoming wedding, despite her brother Cooper’s animosity towards Daniel.

Then 2 girls go missing in circumstances similar to before. With her father in prison, it seems that there is a copycat killer on the loose.

Stacy’s descriptive writing created a tense atmosphere from chapter 1. I felt that the story got a bit drawn out in the middle, before suddenly taking off to a tremendous finish, with lots of twists and turns and not a few red herrings.

Sadly I found this book quite hard to get into early on, however once I did I really enjoyed it. There were plenty of believable twists and turns along the way which added to the overall enjoyment.
Big thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for honest review.

Whilst well written, and with an impressive selection of twists and turns I found this book quite hard to get into. The ending was very clever mind you.

I have to confess that for all the thriller/mystery/whodunnit books I read (and I read a lot of them) I am almost 100% wrong when it comes to figuring out the conclusion of these books. I am glad to say that this book proved the exception to this rule and that's the only issue I had with it, I felt that the final conclusion was fairly easy to spot early on and that's the only thing that stopped me giving this five stars.

The premise of the story was excellent, Chloe's father is in prison for the murder of multiple young women which took place when she was a child. She has grown up and made a relative success of her life however the scars still show and we learn early on that she uses prescription drugs (albeit not her own prescription).

When young girls begin to go missing again near the twentieth anniversary of her father's imprisonment, it all becomes real again for Chloe as she attempts to find out what has happened to the young girls and what relation this has to her father's murder.

Apart from the issue above, I really enjoyed this novel and I was not surprised to read that it has been optioned for TV/movie adaptation - it has Netflix mini series written all over it!

I have read some reviews which have described it as slow which, although I can appreciate where they are coming from, I disagree with. I think Willingham gets the pacing spot on, keeping the reader intrigued enough to keep reading on but not going overboard with a high paced frantic story like some authors can be guilty of.

A really encouraging debut novel and definitely an author I will want to read more from.

Thanks to Netgalley and HarperCollins, HarperFiction for the ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review

What an exciting and engaging read! I was hooked from the first page, instantly being drawn in to the storyline.
This is a story about Chloe Davis whose Dad is a convicted serial killer and her journey to finding out the truth of what really happened when she was a child. In the present day girl’s have been going missing, just like they did 20 years ago, and Chloe wants to get to the bottom of it.
I was left in the dark throughout the whole book, I was adamant I knew who was behind it all but I was very wrong. The author manages to lead you one way and then another, constantly planting red herrings and leading you up the wrong path. You will constantly be shocked and surprised and kept on tenterhooks the whole way through. You would never tell that this book is a debut for the author.
This is a must read book for 2022 and I think the author has a very promising writing career ahead of her!

The book follows chloe who is 32 working at a practise called Baston Rouge, when she was little her father killed/murdered 6 girls and is not enclosed in a prison for the rest of his life.

Our book throws you through beautiful and tumultuous turmoil that is perfectly written by Author Stacy Willingham. Chloe is relatable yet a hard and rash person, she can be erratic and untrusting of people leading to her downfall at some points in this book.

If you love twists and turns and full 180 roundabouts then this book it for you thrilling and unescapable I coukdnt put it down.

I would like to thank Netgalley and HarperCollins UK, HarperFiction for an advance copy of A Flicker in the Dark, a stand-alone psychological thriller set in Baton Rouge.

Chloe Davis is the daughter of a serial killer and it has coloured her life. Twenty years after his crimes, the murder of six teenage girls whose bodies were never found, she has established a career as a psychologist and is planning her wedding, but the doubt and paranoia are still there, especially when young teenage girls start disappearing.

Initially I didn’t like A Flicker in the Dark and would have given up reading it if I hadn’t made a commitment. It is very slow and is told from Chloe’s first person perspective, switching between the past and the present. She is wrapped up in self pity, has no trust and appears to have an addiction to prescription drugs, so not the most appealing character. Yes, it’s probably a fairly accurate portrayal of a traumatised individual, but it doesn’t make for interesting reading.

The novel gradually warms up as it goes on, resulting in some truly tense moments and offering some great and unusual twists along the way. I still didn’t like Chloe and got fed up with the way she jumped to conclusions, but I really admired the way the author managed her misdirection and twists. I liked the way the past is slowly revealed as flashbacks and what a past it is. The second half of the novel is much more readable in terms of developments and twists and I found myself finally getting gripped.

A Flicker in the Dark is a good debut novel, so I can recommend it.

Chloe Davis has an idyllic childhood. She lives in a small town in Louisiana along with her parents and her brother Cooper who is three years older. They are allowed to roam free, exploring the 10 acre plot their home is built on. The idyllic childhood comes crashing to an end when Chloe is 12 and her father is arrested for the abduction and murder of six teenage girls.

Twenty years later and Chloe is now Dr Chloe Davis, a medical psychologist. She has a successful practice and is a matter of weeks away from getting married. As the anniversary of her fathers first abduction approaches a journalist gets in touch with Chloe, however Chloe refuses to engage with the journalist, explaining that she has had no contact with her father in twenty years. Then a teenage girl goes missing close to Chloe's practice. Is there a copycat murderer about?

The style of writing really adds to the story. One moment the narrative is languid, reflecting the climate of Louisiana. The next it is quick and sharp as we feel Chloe's heart racing as if she's about to have a panic attack. Chloe is a flawed character, one moment convinced she's right about conclusions, the next full of doubt. Her choice of career could be seen as a way of trying to redeem for what her father has done but also that she is still trying to find answers for why he carried out such atrocious crimes.

Plenty of chills and misdirection as we are reminded that in real life monsters aren't the things in the closet or hiding under the bed, "real monsters move in plain sight".

I really wanted to enjoy this more than I did and hoped it would grip my attention from the get-go given the intriguing premise. While Stacy Willingham’s writing reads smoothly, peppered every so often with beautiful descriptions of the Louisiana setting, and while the story itself has great potential, A Flicker in the Dark fails to deliver due to elements of poor execution.

Stock characters abound, with little personality or definition afforded them: the young woman with a traumatic past, the handsome and overly nice fiancé, the protective older brother, the journalist determined to track down the killer. While Willingham attempts to flesh out Chloe’s character through inner monologue and dream sequences, I just didn’t feel as if I knew much about her beyond the trauma she endured.

The narrative shifts between a current spate of kidnappings and events from Chloe’s past, honing in on her discovery of her father’s killings twenty years ago. Initially I appreciated the scenes set in the past, ample opportunity for exploring key figures such as Chloe’s brother, her parents, and of course Chloe herself. Again, though, there isn’t much development offered, and the constant back and forth and frequent revisiting of certain scenes soon begins to rupture any budding tension or suspense, preventing the narrative from blossoming into something truly gripping.

An extensive part of the plot hinges on whether Chloe’s instincts can be trusted, due to her having PTSD and self-medicating with Diazepam and alcohol. Although Willingham to some extent challenges the tired idea that women who experience mental illness are inherently unreliable - none of Chloe’s suspicions are illogical or far fetched considering the evidence available to her, even if she isn’t always right - I’m over this storyline being used at all. The is she, isn’t she trustworthy angle simply reinforces the idea that women deserve to be doubted and scrutinised constantly, and it didn’t feel particularly innovative.

The reveal, although creative in its weaving together of various strands, feels quite convoluted and ultimately implausible, hinging on too many characters making absurd decisions. The climax of the story would have been more impactful if certain storylines were removed, allowing for a tighter, sharper, faster conclusion.

A Flicker in the Dark shows flashes of potential; with further character development and a tighter plot it would make a truly gripping read. Although this offering wasn’t my favourite I’m curious to see where Willingham takes her writing from here, and I’ll be keeping an eye out for Emma Stone’s screen adaptation.

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Thank you to Netgalley and HarperCollins UK for providing a copy in exchange for a review.