A Flicker in the Dark
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?
In a debut novel that has already been optioned for a limited series by actress Emma Stone and sold to a dozen countries around the world, Stacy Willingham has created an unforgettable character in a spellbinding thriller that will appeal equally to fans of Gillian Flynn and Karin Slaughter.
My thoughts:
I’ve read a couple of Stacy Willingham novels, but for whatever reason, I’d never gotten around to reading the first two books she wrote. This is her debut, and I enjoyed it well enough.
The story follows Chloe, a psychologist in Baton Rouge who’s trying to build a normal life. When she was twelve, six teenage girls went missing in her small Louisiana town. By the end of that summer, her father was arrested as a serial killer and sent to prison. Chloe and her family were left to deal with the fallout and somehow try to move forward.
Now, twenty years later, Chloe has worked hard to distance herself from her father’s crimes. She has a private practice. She’s getting ready for her wedding. She’s finally built something that feels stable. But then teenage girls start going missing again and Chloe can’t shake the feeling that history is repeating itself. Is she being paranoid? Is she seeing connections that aren’t really there? Or is she about to unmask another killer?
The book is well written. Willingham knows how to build tension and keep you turning pages. The characters are complex and relatable. Chloe is dealing with a lot. The trauma of her childhood is still very much present and now she has to face the possibility that it’s all happening again. I understood her paranoia and I appreciated that Willingham shows how deeply her father’s crimes affected her entire life.
What kept me from loving this one is it didn’t really offer much that was unexpected. There are a ton of books out there where a child of a notorious serial killer is trying to escape their parent’s legacy. That’s exactly what we get here. The premise is familiar, and while Willingham executes it well, it still felt like territory I’ve read before.
Not surprisingly, I clocked the reveal fairly early, but to Willingham’s credit, she does a great job of diverting your attention and making you question if your suspicions are correct. Just when I thought I had it figured out, she’d throw in something that made me second-guess myself. I appreciated that. Even though I ended up being right, the misdirection kept me engaged.
The pacing is solid, the tension builds steadily, and the Louisiana setting is vivid without being overdone. Chloe’s work as a psychologist also adds an interesting layer. She’s treating troubled teens, and some of their stories echo her own past in uncomfortable ways. It makes her question how much control she really has over her own life. And it raises questions about nature versus nurture that run throughout the book.
If you’re a thriller fan who likes the familiar and enjoys a good serial killer mystery, I would recommend this one. It’s a solid debut, it’s well crafted, and it will keep you guessing even if you’ve read a lot of books in this genre. But if you’re looking for something new and unexpected, this may not be what you’re looking for. The premise has been done. The twists are well executed but not groundbreaking. And while Willingham tells the story well, it doesn’t reinvent the wheel.
That said, I understand why this book has been so successful. It’s been optioned for a limited series and I’ll definitely check it out. If you’re in the mood for a familiar thriller done well, you’ll probably enjoy this one. Just don’t expect it to surprise you.
