Recent Reads: A Flicker in the Dark by Stacy Willingham

A Flicker in the Dark by Stacy Willingham 

Publisher: Minotaur Books
Publication Date:  January 11, 2022

 

Format: Hardback
Source: Book of the Month December 2021 Pick.

Rating:

Goodreads Synopsis: 

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.

Review: 

I am a fan of a good mystery and I feel like a lot of thrillers call into the mystery category as well... just with some amped up anxiety, so I decided to choose A Flicker in the Dark as my BOTM pick in December.

A Flicker in the Dark follows Chloe. When she was 12 her father was accused and jailed for the murder of 6 teenage girls in her town. Now 20 years later, murders that are feeling eerily similar are happening and they are too close for comfort. Chloe finds herself immursed and enthralled by the murders and embeds herself into the investigation. All well and good except she is also super paranoid and anxious about the killings and killer and can't really control the panic she is feeling. 

Chloe is an unreliable character throughout this book due to her anxiety and taking/ abusing medications to mediate it. She also has a number of trust issues stemming from the past, so all her friends and family seem to be suspect now. I didn't really like her attitude throughout the boo, or her abuse of her power to prescribe meds and take them - as a professional that it SO ethically NOPE that I am surprised she is a professional in this book. Espeically given that she had problems with medications before becoming a psychologist. 

I found the story to move a bit slow in the beginning and about half way thorugh it starts to take off with a whirlwind ending/ wrap up. Since Chloe was so anxious, I felt that she build this mystery into more of a thriller, she was all over the place, but her fears became the readers fears in some ways and there were some uncomfrotable moments. 

Overall, I was emotionally invested in this book, I was trying to figure out who-done-it and there were some good twists and guessing involved. I wouls have liked more from our main character but it was still an entertaining read.