A New York Times Bestseller
"A smart, edge-of-your-seat story with plot twists you'll never see coming. Stacy Willingham's debut will keep you turning pages long past your bedtime." —Karin Slaughter
When Chloe Davis was twelve, six teenage girls went missing in her small Louisiana town. By the end of the summer, her own father had confessed to the crimes and was put away for life, leaving Chloe and the rest of her family to grapple with the truth and try to move forward while dealing with the aftermath.
Now twenty years later, Chloe is a psychologist in Baton Rouge and getting ready for her wedding. While she finally has a fragile grasp on the happiness she's worked so hard to achieve, she sometimes feels as out of control of her own life as the troubled teens who are her patients. So when a local teenage girl goes missing, and then another, that terrifying summer comes crashing back. Is she paranoid, seeing parallels from her past that aren't actually there, or for the second time in her life, is Chloe about to unmask a killer?
From debut author Stacy Willingham comes a masterfully done, lyrical thriller, certain to be the launch of an amazing career. A Flicker in the Dark is eerily compelling to the very last page.
A Macmillan Audio production from Minotaur Books.
"Listeners will enjoy a gripping and twisty story." - AudioFile Magazine (Earphones Award Winner)
A New York Times Bestseller
"A smart, edge-of-your-seat story with plot twists you'll never see coming. Stacy Willingham's debut will keep you turning pages long past your bedtime." —Karin Slaughter
When Chloe Davis was twelve, six teenage girls went missing in her small Louisiana town. By the end of the summer, her own father had confessed to the crimes and was put away for life, leaving Chloe and the rest of her family to grapple with the truth and try to move forward while dealing with the aftermath.
Now twenty years later, Chloe is a psychologist in Baton Rouge and getting ready for her wedding. While she finally has a fragile grasp on the happiness she's worked so hard to achieve, she sometimes feels as out of control of her own life as the troubled teens who are her patients. So when a local teenage girl goes missing, and then another, that terrifying summer comes crashing back. Is she paranoid, seeing parallels from her past that aren't actually there, or for the second time in her life, is Chloe about to unmask a killer?
From debut author Stacy Willingham comes a masterfully done, lyrical thriller, certain to be the launch of an amazing career. A Flicker in the Dark is eerily compelling to the very last page.
A Macmillan Audio production from Minotaur Books.
"Listeners will enjoy a gripping and twisty story." - AudioFile Magazine (Earphones Award Winner)
Reviews-
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October 18, 2021
At 12, Chloe Davis—the protagonist of Willingham’s devastating debut—watched in horror as her father pleaded guilty to murdering six teenage girls from Breaux Bridge, La., and agreed to serve six consecutive life sentences in order to avoid the death penalty. Shortly thereafter, her mother attempted suicide, and her gregarious older brother retreated inside himself. Now, Chloe is a 32-year-old self-medicating Baton Rouge psychologist, whose family history is unknown to nearly everyone but Daniel Briggs, the pharmaceutical salesperson to whom she’s now engaged following a whirlwind romance. Chloe is already apprehensive regarding the impending 20th anniversary of her father’s crime spree, so when a 15-year-old girl disappears from Chloe’s neighborhood, she tries not to panic. A few days later, however, another 15-year-old girl vanishes after leaving Chloe’s office, forcing Chloe to question whether a copycat killer has found her, or her paranoid imagination is seeing patterns where none exist. Willingham skillfully intercuts Chloe’s anxious first-person narration in the present with flashbacks to her childhood, ratcheting up the tension. Atmospheric prose and abundant red herrings amplify the tale’s intensity. Willingham is a writer to watch. Agent: Dan Conaway, Writers House. -
An ominous musical intro sets the mood as narrator Karissa Vacker introduces Chloe Davis, a psychologist who is the daughter of a convicted serial killer. Chloe's entire life has been colored by her father's crimes. The hushed voice Vacker uses for Chloe is an effective reminder of the character's ongoing struggles with the past. As the twentieth anniversary of her father's crimes approaches, several teenage girls disappear, leaving Chloe to face tough questions. Vacker switches easily between the higher female voices and the lower male voices, creating recognizable and believable characters. The gruff smoker's timbre of Chloe's brother and the slower speech of the Southern policemen provide contrast to Chloe's voice. Listeners will enjoy a gripping and twisty story. E.J.F. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award � AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine
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March 1, 2022
When Chloe Davis was 12, six teenage girls in her small Louisiana hometown went missing. Her father confessed to their murders and went to prison after Chloe herself brought evidence to the police. Now she's a psychologist living in Baton Rouge, working with teen girls, and preparing for her wedding. When an apparent copycat killer seems to be focusing on Chloe--in one case, leaving the body of one of her patients somewhere Chloe could see from her office--she has to reconsider everything she thought she knew about her father's crimes. Willingham has written a solid debut thriller with effective pacing and well-timed twists and reveals. Karissa Vacker does a good job voicing the book's unreliable narrator; Chloe's anxiety and frequent self-medication make her doubt her own judgment, and Vacker conveys both her reactions and her questioning of them. Though listeners who consume a lot of thrillers and psychological suspense may predict the plot twists ahead of time, they'll still enjoy the story. VERDICT Recommended for public libraries with well-circulating thriller collections.--Stephanie Klose
Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
