Publisher: Minotaur Books

ISBN: 9781250803825

A woman is forced to relive the memories of a horrific crime from her childhood when similar crimes begin happening again. As she fights to maintain some normalcy, she begins to suspect that the new crime wave is connected to her. Author Stacy Willingham gives readers a solid debut in the mostly compelling but sometimes problematic novel A Flicker in the Dark.

When Chloe Davis was 12 years old, an awful crime spree hit her small Louisiana town of Breaux Bridge. Someone began abducting young girls and murdering them. The residents of the town held onto their daughters tight, and families began imposing new rules and curfews on their children. Chloe’s idyllic childhood seemed on the verge of cracking apart. Late that summer, when her father confessed to the abductions, Chloe’s world shattered into a million pieces.

Now, twenty years later, Chloe’s done pretty well for herself. She and her older brother, Cooper, managed to grow up, go to college, get jobs, all of those things that define normal for a life that most certainly is not. Chloe lives in Baton Rouge and is a therapist, trying to help people make sense of the trauma in their lives. She also has her own home and love in her life; she and her fiancé, Daniel, are set to tie the knot in July

On the surface it looks like Chloe is not only surviving but thriving after her father’s terrible deeds. Only she knows how hard it is for her to function; some days she can do it without the prescription drugs she hides in her desk. Other days she counts down hours until she can pop a pill.

Then word breaks that a girl has gone missing right there in Baton Rouge. Days later investigators find her body, and Chloe feels like she’s been sent back twenty years to that awful summer when the man she trusted most in the world—her father—turned out to be a monster. Since that time, Chloe has struggled to reconcile the man she knew with who he was revealed to be.

A second girl goes missing, and Chloe’s world begins to spiral back into the past. What’s worse is that she has a connection to both girls. It might sound crazy, but Chloe gets the strong hunch that the murderer is trying to send her a message. 

The police don’t know what to make of her claims, but Chloe is determined not to let any more girls get hurt. With the help of a reporter interested in the upcoming anniversary of her father’s confession, Chloe begins to sift through the information on hand to see if she can find anything that will make a difference. She couldn’t do anything the first time, when her dad committed the crimes, because she was a child. This time, she’s determined things will be different.

Author Stacy Willingham proves her ability to put together a strong mystery in this debut novel. Chloe is well developed as a character, and by writing her in first-person point of view Willingham allows readers to get close to Chloe in a way that enhances the plot. Chloe’s ambivalence toward her father and her fear for the young women in present-day Baton Rouge are convincing and palpable.

The book struggles in putting forward suspects for the new crime spree. Willingham shines a spotlight so brightly on one person that, despite worthy efforts to make them look guilty, it’s obvious they aren’t. More astute readers may guess about halfway through the novel who the killer is and their connection to Chloe; nevertheless, the unfolding of events and careful detailing are engaging to the end and provide satisfaction of finding out whether the guess was correct. 

A few small errors might pull readers out of the story and make them ask questions. For the most part, though, the book is a solid read. Those wanting a worthy entry to the thriller genre that falls in line with its contemporaries should check this out. I recommend readers Borrow A Flicker in the Dark.