Review of "A Flicker in the Dark: A Novel of Suspense" by Stacy Willingham

In 1999, when Chloe Davis was a naïve 12-year-old girl living in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana.....

.....she was intrigued with 15-year-old Lena Rhodes. Lena was a free spirit who drank vodka, smoked marijuana, flirted with men, and had a belly button ring with a luminiscent firefly. Chloe wanted to be a wild child like Lena until Lena became the first victim of the Breaux Bridge serial killer.



In total, six teenage girls disappeared in 1999......



.....and the crimes might have continued if Chloe hadn't found a wooden box in her father's closet - a box containing Lena's belly button ring as well as other trophies.



Chloe reluctantly told her mother, then the police, and Chloe's father went to prison for life.



The rest of the Davis family - Chloe, her older brother Cooper, and their mother - suffered the wrath of the community. People came to the house, yelled insults, peered into windows, threw rocks, and so on.....and kids attacked Chloe at school.



Chloe's mother tried to take her own life and ended up in a semi-vegetative state, and Chloe left town the minute she graduated high school.

Twenty years later, in 2019, Chloe appears to have a stable life.



She's a psychologist in Baton Rouge, Lousiana; owns a nice house; has friends; and is engaged to a handsome drug rep named Daniel.



Beneath the surface, however, Chloe is anxious and fearful, and she uses prescription pills and alcohol to calm her nerves.



Chloe REALLY needs the pills after she's contacted by a New York Times reporter named Aaron Jansen, who's writing a story for the 20th anniversary of the Breaux Bridge murders.



Aaron wants Chloe's input, but she refuses to speak to him, not wanting her past raked up for public consumption. Chloe has spoken to journalists in the past, and the stories always brought unwanted attention.

Chloe's nerves are already jangling when a teenage girl from Baton Rouge disappears. Soon afterwards, another girl goes missing - and this one happens to be Chloe's new patient. While Chloe is still reeling from the shock, reporter Aaron Jansen shows up, wanting to interview Chloe for a story about (what he's calling) a copycat killer.



All this upends Chloe completely, and she starts her own investigation. Chloe comes up with one suspect, then another, and she fears the police won't take her seriously until she has real proof.



Sadly for Chloe she's confused, has poor judgment, and harbors remnants of her 12-year-old self - who didn't want to admit the truth, even to herself.

Armchair detectives may suss out the killer, but then again, they may be wrong. 🙂

The story has a compelling plot, well-wrought three-dimensional characters, a Lousiana crawfish boil, and enough twists to keep suspense lovers happy.



I listened to the audiobook, narrated by Karissa Vacker, who does a fine job.

Thanks to Netgalley, Stacy Willingham, and Minotaur Books for a copy of the book.

Rating: 4 stars