A Flicker in the Dark by Stacy Willingham

​Flicker in the Dark is one of those rare thriller debuts that does its name justice and indeed sparkles. Some of it might be fool’s gold, flash in a pan sort of thing, but the sparkle is there – I read enough of these ubiquitously popular thrillers to know it when I see it.
This is a story of a serial killer’s daughter. A girl forever scarred at age 12 by her beloved father being revealed as a kidnapper and murderer of six local teenage girls.
Fast forward two decades and at 32, Chloe is thriving…well, considering. She’s a well-to-do psychologist with an adoring fiancé, a lovely place to live, and a chemically-induced peace of mind. Which is to say that Chloe lives in Louisiana, one of the only three states where a psychologist has the kind of freedom Chloe routinely abuses to stay chemically calm. Not exactly on the up-and-up, but easy enough to do.
Is Chloe still jumpy, neurotic, traumatized? Sure. But she is coping. The rest of her family…not so much; her mother barely survived a suicide attempt and perpetuates in a sort of vegetative state, her older brother seems unsettled in his life. Chloe is ok, but comparison, and would probably stay that way if not for a recent string of kidnappings and murders eerily similar to her father’s work.
That pulls every trigger in Chloe’s addled mind sending her into a state so paranoid that even the cops don’t trust her…and Chloe herself, she can trust no one. Suddenly, every man in her life is a menace.
The author plays with that sense of paranoia very cleverly and throws in one lead after another to chase, anticipating that killer final twist. The narrative is tight and dynamic. It doesn’t jump around too much, there’s a nice focus here. The writing is very enjoyable, dark psychological fiction at its finest. This would have been a total winner, in fact, if not for one thing…
The thing where I predicted the killer (and with it the plot) less than a third of the way in. Not every minute detail of the plot, but most of it. And that’s just disappointing. The entire book I was hoping the author would surprise me, but alas, there’s no surprising this armchair detective extraordinaire.
The fact that the book managed to stay so enjoyable despite the early figuring out is definitely a credit to the writer. And if she is this good fresh out of the gate, her subsequent works might prove tougher to solve.  All in all, this was good fun. Recommended.