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A Flicker in the Dark by Stacy Willingham Book Review


Reasons for Reading This Book:

Every month I read The Readheads book club book. This is a podcast book club produced by Toast News Network. After hearing the description of the book given when it was announced I was excited because the last phycological thriller we read did not do it for me. It was a big fail in my opinion. I was ready to give another book a chance to redeem our track record with phycological thrillers. This months book was A Flicker in the Dark by Stacy Willingham.

Content of the Book:

Its the 20 year anniversary of the killing of 6 Breaux Bridge young girls. Doctor Chloe Davis is the daughter of a serial killer Dick Davis. Since leaving Breaux Bridge and moving to Baton Rouge Chloe has distanced herself from her childhood and the shame placed on her from her father's crimes. Live is going good for Chloe. She is preparing for her wedding and helping her patients. Her live begins to fall apart when one girl and then other close to her go missing. She is brought right back to how she felt back when she was twelve years old and her father confessed to the murders. Chloe is paranoid that this has something to do with her family and finds herself back in the position of looking for a killer.

What I Liked About This Book:

For starters, I lived and worked in Baton Rouge for 5 months from last year into this year. As someone with experience living in Baton Rouge I was brought back into the culture, weather, and atmosphere of Louisiana. I had a great time working and living there so it was nice to think about my time there while reading this book. I found Stacy Willingham's depictions of Baton Rouge and Louisiana spot on and very accurate to what I experienced living there. With phycological thrillers I expect them to suck me in from the start. This book did just that and more. This book kept me wanting more from the start. Since this book focused both on Chloe's current involvement in the missing girls and her past involvement in the 6 murders, her narrative switched between current day, summer 2019, and past, summer 1999. I agreed with and support Stacy Willingham's choice to have Chloe narrate the past in past tense to avoid confusion when switching back and forth. I was also a fan of the reflections Chloe had as an adult on the situations and events that she endured back in 1999. It showed growth and aided in character development to where she was currently in her life. As a reader I was constantly switching between liking the past story line and the current story line more. There were parts of both that I really enjoyed reading about. As with any phycological thriller there has to be twists and unexpected events. I personally did not expect all the twists of this book, but about a little less than half way through I figured out who the killer was. I was pleased when I found out I was right. I don't know what that says about me because none of the other women in The Readheads had the same thought as me. I appreciated Chloe as a narrator and am pleased with her story. As for the pace of this book, it is pretty steady with constant action and new developments. This is true for both the past and current story lines. With most phycological thrillers you are left thinking about it after you set it down and this is no exception. 

What I Disliked About This Book:

My only real complaint about this book is that at times so much information or important details were given all at once that it was hard to take in and digest. When this happened I did have to reread those sections to make sure that I was comprehending all the information. This also came up in the podcast episode where readers were asking for clarification on timelines or pieces of information that pertained to the cases. Other than that I have nothing else that I disliked about the book.

Would I Recommend This Book?

I am in agreement with the Readheads that this was an amazing book. It the best phycological thriller that I have read in a long time. I gave it a 4 stars. I recommend this book to those who are and those who are not phycological thriller book fans. I think all most all readers would enjoy this book. I say go read it!!

Check out my book reviews for 2022!!

Check out my book reviews for 2020!!

Check out my book reviews for 2019!!


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