Book Review: A Flicker In The Dark by Stacy Willingham

 My Rating:

⭐⭐⭐

“Lena, Robin, Margaret, Carrie, Susan, Jill”

Dr. Chloe Davis has never forgotten the six teenage girls her father was convicted of killing almost twenty years ago or the part she played in his arrest. With her father. Richard Davis, incarcerated and branded a serial killer, her family was torn apart and the trauma of their childhood followed her and her older brother Cooper throughout their lives . When, twenty years later, teenage girls go missing and are found murdered under circumstances eerily similar to the events 20 years ago, Chloe must confront her past once again . Copycat or is there more than meets the eye?

Instead of planning for her upcoming nuptials Chloe finds herself overwhelmed by the events happening around her and decides to look into matters further. Complicating things for her is the mutual dislike between her devoted fiancée  and protective older brother and the presence of a nosy NYT reporter who is writing an article on the serial killings as the twenty year anniversary of past events draws closer. While she tries to aid the police in their investigation, her paranoia and complicated past prevent them from being able to trust her completely. 

The story is voiced in the first person by Chloe in the present day with her past being revealed in flashes throughout the narrative. Though the protagonist’s experiences and anguish do evoke feelings of  concern and sympathy and contribute to the tone of the novel, I would have enjoyed the story more had the protagonist (and narrator , in this case ) not been portrayed as a self-medicating practicing psychologist ,with a never ending stash of pills at her disposal, who takes advantage of her position to acquire prescription medication under false pretenses. I feel the author went a little overboard in creating the character of a ‘troubled’ protagonist and devoted maybe a bit too much space in the narrative in describing her state of mind. I found the narrative picking up after the halfway mark. While it is not difficult to guess the outcome before the actual reveal, the atmospheric setting and the twists and turns in the narrative do not fail to keep you engaged.

Though neither the premise/plot of this novel nor the characters stood out particularly, I did not dislike A Flicker In The Dark by Stacy Willingham in its totality. I just wasn’t bowled over by it.