A Flicker in the Dark by Stacy Willingham

Cover art for the novel A Flicker in the Dark by Stacy Willingham.

Stacy Willingham’s A Flicker in the Dark follows Chloe Davis, a psychologist whose childhood was shaped by the arrest of her father—a man convicted of murdering several local girls. Now, twenty years later, young women are going missing again, and the eerie similarities to the past force Chloe to question everything she thought she knew. As she tries to untangle the truth, her grip on reality begins to slip, leaving readers to wonder whether she’s uncovering a new threat or spiraling into old fears. The novel blends Southern atmosphere, buried trauma, and a steady drip of clues that keep the mystery in motion.

I gave this novel three stars, and it’s a tricky one to unpack because Willingham truly does so much right. On paper, it has all the elements I normally gravitate toward: an unreliable narrator, high emotional stakes, and a steady stream of twists designed to keep you guessing. The characters are flawed in relatable ways, the tension builds cleanly, and the plot throws plenty of rocks at its protagonist. Yet despite all of that, each twist made me roll my eyes instead of gasp. I kept waiting for that moment of genuine surprise or emotional resonance, and it just never quite landed for me.

To be fair, the writing is strong and the structure is solid—this is clearly a well‑crafted thriller. I simply didn’t connect with it the way I hoped to. Sometimes a book checks every box and still doesn’t spark that deeper engagement, and A Flicker in the Dark fell into that category for me. It’s a polished, atmospheric mystery that many readers will love, but for me, it hovered just short of the impact I was looking for.

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