About a year ago, I first read Stacy Willingham’s A Flicker in the Dark on my Kindle. Full of suspense and intrigue, this murder mystery thriller is a great choice for a binge read about a calculated fictional serial killer. (Be warned, this review contains mentions of mental health struggles.)

Chloe’s dad was a serial killer, and he was finally brought to justice when she, at age 12, found a box of jewelry pieces belonging to several local missing girls stuffed away in her parents’ closet. Even more heartbreaking, she recognized jewelry in the box that belonged to a good friend of hers. In the wake of her father’s arrest, her mother had a breakdown and made an attempt on her own life.

Twenty years later, Chloe is now a psychiatrist, and local teen girls begin to go missing once again – including one of her own patients. The culprit appears to be a copycat inspired by her father’s infamous crimes two decades before. Her father is still in prison, so she knows it can’t be him, but there are several influential people in her life who Chloe grows increasingly suspicious of.

This book will have you constantly second-guessing who you think the killer is, with twists revealing deeper mysteries as the story progresses. Nothing is as simple as it seems on the surface, and Chloe is even left wondering what really went down with her father and all those local girls 20 years ago. Did they get the right guy?

One small detail I found personally amusing was the name of a detective in this book – the exact first and last name, same spelling and all, of one of my cousins. Not relevant to the plot at all, but an entertaining coincidence!

For fans of heart-pounding yet slow-burn thriller whodunits, this is a book you will not want to put down. I don’t often go for serial-killer-style thrillers, but I really enjoyed this one. It would be a great read for a dark weekend in the fall or winter – and definitely worth adding to your Christmas list (using my Amazon link, of course!).