"When Chloe Davis was twelve, six teenage girls went missing in her small Louisiana town. By the end of the summer, her own father had confessed to the crimes and was put away for life, leaving Chloe and the rest of her family to grapple with the truth and try to move forward while dealing with the aftermath. Now twenty years later, Chloe is a psychologist in Baton Rouge and getting ready for her wedding. When a local teenage girl goes missing, and then another, that terrifying summer comes crashing back. Is she paranoid, ...
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"When Chloe Davis was twelve, six teenage girls went missing in her small Louisiana town. By the end of the summer, her own father had confessed to the crimes and was put away for life, leaving Chloe and the rest of her family to grapple with the truth and try to move forward while dealing with the aftermath. Now twenty years later, Chloe is a psychologist in Baton Rouge and getting ready for her wedding. When a local teenage girl goes missing, and then another, that terrifying summer comes crashing back. Is she paranoid, seeing parallels from her past that aren't actually there, or for the second time in her life, is Chloe about to unmask a killer?"--
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Those who know me will know that although I love to read books of all genres, I have a soft-spot for crime and thrillers in particular. Serial killers, murder, intriguing puzzles and clever twists are all the things I really enjoy to read about. So, when I read the blurb for A Flicker in the Dark, about a woman whose father is a serial killer I thought it would be right up my street.
I'm not sure whether it was going in with high expectations that was my issue (that often leads to disappointment) but I felt very let down by A Flicker in the Dark. At 10% of the way through, I turned to my fiance and said, 'I think I can see exactly where this book is going, I hope I'm wrong, but I think ___ will be the red herring but it'll actually be ____'. When I put down the book a few days later the only thing I could really say was that I was completely right. The book is incredibly predictable, there aren't really enough characters introduced in the story to make the twist have any kind of impact. There's only two real suspects and you are led to believe it's one of them for half of the book so of course it won't be them! The only twist that surprised me was who the journalist turned out to be but that was only because it was a character I thought I'd never heard of up until the reveal.
I enjoy reading about flawed main characters and think if done well it can lead to a nice uncertainty about the reliability of the narrator. With Chloe however, I just found it a bit frustrating. She makes some really silly decisions, and I spent a lot of the book silently screaming at her to understand what was going on.
Overall, A Flicker in the Dark is a great premise but is very predictable with a frustrating main character. Thank you to NetGalley & Harper Collins UK - HarperFiction for the chance to read the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
