Flicker in the Dark

It started off promisingly and I think that the author has real talent. I am not sure which shocking twist is referred to in the blurb. One twist is pretty obvious from about a third of the way through. One is predictable but handled well and the third - about the journalist -is utterly gratuitous and adds nothing to the narrative or the denouement. I got the feeling of an author who had got herself to a certain point in the narrative and was not quite sure how to disentangle herself.

In this book, psychologist Chloe Davis went through tough times as a child. Her father committed a crime so heinous that she is blamed by being is relation. 20 years later crimes similar to her father's. Naturally, she had to investigate. The crime gets solved. The End you might think. True enough, but Chloe Davis irritated me no end. I've no complaints about women central characters. I don't complain about women detectives. I enjoy reading Rankin's Siobhan Clake, as she becomes a central character, for example. What I'm not a fan of is female characters who are "put upon", lack agency in their lives, and spend much of a book having things happen to them. This is what happens here. She stumbles from event to event with no lack of enthusiasm, not no control either. The result is someone who I didn't like much. If you can get over the issues I had with Dr. Davis, you'll probably enjoy the book more than I did.

This book grabs your attention from page one! It's truly the edge-of-the-seat novel with so many turns and twists. As the story develops, everyone becomes a suspect. I had a really hard time guessing the outcome. Overall, I loved the setting, the atmosphere and the heart-pounding suspense. Chloe's prescription drug abuse kind of makes you wonder if some of the suspicions she has are real. That really adds the edge to the story. As I finished the book, I was left with a few questions. I was wondering if Tyler's character was necessary, especially the way it played out in the end. Also, the authenticity of Cooper's character at 16 was a bit of a stretch for me. But the suspenseful atmosphere and twisted plot fully made up for anything that made me wonder! If you like fast-paced gripping physiological thrillers this is a great one. I'm definetly reading the author's next novel because I really enjoyed the writing style and the audiobook narration, as a bonus.

Everything I thought I knew about this book was completely flipped upside down and I couldn't guess what was going to happen next. I absolutely loved reading this and will definitely be checking out more books from this author.

This was an excellent psychological suspense book that lived up the genre! A lot of plot twists with excellent writing leading the reader to make incorrect assumptions…. The protagonist Chloe clearly has issues stemming from her PTSD. She uses drugs prescription drugs (prescribed from herself) to self medicate her pain. She rationalizes her use like an addict does (I should know I am in long-term recovery). Early in the book you get the feeling that she had some type of obsession with the first girl that went missing from her childhood; Lena. Since this is a psychological thriller my first though of course is that perhaps Chloe has more to do with it than we are led to believe? Especially since she admits wondering if she always knows the difference between reality and her mind… Chloe is the daughter of a convicted serial killer. Her father is serving life in prison for the murder of six girls that were never found. As the book unfolds we learn that Chloe’s fiancé Daniel is has secrets. His whereabouts are not clear or much about his background. When girls start to go missing in the present time he is also awfully familiar with the new case even when he was out of state. Is he involved? Then there is Lena’s father… He seems like the obvious suspect… The book is very enjoyable. My only complaint is how the author depicts Chloe’s prescription drug abuse. She (perhaps unknowingly) normalizes the use of benzos‘s. I wouldn’t say she’s glamorizing drug use but she’s falsifying the safety of it. As a person with love experience with drug and alcohol misuse and a substance use disorder professional I can say that people that abuse drug and alcohol (and make no mistake her use is definitely abuse) for the period of time that she has been -since her college days; escalate into full-blown addiction long before now. The author makes it appear that she can just pop a happy pill whenever she needs and she floats away blissfully without addiction.. Again, I know this was written this way to add to the suspense to add confusion, question reality but as a SUD professional I never like people to think this is normal… Ok enough of my soapbox.. I definitely would recommend this book to anyone look for a good Psychological Suspense read… Read on for some minor spoilers… I feel the very first misdirection the author wants us to go on is questioning Daniel. Chloe‘s brother Cooper has always had her back really doesn’t like him and we keep getting replays of the conversation see it had about Daniel‘s character. After girls start to go missing Chloe receives a call from a reporter from the New York Times wanting to meet and discuss her father and the correlation to the new cases. He believes there is a copycat killer which starts Chloe‘s investigative mind. Then and at the same time the author clearly w...