By Stacy Willingham
Minotaur Books, 2022. 357 pages. Fiction.
When Chloe Davis was 12, 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. Now 20 years later, Chloe is a psychologist in Baton Rouge and getting ready for her wedding. While she finally has a fragile grasp on the happiness she's worked so hard to achieve, she sometimes feels as out of control of her own life as the troubled teens who are her patients. 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 there, or for the second time in her life, is Chloe about to unmask a killer?
This book posed the question; how well can you really know anyone? Stacy Willingham created a complex and relatable character in Chloe who is grappling with the trust issues of having a serial killer as a father. The alternating timeline between the summer when her father was caught and the present helped pace this thriller and kept me guessing until the very end! It’s one of those mysteries that you think you have figured out early on, but it’s more than you could have ever guessed. The last third of the book is a study in misdirection leading up to an explosive and satisfying finale. I recommend A Flicker in the Dark for anyone who enjoys dark and twisty thrillers with an unreliable narrator.
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By Alison Gaylin
William Morrow, 2021. 338 pages. Mystery.
Camille Gardener is a grieving and angry mother who, five years after her daughter's death, is still obsessed with the privileged young man she believes to be responsible. When her rash actions draw the attention of a secret group of women known as the collective, Camille is drawn into a dark web where these mothers share their wildly different stories of loss as well as their desire for justice in a world where privilege denies accountability. Fueled by mutual rage, the collective members devise and act out retribution fantasies via precise, anonymous, highly coordinated revenge killings.
By Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen
St. Martin’s Press, 2022. 329 pages. Fiction.
If Avery Chambers can't fix you in 10 sessions, she won't take you on as a client. Her successes are phenomenal and almost absorb the emptiness she sometimes feels since her husband's death. Marissa and Mathew Bishop seem like the golden couple...until Marissa cheats. She wants to repair things, both because she loves her husband and for the sake of their eight-year-old son. After a friend forwards an article about Avery, Marissa takes a chance on this maverick therapist, who lost her license due to controversial methods. When the Bishops glide through Avery's door and Marissa reveals her infidelity, all three are set on a collision course. Because the biggest secrets in the room are still hidden, and it's no longer simply a marriage that's in danger.
BW
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