A Flicker in the Dark

Okay.. wow!! This book really got so much better as it went on. I don’t even know where to start. My mind is so ytorwirush right now. First I’m gonna say that this review is gonna contain spoilers‼️. In my opinion, this is phenomenal for a debut. Let’s start with our protagonist Chloe, she’s a psychologist and has a 'troubled' past she still deals with today - that her father was a serial killer twenty years ago that was responsible for the murders of 6 young girls. The 20th anniversary from these crimes is coming up, and suddenly, another girl goes missing.. (3 in total). Two of the missing girls turn out to be dead. Chloe and her fiancé Daniel are going through wedding preparations for their wedding in July. A man contacts Chloe, his name is Aaron Janson and he works for the New York Times and tells her he is writing a story about her father, and wants to meet up with her. As the other two girls go missing, Aaron wants to switch up his story and wants Chloe to help him solve the mystery. There were so many similarities with the past killings and the current ones - missing jewelry.. strangulation by squeezing their necks etc. Daniel was very suspicious throughout the book. At some point, Bert Rhodes (Lena’s Father - Lena was the first victim of Chloe’s Fathers Crimes) was also very suspicious, but now it’s clear he was just a very heartbroken man. I can’t even put every detail into this review but with every chapter you learned new things that switch things up. I did trust Aaron after some time, because he seemed like a genuine ally for Chloe who believes her. But as it turns out.. he is the perpetrator behind the three new crimes that turned up. As Chloe was saving Riley (a friends daughter), she shot Aaron in stomach - causing to kill him. His real name was Tyler, and they had known each other since childhood. Everything was fake - he wasn’t a worker for New York Times, he wasn’t writing an article, he wasn’t feeling anything when he slept with Chloe. It turns out, Chloe’s Brother Cooper, was the real perpetrator from twenty years ago. His first kill was Tara King, the missing girl who was a runaway who never got found. Lena found out about it, she was a liability and a threat so she had to get killed too. And after that, Cooper just didn’t find a reason to stop.. Their Father found the box with the jewelry in his room, and hid it in his own closet while he wanted to look for a solution to protect his son. Chloe found it and submit it to the police. Of course everyone thought Richard was the murderer - and with that, he took the false blame on himself. His last whispered words 'Be good' being a plea for Cooper, not herself. The explanation of ‘Darkness taking over' copied by Coopers explanation as he admitted his crimes to his father. Yes, Daniel was VERY suspicious because he had the necklace of one of the killed girls, the engagement ring Chloe had belonged to Sophie, his sister who was wearing this ring at the day of her ‘disappearance' twenty years ago, always going on suspicious business trips and smelling like another women’s perfume, had receipt about visiting Chloe’s father in prison.. But in the end, everything had an explanation.. Sophie wasn’t killed - Daniel made it look on purpose as if she was missing, gathering ‘inspiration' from 'Richard the serial killer' to save his sister from their abusive household. The visits Daniel took to prison to talk with Richard because he was on Cooper and knew, he just didn’t have any kind of prove. Daniel trying to protect Chloe from him. Cooper trying to 'warn' her about Daniel being the bad guy and never liking him. So yeah.. Aaron and Cooper knew each other in their youth and the person who was responsible from the start was Cooper. So yeah.. Daniel and Chloe got separated and Richard was set free, apologizing on TV for lying for his son. This was a wild ride. If you want a book with great suspense that keeps you on your toes, this is definitely a recommendation! Bravo

4.75/5 If you think you know what’s going on— no, you don’t.