Genre: Mystery Thriller

Not sure if it’s because I’ve watched endless true crime documentaries, procedural dramas like Criminal Minds and Mindhunter, or I just have high standards for the murder mystery genre, but A Flicker in the Dark did not catch or hold my attention. I felt like I was coasting while reading the first 1/3 of the book and the overall reading experience went downhill the farther I progressed through the story. Most of my negative impression can be chalked up to Chloe Davis’s personality and trauma attributed to her upbringing and exposure to the media/local community associated with her Dad’s arrest. I liked the concept of her backstory and how it affected her mindset, career choices, and paranoia, however the execution felt clunky and off-putting. I hate to stereotype novels into specific demographics, but the Chloe’s monologue skewed so heavily toward a female audience I felt like I was being beaten over the head repeatedly for 100 pages about how dangerous and unfair life can be for an independent woman. Her character’s personality and background as a psychologist with a phd also constantly conflicted with the choices she makes and thoughts she has. The book makes an attempt to highlight anxiety…

Note: The following original review for this book is old and does not meet current review standards. A fully rewritten review is planned. For a book titled the Plotters, I found the plot of this one ironically to be one of the weakest aspects of the novel that left me disappointed. I love the character dialogue and the protagonist Reseng is quite the relatable anti-hero who was cast into and doesn’t know what life is like outside the dark world of assassins. This is very much a book where the journey is deemed more important than the destination as The Plotters sets up a fascinating scene and takes a good stab at the world of political corruption, underhanded deals, and what money can buy (pun intended). Reseng gets tangled up with a plot to overthrow the status quo of the hitman industry but the book never resolves the plotlines it sets up. He goes through a period of self-reflection and discovery as things go from bad to worse and ends with a moment of grandeur for Reseng similar to the climax of a movie where an epilogue would normally kick in showing the aftermath of the events. Except there isn’t one…