Following in Daddy’s steps?
A FLICKER IN THE DARK by Stacy Willingham
(HarperCollins £14.99) THIS spectacular debut from a young American is an essay on one woman’s attitude to sexual predators.
Chloe Davis’s father, Dick, was a serial killer who may well have dumped the bodies of his six young female victims in the Louisiana swamps near the family’s home — but they were never found. He was convicted and imprisoned when Chloe was 12 — partly on evidence she found in his closet.
That was almost 20 years ago, and the anniversary is approaching. Now Chloe is a respected psychologist in Baton Rouge, and she is being pursued by a reporter from the New York Times who is researching an article to mark Dick’s conviction.
Then two other girls go missing, and the spectre that there might be a copycat killer out there begins to torment her. Chloe is a haunting character — but is she what she seems?
This beautifully constructed story sends a shiver down the spine as it twists and turns to a conclusion that leaves you gasping for breath.
WHERE BLOOD RUNS COLD
by Giles Kristian (Bantam Press £14.99) A RADICAL change of direction for the talented Kristian who made his name writing historical novels about Vikings and Arthurian legends.
His first contemporary thriller is set on a crosscountry skiing trip in Norway’s Arctic Circle.
Erik Amdahl is mourning the accidental death of a daughter when he agrees to take Sofia, his 13-year-old other daughter, on a long-promised skiing trip which he once took with her elder sister.
But an accident involving Sofia leads father and daughter to seek shelter and
help with a couple of indigenous Sami people.
The latter are being threatened over their objections to a powerful Russian company that has bought the rights to an old nickel mine which has lain dormant for many years.
A stunning chase across the Arctic wastes ensues, and ratchets up the spell-binding tension as Erik and Sofia flee for their lives.
THE LIGHTHOUSE by Fran Dorricott
(Avon £7.99) FIVE university friends, now in their early 30s, and a new girlfriend of one of them set off on a weekend in the Scottish Highlands to stay on a once abandoned, but now renovated, remote island — with a disused lighthouse.
Things take a distinctly creepy turn when one of the six, James, disappears on their first night while they are on the beach watching the northern lights that illuminate the sky.
After searching for him for hours, the group are convinced that he’s fallen into the sea and are about to summon the coastguard when he turns up, simply explaining that he’d been for a walk.
Other strange events then start to unnerve them — a door that was locked suddenly opens and a room that no one knew was there emerges, and it feels as though something dreadful happened there.
It all amounts to a charming, old-fashioned and eerily atmospheric piece of Gothic storytelling. It would make an excellent TV drama.