A Flicker in the Dark

Synopsis: When Chloe Davis was twelve, six teenage girls went missing from her small Louisaiana Town. By the end of the summer, Chloe’s father had been arrested for serial murder and put in jail. Chloe herself provided some of the evidence against her father and this traumatic event has scarred her life. Fast forward twenty years, and Chloe is a psychologist in private practice in Baton Rouge. She’s planning a wedding and trying to enjoy the happiness she has worked so hard to achieve. Wouldn’t you know, it happens again! First one local teen goes missing, then another. Is there a connection? Is Chloe paranoid or intuitive? Who is responsible and is Chloe herself in danger?

Review: A book for the true crime aficionado. Not that this is based on a true crime, but it does have the feeling that Keith Morrison could be the narrator for the audio book. This book was OK, but I had a few issues with it. First of all, can we get over the wine drinking, pill popping unreliable female narrator? She’s everywhere! Chloe is so traumatized by her childhood that she doesn’t change her name, has not moved more than an hours drive from her home town, and gave an interview to the local TV station about how her father’s crimes inspired her career as a psychologist. Girl, you are just asking for public notoriety. Second, this wasn’t that hard to figure out. SPOILER ALERT, Chloe’s father is not the murderer, and I figured this out very early on, even figuring out who the real murderer was. I’m terrible at solving mysteries! To the author’s credit, there were a few other plot twists that I didn’t see coming, and that helped keep this from being completely predictable. On the favorable side, it was a fast easy read, and reasonably entertaining. It was described to me as an “airport book,” and this would certainly keep you engaged for a cross country flight.

Rating: 3/5

Recipe: Chloe grew up in the town of Breaux Bridge, a real town which is the proclaimed Crawfish Capital of the World. Every summer at the Crawfish Festival (a real event!) you can partake of the small crustacean in all its culinary forms. We don’t have crawfish in New England, but you could easily substitute shrimp in this recipe for crawfish etouffee. Etouffee means “to smother,” which describes the shellfish being smothered or braised in a spicy sauce, served over rice. This recipe, from Chili Pepper Madness, does not use tomatoes, which some recipes do, but I’m sure there are a lot of variations out there.

4 tablespoons butter

4 tablespoons all purpose flour

1 medium onion, chopped

1 medium bell pepper, chopped

1 stalk celery, chopped

4 cloves minced garlic

2 teaspooons Cajun seaasoning

1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

2 cups chicken or seafood stoock

1 pound crawfish tail meat

1 tablespoon chopped parsley

1) Heat a large pot on medium heat and melt the butter

2) Add the flour to make a roux, stirring continuously for 5 minutes.

3) Add the onion, peppers, celery and garlic. Stir and cook for 5 minutes to soften.

4) Stir in the cajun seasoning, cayenne, salt and pepper to taste, and stock. Simmer for 20 minutes.

5) Add the crawfish tails or shrimp, and simmer about 5 minutes until done.

6) Remove from heat and stir in the parsley.

7) Serve over rice, and don’t forget the hot sauce.