Father figure

A copycat killer is on the prowl and suspicion falls close to home for a traumatised therapist.

-  MICHELE HEWITSON

A FLICKER IN THE DARK, by Stacy Willingham (HarperCollins, $32.99)

Chloe is a successful, respected and respectable psychologist. She helps people for a living, and she's good at it. She is about to marry her perfect prince, Daniel, despite barely knowing him. He throws them a surprise engagement party. She hates surprises - they frighten her. But she has to forgive him. He meant well, surely. Everyone loves Daniel, except for Cooper, Chloe's brother, a melancholy figure who distrusts everyone except his sister. And it is not Daniel's fault that Chloe sees shadows everywhere and jumps at them. Her father is a serial killer who killed six girls and is serving life in prison. Chloe adored her father. Then girls started going missing, the first being Lena, a friend of hers. It was Chloe who found his hidden "trophies”: an earring, a necklace and a belly-button ring in the shape of a firefly, which belonged to Lena. She and her mother go to the police and thereafter the family unravels. Now there appears to be a copycat killer. Chloe knows the first victim - she is a client. Satisfyingly twisty, this is a good, solid, unflashy thriller.

ANTHEM, by Noah Hawley (Hodder & Stoughton, $34.99)