HarperFiction wins five-way auction for Willingham's Deep South thriller

HarperFiction has won a five-way auction for A Flicker in the Dark and one further psychological thriller by Stacy Willingham.

Crime and thrillers publisher Julia Wisdom acquired UK and Commonwealth rights, excluding Canada, from Dan Conaway and Peggy Boulos Smith at Writers House.

The book has already been optioned by Emma Stone and her production company Fruit Tree and has sold in 11 other territories, including the US where it was acquired by Kelley Ragland at St Martin’s Press in an eight-way auction.

Set for release in February 2022, A Flicker in the Dark is “a powerful and incredibly atmospheric” psychological thriller set in America’s Deep South. The synopsis explains: “Chloe Davis, a troubled psychologist, lives with a terrifying past. As a young girl she provided evidence that convicted her beloved father of the murder of six young women in rural Louisiana. He was put away for life, but now it looks as if the killings are starting again. Past and present entwine in a riveting narrative that has Chloe questioning everything she remembers from her childhood.”

Wisdom said: “We immediately fell in love with A Flicker in the Dark. Its ominous atmosphere and immersion in the protagonist’s painful family history had me comparing it to Gillian Flynn’s Sharp Objects, while the evocative American South setting made me think of Where the Crawdads Sing. The story turns you around again and again, while keeping you emotionally engaged with Chloe’s complex inner life. It has everything you’d look for in a powerful psychological thriller and is a truly impressive debut.”

Willingham worked as a copywriter and brand strategist for various marketing agencies before deciding to write fiction full time. She earned her BA in magazine journalism from the University of Georgia and MFA in writing from the Savannah College of Art & Design. She currently lives in Charleston, South Carolina.

She said: “Julia's early enthusiasm for A Flicker in the Dark set her apart from the beginning, and her keen editorial eye has only reinforced the fact that I'm in the right hands.”

Conaway added: “The resume of the team at HarperCollins in the realm of upmarket psychological suspense — Behind Her Eyes, The Hunting Party, The Woman in the Window — is second to none, and I can’t wait to see what they have in store for Stacy, now and in the future."