Best-selling author Stacy Willingham explores the psychology of suspense at SIBF 2025

You can’t edit what doesn’t exist.” It’s a simple line, but it captures the philosophy of internationally acclaimed thriller writer Stacy Willingham, who drew a full house at the Thrillerfest session of the 44th Sharjah International Book Fair (SIBF 2025).

Stacy Willingham at SIBF 2025

The New York Times bestselling author of A Flicker in the Dark and All the Dangerous Things took her audience deep into the psychology of suspense, unpacking how trauma, trust, and fear intertwine to shape both her characters and her readers’ emotions.

“My protagonist, Chloe, is the daughter of a serial killer,” Willingham told the crowd. “I kept asking myself — if that were your childhood, how would you see the world as an adult? You’d probably struggle with paranoia, you wouldn’t trust others, or even yourself. So I made her a psychologist who helps troubled kids — because she once was one.”

Her novels, she explained, are not only psychological thrillers but also emotional landscapes. “I set A Flicker in the Dark in the swamps of Louisiana because that place feels alive with hidden danger,” she said. “You can’t see what’s underneath until it’s too late. That’s exactly what Chloe’s life feels like — calm on the surface, chaos underneath.”

Truth beneath fiction

For Willingham, the most gripping fiction often begins with a grain of truth. Her second novel, All the Dangerous Things, was sparked by a Washington Post article about a man who, decades after his sister’s murder, still attended true-crime conferences to tell her story.