Explore the real-world places that appear in A Flicker in the Dark by Stacy McEwan. Each location on the map shows what happens there in the novel, the real history of the place, and what's there today. Featured locations include Carly's Family Home, Shady Pines High School, The Local Diner, Police Station, The Psychiatric Hospital and 9 more.
Residential area — Carly's childhood sanctuary and prison
This is the house where Carly Morrison spent her formative years, a place that was simultaneously a refuge and a nightmare. Her father's presence here was marked by his unpredictability and emotional volatility, while her mother tried to maintain a facade of normalcy. Carly returns to this house as an adult, and it becomes the physical embodiment of the trauma she has spent years trying to outrun. The house holds the secrets of her past that haunt her present.
Shady Pines, Louisiana is a fictional town, but based on real small towns in Central Louisiana near Alexandria. The residential areas of such towns were typical suburban communities established in the mid-20th century, serving as homes to families ranging from working-class to middle-class populations.
This location represents the typical residential neighborhoods of Central Louisiana towns, which continue to serve as family homes in quiet suburban settings.
Main educational campus — Where the original murders occurred
Shady Pines High School is the setting of the brutal murders that occurred when Carly was a teenager. Three girls were murdered, and the town was thrown into chaos and paranoia. Carly was present during these crimes, and the high school becomes a nexus of her trauma. As an adult, she returns to the town and to memories of walking these halls while a killer hunted her classmates. The school represents both the site of the murders and the beginning of her descent into psychological turmoil.
High schools in Central Louisiana were built primarily in the 1950s-1970s to serve growing suburban populations. They became central gathering places for teenage social life and community identity.
Modern high schools in this region continue to operate as educational institutions and community centers, though the original crime scenes exist only in local memory.
Main Street — Gossip hub where Carly confronts her past
The diner serves as a social gathering place where Carly encounters locals who remember her from her childhood. Here, townsfolk discuss the old murders and Carly's connection to them. Conversations overheard in this diner become a source of psychological torment for Carly, as people speculate about her father's involvement in the crimes. The diner represents the inescapable nature of small-town gossip and judgment.
Main Street diners were staples of small-town Louisiana life, particularly from the 1950s onward, serving as informal community meeting places where news, gossip, and local business were conducted.
Small-town diners and restaurants continue to operate throughout Central Louisiana as gathering places and landmarks of local culture.
Visit: Local Diner (representative establishment) (restaurant)
Municipal center — Where Carly's father worked and investigations unfolded
The Shady Pines Police Station is where Carly's father worked as a prominent officer. The station becomes a place of ambiguous tension when the original murders are investigated, with Carly's father being both a law enforcement figure and a potential suspect in the eyes of some. Carly navigates complex feelings about her father's role in the community and in the investigation of the crimes.
Police stations in small Louisiana towns were built in the mid-20th century as municipal buildings, typically serving as administrative centers for local law enforcement.
Police stations throughout Louisiana continue to serve as law enforcement headquarters and community resources.
Medical facility — Where Carly seeks treatment and confronts her deteriorating mental state
Carly is admitted to a psychiatric hospital where she undergoes treatment for her psychological issues. In these clinical settings, she begins to unpack the trauma of her childhood and her obsession with the unsolved murders. The hospital becomes a place of both refuge and interrogation, where Carly is forced to confront uncomfortable truths about herself and her family. Her therapists push her to examine her own potential culpability and her unreliable memory.
Psychiatric hospitals in Louisiana expanded significantly from the 1960s onward, with major facilities throughout the state providing mental health treatment and research.
Mental health facilities in Louisiana continue to provide psychiatric care and treatment services to patients.
Burial grounds — Final resting place of victims and reflection point for Carly
The cemetery where the murder victims are buried becomes a place Carly visits to commune with her guilt and fear. Standing at their graves, she grapples with her own survival and the weight of being a witness to tragedy. The cemetery represents the permanence of the violence inflicted on her community and her inability to escape its shadow. It is a place of solemn reflection where Carly confronts her own mortality and complicity.
Cemeteries in Louisiana have long served as family burial grounds and historical records of communities. Many contain graves dating back generations, reflecting the cultural importance of ancestor reverence in Southern life.
Local cemeteries remain active burial grounds and historical sites, often open to visitors for reflection and genealogical research.
Visit: Local Cemetery (historic site)
Second floor — The site of hidden trauma and suppressed memories
Carly's childhood bedroom in her family home is where she retreated to process the horror unfolding around her. This intimate space is where she developed her obsession with the murders and where her psychological fragmentation began. As an adult, returning to this room triggers fragmented memories and blurred lines between what she witnessed and what she imagined. The bedroom becomes a symbol of innocence lost and the beginning of her spiral into unreliable memory and self-doubt.
Residential bedrooms in 1970s-80s suburban homes were typically modest, private spaces where children developed their sense of identity and safety.
The bedroom represents the private domestic spaces where childhood trauma often originates and festers.
Various locations throughout town — Where the three victims were killed
The original crime scenes where the three girls were murdered are scattered throughout Shady Pines, creating a geography of terror that defines the town. Carly's memories of these locations are fragmented and unreliable, and she cannot fully recall where the bodies were found or the exact circumstances of the deaths. These scattered crime scenes become the obsessive focus of her adult investigation, driving her deeper into psychological instability. The locations are less important than her obsession with them and what they might reveal about her own involvement.
The fictional murders are based on real unsolved crimes that haunted small communities throughout Louisiana and the American South.
These locations represent the unnamed, unmarked spaces where community trauma took root and continues to haunt the town's collective memory.
Public institution — Repository of newspaper clippings and case documents
Carly spends significant time at the local library researching the old murders, poring over newspaper archives and case files. The library becomes a space of obsessive research where she tries to construct a coherent narrative from fragmented media coverage and town gossip. Her repeated visits to review the same materials become symptomatic of her deteriorating mental state. The library represents both the search for truth and the impossibility of accessing reliable information about events she lived through.
Public libraries in small Louisiana towns were typically built in the 1960s-70s as community resources and repositories of local historical information.
Small-town libraries continue to serve their communities as public spaces for research, reading, and community programming.
Visit: Public Library (library)
Transportation hub — Where Carly contemplates escape
The train station serves as a point of potential escape for Carly, representing the possibility of leaving Shady Pines and her traumatic past behind. She contemplates flight and reinvention, but her inability to truly escape her psychological demons keeps her tethered to the town. The station becomes a symbol of her paralysis—the means of escape are available, but she cannot move beyond her trauma.
Louisiana railroad stations served as vital transportation hubs throughout the 20th century, connecting small towns to major urban centers.
Historic train stations throughout Louisiana continue to operate as transportation and community landmarks.
Visit: Train Station (landmark)
Forest perimeter — Where Carly has fragmented memories of the murders
The wooded areas at the edge of town where the murders may have taken place haunt Carly's fractured memories. She has disconnected flashbacks of running through trees, of darkness and fear, but cannot confirm whether these are genuine memories or psychological constructs. The woodland becomes a liminal space between reality and delusion, between what she witnessed and what she imagined. Her return to these spaces as an adult triggers dissociative episodes and deepens her psychological unraveling.
Central Louisiana's woodlands and forested areas have historically been both recreational spaces and isolated settings where crimes could occur unwitnessed.
The forests of Louisiana remain largely unchanged, still providing both refuge and danger depending on one's perspective.
Visit: Nature Preserve or Hiking Trail (park)
Religious institution — Where the community gathered to mourn the victims
The church is where the community held funeral services for the murdered girls, and where Carly witnessed collective grief and community solidarity in response to the killings. The church also represents the spiritual confusion Carly experiences—where is God when children are murdered? The sacred space becomes complicated by her father's presence there and by her own unresolved spiritual crisis. The church marks both a moment of communal bonding and the beginning of the town's fracturing under suspicion and paranoia.
Churches in small Louisiana towns have served as community centers and spiritual anchors since the colonial period, hosting both celebrations and mourning rituals.
Churches continue to serve their communities as places of worship and gathering.
Elementary building — Early formative years before the murders
The elementary school where Carly spent her early childhood represents the period before the trauma, a time of relative innocence. Her memories of this place are untainted by the murders and provide contrast to the horror that would later dominate her teenage years. However, even these early memories become suspect as her mental health deteriorates, and she questions whether her childhood was as innocent as she believed or whether there were warning signs she missed about her father.
Elementary schools in Louisiana were built throughout the 20th century to serve growing suburban populations, reflecting the post-war educational expansion.
Elementary schools continue to operate as primary educational institutions serving young students.
Drinking establishment — Where locals discuss the murders and eye Carly with suspicion
The town bar becomes a space where Carly encounters the living embodiment of small-town suspicion and judgment. Locals discuss the old murders and speculate about her father's guilt, and she feels the weight of their scrutiny. Conversations are interrupted when she enters, and she catches knowing glances between patrons. The bar represents the way her community has branded her and her father, and how impossible it is to escape the narrative that has been constructed around the crimes.
Bars and taverns in small Louisiana towns have served as informal social spaces where community news and gossip circulate.
Bars continue to serve as gathering places and social centers in small towns.
Visit: Local Bar (restaurant)
More by Stacy McEwan: All Stacy McEwan books
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