Daisy Darker was born with a broken heart. Now after years of avoiding each other, Daisy Darker’s entire family is assembling for Nana’s 80th birthday party in her crumbling gothic house on a tiny tidal island. The family arrives, each of them harboring secrets. When the tide comes in, they will be cut off from the rest of the world for eight hours.
But at the stroke of midnight, as a storm rages, Nana is found dead. And an hour later, the next family member follows…
Trapped on an island where someone is killing them one by one, the Darkers must reckon with their present mystery as well as their past secrets, before the tide goes out and all is revealed. As seen on the TODAY show and picked by Book of the Month, Daisy Darker’s family secrets and Alice Feeney’s trademark shocking twists will keep readers riveted.
Daisy Darker
Alice Feeney returns with DAISY DARKER — a superb ‘locked room’ thriller inspired by Agatha Christie’s AND THEN THERE WERE NONE.
Our story unfurls in the remote Seaglass – the old, quirky home of Beatrice “Nana” Darker – matriarch and renowned author.
The house stands on the edge of a cliff, only accessible during low tide. To celebrate Nana’s 80th birthday, Daisy Darker and her dysfunctional family gather, including absentee father and classical musician Frank Darker, cold and critical ex-wife Nancy, Daisy’s cutthroat sisters Rose and Lily, Lily’s teen daughter, Trixie, and family friend Conor Kennedy. No one seems to particularly like each other, a resentment festered over years, forged by their many secrets and lies, and now exacerbated after the reading of Nana’s will.
No one is happy, but despite things spiraling for the worse, no one can leave for the next eight hours, until the tide recedes.
Then Nana is found dead.
Worse yet (in Agatha Christie style), a chalk-written poem foreshadows what’s to come.
“Daisy Darker’s family were as dark as dark can be.
When one of them died, all of them lied, and pretended not to see.
Daisy Darker’s nana was the oldest but least wise.
The woman’s will made them all feel ill, which was why she had to die.”
Time ticks ominously as bodies pile and suspicions flare.
We learn more about each character through Daisy’s perspective in alternating past and present chapters, as we get closer to uncovering what happened on a Halloween night in 1988—a night that seemed to shape their toxic dynamic.
I absolutely loved this book. Loved the Christie inspiration, loved Feeney’s fresh take and her dysfunctional characters. Loved the gothic vibe and sinister, nearly suffocating atmosphere. As always, Feeney’s prowess at drawing us in kept me rapt up until the shocking end.
Forever a fan of Alice Feeney, with this being one of my new favorites.
Daisy Darker’s family wasted far too many years lying.
They spent their final hours together learning lessons before dying.
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