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Daisy Darker

Review

Daisy Darker

In Agatha Christie’s AND THEN THERE WERE NONE, eight strangers are invited to a small island off the coast of England only to be killed one by one, each having been accused of murder themselves. Christie uses folk rhymes and mysterious phonograph messages to increase the tension in a story that has become a standard whodunit trope and the world’s best-selling mystery novel.

Alice Feeney’s latest effort, DAISY DARKER, is a close riff on Christie’s classic with some modern updates. Members of the Darker family arrive at the coastal home of their matriarch, famous children’s author Beatrice Darker, to celebrate her 80th birthday. As the tide comes in, the causeway to the house is inaccessible, and when a storm begins to rage, the Darkers are stranded without the means to leave or to communicate off the island. To up the creepy factor, Beatrice’s birthday is not only on Halloween, but also on the day that a fortune teller predicted she would die. The stage is set for a terrible night --- over nine hours trapped together with no escape. And then the murders start.

"[T]hose looking for an atmospheric and chilling story of familial strife, vengeance and justice set on a dark and stormy night will want to sink their teeth into this one."

The Darkers, along with family friend Conor Kennedy, are a dysfunctional and fractured bunch. There are many secrets between them, and our narrator --- the titular Daisy Darker --- is not privy to all of them. Her older sister, Rose, is an introverted veterinarian holding a torch for Conor. Middle sister Lily is a narcissist whose best feature is her 15-year-old daughter, Trixie. Daisy is the unassuming little sister who is overlooked at best, mistreated  at worst. Their parents are selfish and negligent, and often leave the girls with Beatrice (“Nana”) for long periods of time.

Further complicating the family dynamic is Daisy’s “broken heart.” A medical condition renders her physically fragile, and over time it becomes a metaphor for her life as well. Daisy’s heart breaks even more as her family members are killed. First Nana is found dead in the kitchen, followed by her father. Her mother is next, and her niece is attacked as well. With hours left before they can leave the island, the family tries to figure out who is offing them and why. The key to survival might be to stay together, but of course they don’t, venturing out from safely locked rooms every chance they get. They are left a series of cryptic and threatening rhymes and instructions to view old family home movies, but the killer’s identity and motivations remain unclear to them until the end.

With more than a few direct references to AND THEN THERE WERE NONE and even a mention of “Clue” (the theatrical version of the board game having a similar setup), Feeney is not interested in burying her source material at all. Her central conceit, not borrowed from Christie, is easily uncovered, which makes its official reveal underwhelming. As family members are picked off one by one, survivors seem nonplussed (it’s all “super messed up,” one notes after two murders).

Readers who appreciate red herrings and love to hate characters should enjoy this entertaining locked-room mystery. Although the plotting and dialogue can be frustrating at times, those looking for an atmospheric and chilling story of familial strife, vengeance and justice set on a dark and stormy night will want to sink their teeth into this one.

Reviewed by Sarah Rachel Egelman on September 9, 2022

Daisy Darker
by Alice Feeney