★★★☆☆
A closed-room murder mystery set in Cornwall, Daisy Darker pays homage to Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None. The action occurs in an aging island cottage called Seaglass, owned by Nana, the Darker family matriarch.
The first few chapters introduce us to Daisy, the protagonist, and other Darker family members, who have gathered to celebrate Nana’s 80th birthday at a midnight party on Halloween. Shortly after the clock strikes midnight, a severe storm rolls in, and bodies start turning up.
While the plot felt extremely familiar, Feeney’s writing kept me engaged. The story moves quickly and can easily be consumed in one or two sittings. I enjoyed Feeney’s use of nursery rhymes to foreshadow and advance the plot. She also uses a lot of analogies to help us get a sense of the dysfunction in the Darker family. She compares families to intricately woven nets, snowflakes, and fingerprints. Her fingerprint comparison is one of the most telling, noting “…no two [families] are the same, and they always tend to leave their mark.”
She also reminds us of the impact questions can have on a loved one if they aren’t tempered with empathy and affection. “Caring about other people is more important than being curious about them.”
As much as I enjoyed the analogies and observations, they weren’t enough for this to be a memorable book for me. It was too similar to other books I’ve recently read.
I recommend Daisy Darker for fans of Peter Swanson’s Nine Lives and E. Lockhart’s We Were Liars.
I completely agree I enjoyed the strong writing and flushed out characters, I just wish the plot had more originality and a little less cheesey of an ending!