Are you an Alice Feeney fan? A fan of deviously clever locked room mysteries? Or obsessed with the game of Clue? Then check out my Review of Daisy Darker!
Jen’s Quick Take on Daisy Darker
Daisy Darker had SO many of my favorite tropes and elements:
- An old Gothic house
- A dysfunctional family with dark secrets
- An And Then There Were None concept, down to the spooky clues the killer left
- A SHOCKING twist that I did not see coming. At all!
What Else Has Alice Feeney written?
Her debut novel, Sometimes I Lie, was published in 2017. Not going to lie (ha!), I was kind of freaked out by the concept of a woman in a coma trying to remember what happened to her, so I didn’t read it.
In 2019, Feeney published I Know Who You Are, which I also haven’t read.
In 2020, His & Hers came out, which I did read. My Spoiler Discussion Post on His & Hers is here.
In 2021, Rock Paper Scissors came out. I also have a Spoiler Discussion Post for Rock Paper Scissors, which includes news on the movie adaptation.
In 2023, Feeney published Good Bad Girl.
Review of Daisy Darker by Alice Feeney
To be published on August 30, 2022 by Flatiron Books. Thanks so much to the publisher for offering an advance review copy, which I accepted under FTC guidelines.
Daisy Darker was an interesting addition to Alice Feeney’s list.
Daisy Darker definitely had a different feel than Alice Feeney’s other books, a more classic mystery feel.
And yet, it explored some of the same themes she likes: troubled, slightly twisted relationships, dark secrets, people trying to out-maneuver each other.
The main character, Daisy, is a girl with a heart condition, a girl who heart has stopped multiple times. As a result, she’s been a bit overprotected by her family.
Daisy’s Nana has also written a book inspired by Daisy, a book that made her a lot of money.
The entire book takes place in less than twenty-four hours, during a time when the family has gathered to celebrate the birthday of Nana (on Halloween!)
But then the members of the Darker family start dying one by one.
At first, I really wasn’t sure what I thought of the book. But the more I thought about it, the more I loved Daisy Darker.
It was not a typical Alice Feeney and there was one aspect of the book that I was really not expecting. I love being surprised!
The book had a few familiar Feeney plot elements that I won’t mention because they are spoilers.
I go into ALL the spoiler-y details in my Spoiler Discussion Post for Daisy Darker. Alice Feeney always puts tons of clues and tiny details in her books, things that are hard for one reader to find, so I can’t wait to discuss it with you! Here’s what I can say without spoilers:
What I did love about Daisy Darker:
The whole Gothic vibe of Seaglass
The house is a Victorian mansion by the sea, located on an isolated spit of land. It was passed down to Daisy’s grandmother Nana. There’s a map of the house in the book that gave me all the Clue vibes (Cluedo for my British friends…)
The locked room aspect of Daisy Darker
The house is cut off from all but boat access during high tide. If you’re not a seagoing kind of person, tides are actually super-interesting, caused by the gravitational pull of the moon. In any case, high tides happen roughly twice in a 24 hour period, about twelve hours apart. Same with low tides. The time between each high and low is roughly six hours.
Why is this interesting? The first murder in the book happens around high tide, meaning that the Darker family is trapped in the house, cut off from civilization, for the next six hours.
There’s no cell service, and no landline, since Nana stopped paying the bill. A ticking clock, sort of! They need to stay safe until they can flee the house.
The family dynamics of the Darker family
While I didn’t think these characters were as complex (and dark) as the usual Alice Feeney characters, I did like the dynamic of Nana, the Darker parents and their three daughters, plus Conor, a lonely neighbor Nana Darker took in when she realized he was being abused and ignored by his alcoholic father.
The literary references in Daisy Darker
I go over these more in depth in my Spoiler Discussion Post for Daisy Darker. Obviously, And Then There Were None. There were nods to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. I was getting Little Women vibes at times from this, with the three sisters and Conor being Laurie. The family dog was named Poppins.
The Element of Surprise in Daisy Darker
Around two-thirds of the way in, the book took a turn I wasn’t expecting but should have been. I went in expecting the usual Alice Feeney, but it wasn’t. I did really appreciate that there were clues. Clues I missed. If there are clues, I can’t be mad.
Daisy Darker was a pleasure to read. It felt a bit lighter (ha!) than the usual Alice Feeney book, a little less disturbing and a little more like the classic mysteries I grew up reading (and love!)
Have you read Daisy Darker? Do you want to? Talk to me in comments and be sure to come over to my Spoiler Discussion Post for Daisy Darker so we can discuss our suspects, theories and thoughts!
