This is a very unusual and unique way of storytelling. I found the book was really out there and the storyline was really fantasy like and almost like a fair tale. I enjoyed the flashbacks but the present story was to out there for me but I still wanted to know daisy's story. Very interesting read bu a bit to like a fantasy story for me.

** spoiler alert ** SPOILERS

A mixed bag for me.
Great start, that got me very interested,and was surprisingly funny.
Then it got a bit repetitive, a video tape,a body,a video tape... etc etc.
Yet nobody noticed anything.
The whole while drawing up a picture of a totally unlikeable Darker family.
Some very expected things happened,and some surprisingly unexpected things,which had me fully invested again.
Overall I enjoyed it,but the middle bit wasn't my favourite

Rating: 4.6/5

Alice Feeney's previous novel, "Rock Paper Scissors" was one of my favourite reads of 2021 and now she has done it again! "Daisy Darker" is destined to be amongst the cream of the crop in 2022.

As is already made clear in the synopsis, the basis of the novel is strongly influenced by Agatha Christie's mystery, "And Then There Were None". As I have commented in other reviews, it is something of a rite of passage for a mystery writer to produce at least one book based on Dame Agatha's classic - some do it with a good degree of success, while others leave an awful lot to be desired. "Daisy Darker" is certainly one of the better examples.

However, it would be far too simplistic to simply describe this as a facsimile of Christie's original. Of course, there are clear echoes of "And Then There Were None", not least in the setting for the novel, but there is also a conscious tipping of the hat to other Agatha Christie mysteries too - "Crooked House" is one that particularly came to my mind at various points in the narrative. Also - and not for the first time in Alice Feeney's writing - I noted a sense of atmospheric menace that is is akin to the work of another classic author, Daphne du Maurier.

Regardless of the influences at play, Alice Feeney has once again succeeded in producing a top quality, suspenseful mystery that is very much her own. She is rapidly becoming one of my "must read" authors and I will certainly be back for her next offering.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for supplying an ARC in return for an honest review.

Oh my……this book!

Daisy Darker, a girl born with a broken heart.
Daisy Darker, star of the bestselling book written by her Nana.
Daisy Darker is visiting her Nana at Seaglass, their family home in Cornwall, that overnight is cut off by the tide and freed the following morning. Daisy’s family are due to join her - her divorced parents, two older sisters and her teenaged niece Tricia. This visit is a special one - Halloween is Nana’s birthday and this year is her 80th. Many years before she was told by a fortune teller that she would die when she was 80 years old….and before too long, there will be a death in the house where the family are congregated to celebrate.

This book really picks up the pace and it leads to a staggering conclusion….made me gasp out loud more than once. Would highly recommend.

Holy cow another five star and it’s a close favorite behind Sometimes I Lie! The Darker Family is very dysfunctional consisting of Nana, the matriarch, her only child, Frank, his ex wife Nancy, their three daughters - Rose, Lily and her daughter Trixie, and Daisy. They all arrive to Seaglass on the eve of Halloween and Nana’s birthday, including Conor who Nana had watched over since he was child. At dinner, Nana shares her latest will with the family and boy are they disappointed! The next morning there’s a dead body and one by one each of them are getting killed off. This is a creepy, thrilling take on Agatha Christies’ “And Then There Were None” and it’s well done! I highly recommend this one! Thank you to Macmillan, NetGalley, and the author for a copy. This is my honest review.

Fairytalesque Rollercoaster..
A fairytalesque rollercoaster for the modern age in this beguiling and immersive tale of dark and dismal secrets in the family of Daisy Darker. The atmosphere of the family home Seaglass, set on crumbling cliff top on a tiny private island off the Cornish Coast, both draws the reader and repels. The family have gathered. When the tide is in, Seaglass is cut off until daybreak. What happens between those hours may well be in the realms of the deepest and darkest imaginings. All will eventually be revealed as the novel draws to a dramatic and heady denouement.

OMG the best one yet from Alice feeney a family gets together for their grandmothers 80th birthday and then the murders begin ! loved every minute of this book .

On the coast of Cornwell there is an island, cut off from the mainland by a causeway which cannot be traversed on foot when the tide is in. The house atop the island is called Seaglass and is the home of Beatrice Darker, the matriarch of the Darker family, who has asked her family to gather together for her 80th birthday.

Father Frank, mother Nancy, their 3 daughters, Rose, Lily and Daisy and Trixie, Lily's daughter arrive on the 30th October to begin the celebration, it doesn't start well for them and just gets worse from there.

The setting is wonderful, I could almost feel the cold air and hear the torrential rain outside. The claustrophobic, tense and isolated atmosphere was well done especially with people dropping like flies! I loved some of the characters and hated others and you will see why once you get pulled into this story.

All backstory and needed information was placed extremely well so the story flowed cohesively to the wonderful ending.

I flew through it in one sitting an absolutely LOVE Poppins.

*Huge thanks to Alice Feeney, Pan Macmillan and NetGalley for this copy which I chose to read and all opinions are my own*

Thanks to Netgalley and Pan Mcmillan for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Daisy Darker has a heart condition that has caused her to "die" multiple times and she also has a shorter life expectancy because of it. On her nana's 80th birthday, her 2 divorced parents, her 2 sisters, 1 niece and 1 family friend arrive at her Nana's house for her 80th birthday. The house is only accessible at low tide, leaving no way to escape during high tide. Nana reads her will to the family and is later found dead, followed by other deaths. No one knows who they can trust, if anyone, in the house.

I have really liked other books I have read by this author. I find I am going along in her books, thinking they are pretty decent 4 star reads, and I know what is happening and then she throws a bomb in, and nothing I thought I knew is right, and that elevates it to a 5 star read. There was a bomb in this book, but it didn't work for me like the others have. This one ventured off into territory that I can't wrap my head around and don't enjoy, so it was a miss for me based on that.

God! I can't get enough of it! I wish I could read the book for the first time again!
This was a fantastic novel for me. It had a creepy, gothic vibe to it.
I'd like to thank NetGalley and Macmillan for providing me with an advance copy.

#DaisyDarker #NetGalley
Darkest novel of the century.
After years of avoiding each other, Daisy Darker's entire family is assembling for Nana's 80th birthday party in Nana's crumbling gothic house on a tiny tidal island. Finally back together one last time, when the tide comes in, they will be cut off from the rest of the world for eight hours. The family arrives, each of them harboring secrets. Then 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 comes in and all is revealed.
I really loved this novel. It was creepy with a gothic vibe.
Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan for giving me an advance copy.

A magnificent thriller with an utterly gothic feeling at heart (pun intended - you will understand as you delve into the story). The protagonist is one of the most complex characters Alice Feeney has created. An absolute gem of a read!