Daisy Darker by Alice Feeney
I was not expecting much from this book, but I definitely was not disappointed. Feeney creates the perfect atmosphere a private, isolated island on Halloween in the middle of a storm. This book was perfectly written with the intricate plot and prose which kept me gripped at every moment.
"Don't spend all of your ambition on other peoples dreams."
Daisy was diagnosed with a heart condition when she was little and since then she has not been allowed to do anything a normal child could do growing up. When the family is brought together on Halloween night for Nana’s birthday only for her eighty clocks to strike midnight and a scream to echo round the house. A creepy message on the wall and Nana dead on the floor with secrets about the family written in the poem.
The atmosphere in this book was perfect with the mysterious island and the storm. It gave a cozy atmosphere that you could just sit and read for hours. It makes it the perfect book for this autumn on a rainy day. Seaglass house is also beautiful with its unique design, the eighty clocks on the wall and the crazy colour pallets.
“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…”
This was definitely a mystery that gave the impression of a locked room mystery. The metaphors and the lyrical writing were beautiful but what really gripped me was the small poems about the family at the endings of the chapters. Each one was so interesting to read and only added to the mystery of the story. The atmosphere is perfectly written and the vintage elements such as the VHS tapes and the clocks on the walls makes this feel extremely homely.
This followed a dual timeline with half taking part in Daisy’s childhood and the other half taking part in the present. I preferred the childhood perspective which captured my attention a lot more and the twist really took me by surprise. At some points the present storyline seemed to follow the same plotline and became a little repetitive but otherwise was really interesting to see the family dynamics throughout.
Daisy Darker was definitely filled with twists and turns some of which were unfortunately predictable however, a lot of them I did not see coming. The ending was definitely a shock and whilst it could have been explained a little bit less, I did enjoy how the entire story was brought together, both the past and the present narrative.
The characters in this are flawed and imperfect bit fascinating to read about. They are really dysfunctional and unlikable, but they captivate you. This is a very character driven book which really explored the characters backgrounds extensively which made me feel as though I personally knew the characters. Especially the Nan who was amazing with her palm reading and her pink and purple clothing which I loved so much.
Alice Feeney is an author that I have not read before, but I will definitely be checking her backlog of books because I loved this one so much. I ended up giving it four stars simply for the fact that the childhood point of view kept my attention so much more than the present. It was so much fun and so perfect for the autumn time.
Thank you for NetGalley for providing me with this copy in return for a review.

I read this novel whilst in Cornwall in October and this definitely added to my enjoyment of this twisty and atmospheric read!
Daisy Darker arrives at Seaglass, her grandmother's home on a private island off the Cornish coast. She is soon joined by other members of the dysfunctional Darker family- her sisters, niece and divorced parents and one by one the family members are murdered.
There is an Agatha Christie feel to the novel with both the plot and setting and I found it to be a genuinely scary and compelling read. It does start off slowly but picks up pace as we are introduced to the Darker family and their relationships with each other. I loved the combination of a family saga, a coastal setting and a crime novel and would highly recommend this.
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this digital ARC.

A perfect spooky season read!!

I’m so glad I waited until October to read this because it really got me in the mood for Halloween. Daisy Darker is a locked-room murder mystery with lots of charm but with a definite sinister edge. I initially found all the flash blacks a little annoying because I was so invested in the present (2004) day plot, but the more I read the more the mystery unraveled and I was hookedI loved how it slowly started to come together but also really shocked me too. It also actually scared me in some places and I found myself looking over my shoulder a bit, which doesn’t often happen to me with books.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I have thoroughly enjoyed this book. Really enjoyable, a thriller with philosophical insights, Very well written and with a serious claustrophobic atmosphere.
The feeling of being trapped on an island was very well described.
It shows the tensions that can exist between even close families.
I loved it and would recommend to readers who want to enjoy a good thriller.

I normally love Alice Feeney books but for some reason I could not get into this book so unfortunately I have not finished reading it yet.

This was actually my first Alice Feeney book and I was not disappointed! I’d heard mixed things about this one but I loved it - the tension, the fast pacing, the gripping writing! I loved it!

I have admired and appreciated all previous works by this author, so I had high expectations for this read – to cut a long story short, I loved it and was not dissatisfied at all!

Full of surprises and plot twists throughout, including a conclusion that I didn’t see coming at all, Daisy Darker is, without any doubt, a psychological thriller to be picked up for any fans of this genre. Although not my favourite book by Alice Feeney, I finished this within 24 hours as it had me gripped from the beginning. It is very hard not to add spoilers to this review; it is very much one you must read for more!

This author’s writing style creates a suspenseful atmosphere and weaves the characters of the Darker family into the storyline smoothly, each with their tale to tell. I really enjoyed the depth of these personalities and getting to know them as individuals and their position within the complexities of the family unit.

‘Daisy Darker’ is highly recommended and would make an ideal book club read as there is plenty to get your teeth into. This book is available to purchase now!

Thank you, Pan Macmillan and NetGalley, for a gifted copy.

This was a fun one to read and it had me totally and utterly hooked!! I loved the ‘whodunnit’ aspect to the book, and seeing people being eliminated one by one. It reminded me a bit of Cluedo, one of my favourite board games!

The ending took me completely by surprise and I actually loved it! It’s great when a book surprises you like that and felt that the ending really made the book!

Another cracking book by the wonderful Alice Feeney.

This is an atmospheric, locked room style thriller centred around the Darker family who become trapped on the island their Grandmother lives on. In amongst revelations of secrets and lies, one by one family members are found murdered and the race is on to find out who the killer is.

I couldn’t read this book fast enough, I was desperate to find out what was going on and when I got to the massive twist it literally took my breath away! Fantastic.

From one of my all time favourite authors who never disappoints, Daisy Darker is no exception. Cannot wait for her next book.

Daisy Darker, the youngest of the three granddaughters of famous children’s author Beatrice Darker, was born with a broken heart and has been cheating death repeatedly for a lot longer than what doctors had predicted. She is the first to arrive one evening at Seaglass, Beatrice’s old Victorian house, to celebrate her Nana’s eightieth birthday, which coincides with Halloween. Seaglass, the setting of many happy and unhappy memories from Daisy’s unconventional childhood, because of her medical condition, sits on a tiny island off the Cornish coast that gets cut off from the mainland during hightide. Daisy is soon followed by her entire family consisting of her divorced parents, sisters Rose and Lily, and Lily’s teenage daughter—Trixie. It’s been a long time since all of them have been together and the gathering—enforced by Beatrice—is not joyful, expectedly, as there are a lot of conflicts among the members; Beatrice herself does not have a high opinion about her family, except perhaps for Daisy and Trixie.

After an awkward dinner, though amazing taste-wise, Beatrice discloses to all present that—according to a palm reader—this is going to be her last birthday, and proceeds to tell them about her will, the contents of which are not to the liking of most. She also informs them of a book that she’s in the process of writing, which will be about the Darker family’s secrets. While the family is trying to process the announcement, the final guest—Conor Kennedy, aged same as Rose and a part of the family since his troubled boyhood when Beatrice took him under her wings—arrives at Seaglass on a borrowed rowboat. Some more awkwardness follows the new arrival and everyone is relieved when it’s time to disperse and go to bed. The relief does not last long though, as the guests are woken at the stroke of midnight by the screams of Trixie, who has found Beatrice lying with a bashed head and no breath. Rose, a veterinarian, confirms immediately that Nana has been dead for some time, and the overturned stool nearby suggests of an accidental fall. Certain that Beatrice is beyond help, the family decides to wait out the tide before taking any action as there is no communication with outside world thanks to the defunct landline and non-existent mobile signal.

But another death occurs barely an hour later, and waiting becomes no longer an option. Desperate to contact the police, the guests plan to use Conor's rowboat, only to find it missing with its rope being cut intentionally, leaving them all truly stranded in the house of death. As the hours pass, more people turn up dead and strange, maddening things start to happen that could only be the work of someone who intimately knows the family’s dark secrets—perhaps one of its own members. Caught in a nightmare, those who are alive try to stay that way while racking their brains to find out the person(s) and the reason behind the merciless killings. As with almost every family, the Darkers, too, have some nasty secrets that they wish to keep hidden; but will any of them go as far as killing others?

I picked up Daisy Darker by Alice Fleeny purely based on the rave reviews online and I was not disappointed. It is a locked room mystery on the lines of Agatha Christie’s ‘And Then There Were None’, and a terrific lot more than that. The setting—Seaglass with its bizarre location—and the characters of Daisy Darker are dark, spooky and utterly absorbing. Daisy’s first-person narrative peels off layer after layer of the family’s secrets, all the while enticing the reader with little clues towards solving the mystery. It is a tense psychological thriller too, with a delectable twist towards the end that I did not expect at all. As is the case with most novels of this genre, there are quite a few implausible scenarios and unanswered questions, but those are pardonable in view of the excellent entertainment and the solid good time Daisy Darker provides. I did not take long to finish this fast-paced, engrossing tale, and would recommend it to all thriller and mystery fans!

My sincere thanks to Pan Macmillan for the Advance Copy of Daisy Darker through NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

Wow! What a cracker of a book! I have enjoyed Alice Feeney’s other books but I think this one took my respect for her to a whole new level.

This really is an excellent book and has a feel of Agatha Christie’s Classic ‘And Then There Were None’. A remote house on an island, a dysfunctional family and secrets to be revealed from the past. All this blends together and as the night goes on the body count only gets higher, but who can be killing them and why! You need to read on to discover.

If this wasn’t enough right at the end of the book is a major twist that I just didn’t see coming!

This is one of my favourite books of the year. It does take a little while to get going but is well worth the effort for the excellent book it becomes. I totally recommend it to those that love a good mystery and suspense book.

I will definitely be reading more by ‘Alice Feeney.

Thanks to the author, publisher and Net Galley for a review copy of this book for an open and honest review.

This was a deliciously clever and fiendish read from an author I’m starting to trust to give me a thrilling read. This was so difficult to put down and was eerily reminiscent of one of Agatha Christie’s novels that I wrote it down, then saw it mentioned in the finale, so I won’t ruin it by saying which one. As the tide comes in, the Darker family are congregating at the family seat for the matriarch’s birthday. Seaglass is a large house on an island with only a causeway linking it to Cornwall, so at high tide it is completely cut off from the rest of the world. The book’s action all takes place in the space of one high tide and the final Darkers are rushing across the causeway to get there on time. Gathered at Seaglass are a motley crew of Darkers across four generations from Nana down to her great-granddaughter Beatrice known as Trixie. In between are the son, Frank Darker, a famous, but not wealthy conductor, his ex-wife Nancy and their three daughters Rose, Lily and Daisy. Not forgetting Popper the family dog. One latecomer is a young man called Connor, an unofficial family member who turned up on Seaglass’s beach one morning when the Darker sisters were small. Nana noticed that Connor was bruised and neglected, so from that moment she took him and his alcoholic father under her wing. One second is all it took for every Darker woman to fall in love with this lonely boy who has lost his mother.

Now Connor has arrived the games can begin and it’s soon clear that if any of the Darker family survive till low tide in the morning, they’ll be very lucky indeed. I loved how the author built the atmosphere. Seaglass is a labyrinthine house, but each downstairs room is arranged around a central hall and are linked by doors, so that when the girls were little they could open the space up and Lily would roller skate in circuits around the house. ​I really wanted their grandmother’s study: filled with books and art supplies that produced her beloved children’s books. Her first book was Daisy Darker and was inspired by her youngest granddaughter, who was found to have a heart defect when she was a child. I loved the family’s eccentricities and traditions, such as the clocking in machine at the front door where every family member has a card to punch in and out. There’s a blackboard wall in the kitchen, for impromptu poetry, and at the kitchen table there are individual chairs, painted for each family member - of course one is covered in daisies, just like Daisy’s converse trainers. We get a sense of the family’s longevity in their collections and special treasures, such as the bone and seaglass Scrabble set, bought by Nana’s agent and set to play a special part in the night’s proceedings.

Nasty little verses appear on the blackboard, singling out family members with their worst characteristics and possibly revealing secrets they have kept from each other. This is a family full of secrets and some of them are whoppers! Each hour that passes till low tide, another family member is singled out and a murder occurs. The killer leaves a clue, perhaps a photograph or a short video clip, each one taking us back in time. I loved the author’s ability to set a scene, creating a special memory such as Lily in her leg warmers dancing around and singing the theme tune to Fame with it’s repetition of ‘remember, remember, remember’. Remember they do, and it’s a story of betrayals, unrequited love and a terrible night that would tear the sisters apart while a terrible secret binds them. The fear is palpable - the family don’t know whether the killer is an intruder or one of them. Their anxieties and ours are exacerbated by how cut off they are from the mainland and with a storm raging its not possible to cross by boat and no one can hear them scream. I did partly work out what was going on, but only partly. I was still gripped by the story and couldn’t look away from witnessing thekiller’s Machiavellian plans. This was a tense thriller with all the aspects of an eccentric family drama that I love and a very satisfying conclusion.

I loved this audiobook! Daisy Darker by Alice Feeney Narrated by: Stephanie Racine was just brilliant. I was hooked from the beginning till the end especially as it had great twists and turns throughout that just had you sitting at the edge if your seat and the ending was Brilliant!

"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 all back together for one last time! All the family arrives, however they are all have secrets they do not want to come out But, when the tide comes in, they will be cut off from the rest of the world for eight hours. Secrets will come out...............Then, when the stroke of midnight a storm outside rages........Nana is found dead. Then, an hour later, the next family member is found dead!

WoW.........with them all trapped on this island someone is killing them one by one! They have to tell each other their darkest secrets they have all been hiding all these years before someone else is murdered! 8 hours is a long time. No one sleeps they all wait for the next thing that may happen!!! before the tide goes out and they can get help! But will they all survive?

I highly recommend this book. I loved it 5 star audiobook! Excellent!

Big Thank you to Netgalley and Pan Macmillan for supplying a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Beatrice Darker (Nana) lives in the big house- Seaglass, on a tidal island. She is a renowned children's author & illustrator. As her eightieth birthday birthday on Halloween approaches she askes her family to gather together (especially since a fortune teller told her she would die in her eightieth year. Her son, his ex-wife, their eldest daughter Rose, second daughter Lily with her daughter Trixie ,the youngest, Daisy (she was born with a broken heart & not expected to make old bones) & Connor who spent a lot of his early years with the family. After announcing the contents of her will she is shortly found dead on the kitchen floor. Cut off by the tide, storm brewing outside, events continue to unfold as one by one the family is killed off, found with clues beside them. Throughout we hear the story of the family told by Daisy.

This book is very atmospheric & definitely owes a lot to 'Then There Were None' The characters were all pretty awful- especially Lily! However much it stretched belief, I had to keep reading, not sure how satisfied I was by the ending! I also feel I must mention how annoying it was to have to flick through ten pages of line drawing of waves at the start of each chapter- & there were a lot of chapters! I don't know whose bright idea that was but it certainly didn't add to my reading enjoyment. Thanks to Netgalley & the publisher for letting me read & review this book.

Daisy Darker was born with a broken heart, and we know that there’s something about her story that doesn’t quite make sense.
When we meet Daisy she’s heading to her nana’s remote island home to celebrate her 80th birthday. Though they are no longer close, and many are not speaking to one another, Daisy’s family look as if they’re about to face something they’d rather remain hidden.
After the reading of her new will - where everything is left to her granddaughter - nana is found dead. She expected it after a fortune teller predicted her death, but when other family members turn up dead it’s clear there’s more to this.
The structure of the story felt repetitive, and though there were nods to Christie’s And Then There Were None it felt like it took a while to really slot together. The clues were there throughout, but it’s quite easy to overlook.
I’m grateful to NetGalley for giving me the chance to read this.

Well, this was a wild, intense ride!! I had to write this review straight away before my head exploded! The ending, including the massive plot twists, was so unbelievable, but everything was explained, and to me made sense. I thought I had it all figured out, but alas I did not!!

This was my first book by Alice Feeney, and I’ve heard nothing but good things about her books. I wasn’t disappointed. Daisy Darker gave me massive cluedo vibes, which was very exciting!!

Daisy was an intriguing, flawed protagonist that arrived on a tidal island for her Nana’s 80th birthday party. It was the first time the Darker family had all been together for years, for reasons that were revealed over the course of the book. After the tide came in, the family were cut off from everything for eight hours, Nana was murdered and a cat-and-mouse game began.

I loved Daisy! Although an unreliable narrator, she was fantastic. I loved the chapters flashing back to the past as we learnt more about how the past was affecting the present.

Apart from Daisy and Trixie, I hated the other characters. But I think that was the whole point, and it actually increased my enjoyment of the story.

I loved Nana’s old gothic house. It was the type of place I’d love to explore, although it would be quite spooky! I also loved the concept of the island, the tide coming in and been stuck until it went back out. It was atmospheric and the perfect setting for this book.

It was hard to know who to trust. Every person of the Darker family had something to hide and secrets they wanted to keep buried. There were undertones of mystery, darkness and the sense that nothing was as it seemed.

I was actually sad about Nana’s death 😂 the author did a fantastic job of her character development even though she wasn’t alive for long. We learned more about her throughout the book, too. I enjoyed the concept of the home videos as we delved into the Darker family’s past, and learning about their secrets.

The writing to me was very simplistic, which it often can be in psychological thrillers. I just hoped for more because I found it quite monotonous, making it hard sometimes to enjoy the story as the writing was boring. This was why I couldn’t rate it 5 stars, unfortunately.

I think some people might have issues with the ending, and I agree that it’s probably not for everyone. But personally, I loved it. If it hadn’t of been for my issues with the writing, this would have been a 5 star read.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and author, for a chance to read and review this book.

BRILLIANT!!!
Another unforgettable story by Alice Feeney with a jaw-droppingly good twist at the end!
What a dysfunctional family but maybe not so different from many families out there today. Sisters who hate each other, mothers who have favorites and blame the children for all their missed opportunities, fathers that are missing in action, and an adorable and loving grandmother. Throw in the mix a good-looking young boy and you have a recipe for disaster. Oh and let's not forget the creepy old house on an island that you can only reach when it is low tide and the cherry on top........Halloween!
*cue the spooky music*

Who are the Darker family really and will the fortune tellers' prediction come true? Does Daisy have a darker side because we all have a little bit of evil in us don't we.....

Alice Feeney is such a clever storyteller. I discovered her when her first book came out in 2017 called "Sometimes I Lie" and I've been a fan ever since. If you haven't read her go and grab a copy of this book. You will not be disappointed!

Thank you to Netgalley and Pan Macmillan for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion

An atmospheric story set at Halloween on an isolated Cornish island. It's a stormy night and, like Agatha Christie's famous novel And Then There Were None, people are being picked off. They are gathered together at the grandmother's house to celebrate her birthday, which also happens to be at Halloween.

The characters are an eclectic mix of eccentrics: a children's author, musician, vet, actor, volunteer care worker and a bookish teenager. Mostly their unpleasant traits are set out, not discovered, and the flashbacks tell the story of the family and their dreadful secret. Tantalisingly, there is a lovable Old English sheepdog and the worry is that she's going to be next.

Written in the first person from the titular character's perspective, this story starts slowly with apparently superficial childhood events sprinkled throughout via memory and videos. But everything is cleverly plotted and the chapters become shorter as the tension rises and characters dwindle. Great stuff.

I partially guessed the whodunnit aspect, the choice is limited after all, but having read a fair bit of Feeney's work, I know better than to take things at face value. The overriding feature, however, is the house, Seaglass, which is arguably the main character in this book. It has its floor plan illustrated at the front (nice touch!) and is charismatic and haunting in equal measure. Being on a Cornish island cut off from the mainland, it is open to the elements and closed to civilisation. I want to live there.

A good read despite the ambling start and unlikable characters, there are still some to root for. The intriguing tone and the aura of the location are excellent.

All the way through this book I felt like I was reading a children's book but a very dark one. Almost like Agatha Christie mixed with Enid Blyton so unfortunately I couldn’t take it seriously. On the positive side it was a very quick read.

Daisy darker by @alicewriterland if I could give this 10 out of 5 I would. I worry that however I review this book will not do it justice.

My mum pinched this book after it arrived and read it in a day and said omg wow too. So after that I had to hurry up and read it. I loved this book from the beginning with the poems that are written about the darker family members and how they are gonna die I know i should not laugh about death but the poems made me smile.

I thought i had an idea where this book was going. And I was kind of right until the ending that left me open mouthed. Wow this book pulls you in shakes you and leaves you thinking omg 😲 did that really happen.

If you have read Alice Feeny before you will love it if you haven't read her before you will love it.

I think I can safely say this is one of my top books this year.

Can not wait for the next one.