Title: Daisy Darker
Author: Alice Feeney
Publisher: Macmillan
Synopsis:
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 . . .
Daisy Darker is arriving at her grandmother’s house for her eightieth birthday. It is Halloween, and Seaglass – the crumbling Cornish house perched upon its own tiny private island – is at one with the granite rocks it sits on. The Darker family haven’t all been in the same place for over a decade, and when the tide comes in they’ll be cut off from the rest of the world for eight hours. When the tide goes back out, nothing will ever be the same again, because one of them is a killer…
My review:
Daisy Darker is a well-crafted, dark and intriguing novel – exactly what I’ve come to expect from author Alice Feeney!
Centring on the narrator, Alice, we join the Darker family as they gather at their nana’s eccentric house for her 80th birthday – a date Nana is convinced she’ll die on. It seems like the whole family feels the same, and everyone – perhaps apart from Alice – seems to be expecting a Will to be read. Like vultures, they all circle ready for their cut! But Nana seems to be alive and kicking – until she’s not, and she’s not the only one who seems in danger…
The novel is narrated by Alice in the present day and offers insights into her childhood, growing up whilst a heart condition which means she could drop dead at any moment, and therefore wasn’t allowed to have the same kind of childhood as her sisters Rose and Lily. Her sisters seem to be a curious pair – in some ways, they show glimpses of kind-heartedness (especially Rose), but in many other ways they are decidedly not the type of people you’d want to have as your sisters! In fact, almost everyone in the family seems to pose some sort of threat, each in their own way, and this gives the novel a sinister undercurrent, which I loved!
It’s definitely a deliciously dark book, with twists along the way and reminiscent of Agatha Christie. The writing is great, the plot is intriguing and I found myself completely absorbed in the story from the first page to last. Daisy Darker is a thriller with substance and style!
My rating: 4/5
Many thanks to the publisher, Pan Macmillan, for providing a copy of this book on which I chose to write an honest review.
[…] “It’s definitely a deliciously dark book, with twists along the way and reminiscent of Agatha Christie. The writing is great, the plot is intriguing and I found myself completely absorbed in the story from the first page to last.” – read my full review […]