A Book A Week

As the month winds down, I wrapped up another pick from my mystery/thriller book club, Alice Feeney’s 2022 novel Daisy Darker. This group has consistently delivered great reads over the last several months, so I was eager to dive into our latest selection. When the vote landed on Feeney, I was especially excited. I’ve enjoyed several of her other books, but Daisy Darker had been languishing on my TBR pile for far too long. Now I finally had the perfect reason to crack it open.

Daisy Darker is a walking miracle. Or at least that’s what she tells herself. Born with a rare heart condition, she wasn’t supposed to live this long, and her childhood was marked by countless brushes with death and endless surgeries. Maybe because of that shortened life expectancy, her family never seemed to invest much care in her. Truth be told, they barely cared for one another. The only person who truly saw Daisy was her grandmother. So when Nana summons the family to her crumbling gothic manor on the eve of her 80th birthday, Daisy doesn’t hesitate.

Years ago, a fortune teller predicted Nana would die at 80, and she intends to mark the occasion by gathering her fractured family and reading her last will and testament. The manor sits on a remote island, cut off completely when the tide rolls in, ensuring no one can leave until morning. Each relative arrives with selfish motives, all angling for a share of Nana’s fortune. Daisy alone comes with pure intentions. But when midnight strikes, Nana is found dead. Found with the body is a haunting poem that names each family member in turn. With every passing hour, another body falls. Trapped on the island with a killer picking them off one by one, the Darkers must reckon not only with the murders unfolding around them but with the secrets they’ve buried for years.

In the acknowledgements at the end of the novel, Alice Feeney proclaims that Daisy Darker is her favorite of her works, and it’s easy to see why. Drawing clear inspiration from Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None, Feeney crafts her own distinct, eerie take on the classic setup. As the bodies begin to fall, we’re given not only the tension of a ticking clock but also slow, revealing glimpses into each character’s past and what drives them. It’s a deliberate slow burn, but the built-in rhythm of a new death on the hour keeps the suspense simmering.

What makes the novel especially effective is the balance between atmosphere and storytelling. This isn’t just a locked-room mystery. It’s a locked-island puzzle box, dripping with gothic dread and family dysfunction. I found myself completely hooked from start to finish, pulled along by both the creeping inevitability of the deaths and the secrets that steadily rise to the surface. And that twist at the end? Let’s just say it’s the kind of surprise that reminds you why Feeney is so good at what she does. You won’t see it coming. 

For more information, visit the author's website, Amazon, and Goodreads.