Daisy Darker set in Cornwall by Alice Feeney

Submitted: 7th October 2022

Daisy Darker is arriving at her grandmother’s house for her eightieth birthday.

Seaglass is a crumbling Cornish house perched upon its own tiny private island.

When the tide goes back out, nothing will ever be the same again, because one of them is a killer . . .

BookTrail Travel to Daisy Darker

Boarding Pass Information: Daisy Darker

Author guide: Alice Feeney

Genre: crime mystery

Food and drink to accompany: fish as you’re on an island

@thebooktrailer

#Bookreview

Head to Cornwall with Daisy Darker

Even the name of this novel makes me shiver. Daisy sounds so nice and sweet but then the darkness follows….

The setting is a crumbling Cornish mansion owned by an old lady, Daisy’s grandmother. The house, named Seaglass, is remote and connected to the mainland by a causeway which is made of sand. The island gets cut off from civilisation so you can already sense a deepening sense of foreboding. Oh and it’s Halloween. The descriptions and atmospheric build up is superb and I found myself slowing down my reading quite a bit to appreciate the arrival on the island.

The story starts with the Darker family meeting up for the first time in forever. They are only here for the grandmother’s 80th but this is no ordinary birthday. Years earlier a fortune teller told her that she wouldn’t survive the day. Imagine being told that and then arriving at that day. The pressure, the pain of expectation, the fear!

BookTrail Travel to Daisy Darker

The island becomes closed off, the tides come in and the mood dips. Then mysterious things start to happen…Oh and don’t forget the family are only there to get their hands on the grandmother’s money. What follows is quite the story and I can see that Alice must have had some fun coming up with all this. I could hear the sea whilst reading – this is quite the immersive reading experience.

This book has been touted as similar to the Agatha Christie classic And Then There Were None. I still hold that up as the best novel and plotted crime mystery ever, but this Daisy Darker does give her a run for her money. I imagine it took Alice quite some time to write this, for all the twists and knots she produces along the way.