Daisy Darker by Alice Feeney

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.

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Published by Pan MacMillan on 18 August 2022.
​Advanced review copy supplied by the publisher.