Book Review – Daisy Darker

by Bonnie Tollefson

Book Review – Daisy Darker, Alice Feeney, Flatiron Books, 2022.

There are only so many plot lines in fiction writing, and when I picked up this book I was expecting the tried and true. Gather people in a remote location, cut off communication, cue terror.

Daisy Darker starts out conforming to the expected. The Darker Family puts the “dys” in dysfunctional. Nana has gathered her family to celebrate her 80^th birthday. A fortune teller has told her it will be her last so she has drawn up her will. She shares its contents, making everyone mad in the process.

Her son is never home as he roams the world performing with his orchestra. His ex-wife, a failed actress, wants her grown daughters to call her Nancy since Mom makes her feel old. The three daughters, Rose, Lily and Daisy, demonstrate an amazing amount of sibling rivalry. Lily’s daughter, Trixie, and family friend, Conor, round out the party.

Nana lives on an island off the Cornwall coast. It is connected to the mainland by a causeway passable only by foot at low tide. After dinner, as might be expected, the tide comes in, trapping everyone until morning. It was a dark and stormy night. Cell phone service is nonexistent and Nana has stopped paying her land line bill because the thing kept ringing and interrupting her. Nana’s 80 clocks strike midnight. A scream pierces the air. The first body is discovered…

The author uses the device of VHS tapes of home movies to bring family memories of the past to light. She is, also, not above the occasional snarky comment on life as she moves the action right along to the final twist and the last body. You won’t want to put it down.

This book is available thru the RVM library as well as from the Jackson County Library System.