'Books are a bit like children for authors, we’re not really allowed to have favourites, but Daisy Darker is mine. It is a dark and twisty tale set on a tiny tidal island just off the Cornish coast. The Darker family haven’t all been in the same place at the same time for years, but they have come together one last time to celebrate Nana’s eightieth birthday. 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 things will never be the same again, because one of them is a killer. 

I often think of Daisy Darker as my Agatha Christie book. It’s my own little tribute to one of my favourite authors, and my take on the locked room mystery, which is something Christie was well known for and exceedingly good at. A classic locked room mystery is a story where a crime, typically a murder, takes place in a location that has been cut off, or “locked” away from the outside world. They tend to have a traditional crime plot, and there should be enough clues for the reader to play detective alongside the characters. 

Here's a selection of some of my favourite locked room mysteries!'

-Alice Feeney, 2023