Daisy Darker

Daisy Darker is a homage to And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie. Christie described this novel as one of the most challenging to write due to its complex plot. The author explained, “ten people had to die without it becoming ridiculous or the murderer being obvious” (Christie, Agatha. Agatha Christie: An Autobiography. Dodd, Mead & Company, 1977, p. 457). First published in the US in 1940, the book remains the best-selling crime novel of all time. It has been adapted for the screen more frequently than any of Christie’s other works.

In Christie’s novel, eight people are invited to an isolated island off the Devon coast by an unknown host. All have guilty secrets. In each of the guests’ rooms, there is the same framed rhyme. There are also figurines on the dining room table. After their first dinner, a phonograph recording accuses each visitor of responsibility for a death or deaths. That night, one of the guests dies from a poisoned drink. From then on, the members of the group are killed in various ways, including a blow to the head, a cyanide injection, and being pushed off a cliff. The guests soon realize that the murder methods correspond to the lines of the rhyme, and after each one, a figurine disappears.