Daisy Darker

The torrential rain reminds Daisy of the great storm 20 years earlier. Her family was about to attend the launch of Nana’s 10th book when they learned Frank’s car had been hit by a falling tree. Nancy and Nana left for the hospital, and the launch was canceled. For the next few days, Mr. Kennedy stayed at Seaglass to look after the children. Trying to interest the Darker sisters in flowers, he showed them the castor bean plant in the garden. Mr. Kennedy explained that a journalist was once killed by a ricin-tipped umbrella: a poison derived from the castor bean plant.

Rose and Conor had become an official couple. Meanwhile, Nancy brought Frank back to Seaglass to recover. Jealous and angry, Mr. Kennedy left and did not return. One night, Rose and Lily cooked a meal for the family. Daisy wanted to help, but Lily told her to go away. The meal turned out to be inedible, and the older sisters blamed each other. They were unaware that Daisy had secretly added a jar of chili powder and a bottle of hot sauce to the ingredients.

Rose tells Lily to check her blood sugar levels. Meanwhile, she and Conor carry Nancy inside and put her with the other bodies in the cupboard. The footprints in the kitchen have disappeared. However, there is a large pair of muddy boots in the hallway.

Daisy remembers that one day, Mr. Kennedy turned up drunk after losing his job. He instructed Conor to come home and stay away from Seaglass. Nancy ended their relationship, and the family never saw him again.

Rose goes to the library to change. Meanwhile, Daisy looks at the punch clock in the hall. She remembers Mr. Kennedy was always annoyed by Nana’s insistence on visitors clocking in and out. Daisy notices that Nana’s literary agent punched in on the previous day but did not punch out.

Daisy is overcome with emotion when Conor finally speaks to her in her bedroom. He apologizes for blaming Daisy for past events and observes it must be terrible to see what is happening to her family. Daisy is about to respond when they hear a door slam. Downstairs, the muddy boots have disappeared. Rose emerges from the library and notices the grandfather clock is open with a VHS tape over its face. Scrabble letters on the case spell out “SEE ME.” The video is of Nana’s birthday 16 years earlier: a day Daisy wants to forget.

Daisy is 13 in the video. As she watches, she notes that she is wearing a similar dungaree dress to the one she had on that day. She remembers that Rose had just got into Cambridge and Lily had failed a drama school audition. At the Halloween meal, Conor sat in a blue chair painted with clouds, decorated for him by Nana. Nana’s agent was also at the party. Daisy immediately liked the agent, who was excited to meet Nana’s literary inspiration. Daisy explained to him that she was not the same person as the character in Nana’s book. She also claimed that a book about her own life would be even better. The agent gave Daisy his business card and a silver pen, promising to read Daisy’s life story if she ever chose to write it. For her birthday, the agent gave Nana a Scrabble set made from driftwood and sea glass. Nana admitted that she had bought a gift for herself and introduced the family to Poppins—then a tiny puppy.

The video image of the Halloween meal is replaced by one of a beach bonfire. Daisy wants to stop the tape as it shows the night when most of her family stopped talking to her.

Rose and Conor are also uneasy about the video and suggest switching it off. Daisy goes over to look at the Scrabble board from Nana’s agent, finding their names are all spelled out on the board. Rose also notices and suggests a connection between the murders and Nana’s agent. Conor points out that Nana failed to write anything more after 1988, and the agent could have ransacked her studio looking for her new book.

After Nana’s birthday meal, Daisy was angry as her mother would not let her go to a Halloween party with her sisters. Nancy continued to be overprotective of Daisy and refused to show her recent letters from the hospital. However, the last doctor she saw seemed cheerful and told her to “go and live your life” (261).

Rose, Lily, and Conor dressed as the Lion, the Witch, and the Pumpkin for the party. Meanwhile, Daisy secretly found the sheet she used when she transformed from a Gremlin into a ghost. After filling her bed with cuddly toys, she climbed into the trunk of the car Conor had borrowed from his father. Conor had just passed his driving test and wanted to show off his skills to Rose before she left for university. He drove to the party at Blacksand Bay, unaware Daisy was in the trunk.

When the car stopped, Daisy realized she was trapped and screamed until Conor and her sisters let her out. Rose and Lily were angry but reluctantly let Daisy stay, warning her to keep her ghost costume on. Left alone, Daisy watched the older teenagers drinking and tried some alcohol. She also watched Lily kiss Conor during a game of spin the bottle. Soon Daisy wished she had stayed at home.

Daisy watched Rose storm off after Lily kissed Conor. She was then approached by an 18-year-old boy who guessed her identity. Daisy felt uneasy as the boy flirted with her. Next, he convinced her to play a game where she must guess which of his hands held candy. The first time she lost, the boy told her to take off her ghost costume. The second time, he kissed her and took off her top, saying he wanted to see her scar. When Daisy pushed him away and ran off, the boy laughed and called her a “freak.”

Distressed, Daisy looked for her sisters and heard Lily’s laughter behind a rock. Climbing the rock for a better view, she saw Lily with Conor. Lily was telling Conor that they would both soon be left behind when Rose went to Cambridge. Daisy watched as the couple had sex, too horrified to move. However, when she slipped on the rocks, Lily and Conor saw her.

Conor stops the videotape and throws it on the fire. He then notices that a chair leg painted with clouds is also burning in the flames. He turns on Lily, accusing her of being a bad mother, but Lily continues to stare at the screen. Trixie touches Lily, but she is pale and unresponsive. As Rose performs CPR on her sister, Conor notes the burn marks on Lily’s neck. A bottle of Poison perfume is tied to one of her hands, and there is a mirror in the other. Rose pronounces Lily dead.

Lily

A poem describes Lily as a “selfish” and “entitled” person who unexpectedly became pregnant. She did not love the father of her child but slept with him to show that she could. Lily was poisoned by her own perfume.

Rose realizes from the marks on Lily’s neck that she was poisoned by her perfume. Turning on Conor, she asks why he came back to Seaglass. She states that while Nana may have wanted him there, the rest of the family considered him dead. Conor suggests that Rose must be the killer, as the only alternatives are Trixie and Daisy. Rose, in turn, accuses Conor. Meanwhile, Daisy tries to comfort Trixie, who is sobbing in distress. The couple’s argument is interrupted by a floorboard creaking upstairs.