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A boring, overwritten book that was made slightly better by a really good ending.

I spent most of this book not having a great time. These are my issues:

When I realized this story was "inspired by" And Then There Were None, I knew this story would have to do so much more to impress me and doubted it would. How can you think you can write that story better than Christie?! And this wasn't just loosely influenced by the original, it was, if you ask me, desperately trying to rip it off!

The entire book felt like a caricature of a "gothic, closed-door mystery" and was so over-the-top but lacked the fun tongue-in-cheek wink to the audience you need to pull that off. The lightning would strike JUST as everyone would open a door to find a dead body! They'd all turn their backs for a minute and a videotape saying WATCH ME would magically appear! At least twice people were taken or killed in the same room as many other people and no one saw or heard a thing! It wasn't cute, it was ridiculous and just make all your characters look like idiots.

My biggest issue with this novel, was the writing style. So many times the flowery, literary diatribes you would get would completely take you out of anything thrilling or mysterious and did absolutely nothing to improve the story in any way. You would get these paragraphs of Daisy thinking about love or family or life that were endless and entirely unnecessary! Are we reading a mystery or a family drama?! I'm going to need you to decide! You would also get these statements of the obvious like the author thought she were writing a mystery for toddlers and she needed to explain what was happening all the time (again, completely killing any tension)! "Someone is killing the Darker family one by one, and I fear it isn't over!" "I have secrets of my own.....and some secrets are worth killing to keep!" You can practically hear the overdramatic 'dun, dun, DUN!' in the background. Just awful....

But if you do sit through all of this, you will get an ending that actually good and unexpected. I only figured out a small portion of it and it was, ultimately, satisfying. I don't think I would say it was "worth it" for me since I'd rather have a enjoyable time throughout, but if you are only about good twists, I think you'd be satisfied. I don't know if I would read from this author again if this is her common writing style. It's just not for me.