History Literature / DaughtersOfDarkness1996

** Upon seeing the Redfern sisters burying what looks very much like a body, Mary-Lynette [[ThisIsReality tries to reassure herself that this isn't]] ''Film/RearWindow'' or ''Series/TheTwilightZone''.

Rowan, Kestrel and Jade are three vampire sisters on the run from their powerful and controlling family, the Redferns. They seek out a new life with their great-aunt Opal Burdock in the small town of Briar Creek, but shortly after arriving they discover Opal's murdered body in the basement. Mrs Burdock's seventeen-year-old neighbor Mary-Lynette Carter senses something is amiss when she sees the sisters burying something in the garden, and they are suspiciously vague about their aunt's whereabouts when she questions them. Mary-Lynette sets out to investigate, attempting to recruit her brother Mark too, but he's more interested in getting to know Jade. Meanwhile, Rowan, Kestrel and Jade's troublemaking brother Ash arrives looking for them, causing suspicion to fall on him, though he's far from the only suspect. Whoever the killer is, they're close by and waiting to strike again, unless they can be apprehended before it's too late.

** The hole in the porch of Mrs Burdock's house, which Ash trips over. [[spoiler:Ash isn't familiar with the house and so didn't know it was there. But whoever dumped Mrs Burdock's goat on the porch clearly did know because they avoided it, so the killer is someone who spends a lot of time at the house]].
* DeadAnimalWarning: Mrs Burdock's murderer kills one of her pet goats, impales it with dozens of wooden stakes and leaves the corpse on the porch for her great-nieces to find, in an attempt to make them leave Briar Creek.

* ExtremelyShortTimespan: The entire book takes place over around a week, during which time Opal Burdock's nieces find her dead and try to hide the body, Ash tracks down his sisters to try and get them back home, Mary-Lynette and Mark investigate what happened to Mrs Burdock and find about the Night World, and they both end up falling in love with Night People, culminating in Mary-Lynette fighting off [[spoiler:a werewolf serial killer]]. It was a ''long'' week.

* NothingExcitingEverHappensHere: Mary-Lynette and Mark both remark that nothing interesting ever happens in Briar Creek, with Mark especially wishing at the start that "something wild" would happen. Then vampires show up in town, their eccentric neighbor Mrs Burdock goes missing and the siblings get a supernatural murder mystery on their hands.
* RedHerring: Both the Redfern sisters and the Carter siblings come up with various theories as to who killed Mrs Burdock, though not all of them are valid.

** A VampireHunter is considered as a possible culprit for killing Mrs Burdock, as whoever killed her clearly knew what they were doing (namely, that a wooden stake to the heart really will kill a vampire) and that repeatedly staking someone is the traditional execution method for lamia. It's pointed out a vampire hunter could hide more easily in Briar Creek than a Night Person. [[spoiler:It turns out the culprit was another Night Person, not a human]].
** Mary-Lynette realizes that her friend Jeremy is likely a werewolf and so would know Mrs Burdock was a vampire, which he later confirms. He also spends a lot of time at Burdock Farm, doing repairs and odd-jobs for Mrs Burdock. However, despite the occasional animosity between vampires and werewolves, Jeremy has lived peacefully alongside Opal for years with no issues and they got along well, to the point she confided in Jeremy her reasons for moving to Briar Creek: he has no obvious motive to kill her. Rowan also notes that werewolves usually only kill to feed, which clearly wasn't the case with Opal or her goat. [[spoiler:Just when Mary-Lynette is convinced it wasn't Jeremy, it turns out [[SubvertedTrope he really did do it]]; he happens to be a werewolf with serious anger management problems and psychopathic tendencies, killing Opal in a rage when he learned she was bringing more vampires to live in Briar Creek]].
** It's noted that a local girl named Bunny Marten could potentially be involved; she often uses wooden cuticle sticks similar to some of the sticks found stabbed into Mrs Burdock's goat and Rowan states her name is technically a lamia one - both Bunny and Marten refer to animals. She's also quite fixated on the Redferns, especially Ash. Mark thinks it's unlikely given Bunny appears to be rather ditzy, but Mary-Lynette counters it could potentially be an act. [[spoiler:Bunny is completely innocent and it's never revealed if she is a Night Person]].

** When she turns detective to find out what happened to Mrs Burdock, Mary-Lynette compares herself to Literature/NancyDrew, though she occasionally notes that Nancy does a much better job of detecting than she does.

** When Mary-Lynette realizes whoever killed Mrs Burdock's goat left something in the goat's mouth, Mark mutters about the [[Literature/TheSilenceOfTheLambs "Silence of the Goats"]] as she takes it out, referencing Buffalo Bill's CallingCard of leaving moths in his victims' mouths.

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: Ash and Mary-Lynette's reaction to their soulmate bond leans more on the realistic side for these kinds of stories. They're outraged and humiliated when they rapidly develop strong feelings for each other, even though they were complete strangers a few days ago, initially don't appear to have anything in common and have good reasons to dislike each other (Mary-Lynette especially thinks that Ash isn't her type ''at all''). They do start to warm up to each other, but take things too fast after getting caught up in the intense feelings the bond causes, to the point Mary-Lynette unthinkingly agrees to Ash making her a vampire despite having only known him a week. [[spoiler:After they come back to their senses, they realize that they're not ready to be in a long-term relationship - not even with each other - as they both need time to become more mature (Ash in particular)]].

** Initially, a lot of the evidence appears to point to Ash as being Opal Burdock's killer, in an attempt to intimidate his sisters to come back to the enclave; in particular, he shows up almost immediately after his sisters and the Carters discover the body of Opal's goat and find it had a black iris in its mouth. His sisters are quick to believe he's responsible, saying he'd probably do anything to protect the family honor. Ash insists he's innocent and that he arrived in Briar Creek ''after'' his sisters, by which point Opal was already dead. Ash appears genuinely surprised to hear Opal is dead and also points out it would be pointless of him to kill a goat and stuff a black iris in its mouth just to send a message to his sisters; even Rowan admits out this doesn't sound like something he’d waste time on. He's quickly eliminated as a suspect.

** Mary-Lynette realizes that her friend Jeremy is likely a werewolf and so would know Mrs Burdock was a vampire, which he later confirms. He also spends a lot of time at Burdock Farm, doing repairs and odd-jobs for Mrs Burdock. However, despite the occasional animosity between vampires and werewolves, Jeremy has lived peacefully alongside Opal for years with no issues and they got along well, to the point she confided in Jeremy her reasons for moving to Briar Creek: he has no obvious motive to kill her. Rowan also notes that werewolves usually only kill to feed, which clearly wasn't the case with Opal or her goat. [[spoiler:Just when Mary-Lynette is convinced is wasn't Jeremy, it turns out [[SubvertedTrope he really did do it]]; he happens to be a werewolf with serious anger management problems and psychopathic tendencies, killing Opal in a rage when he learned she was bringing more vampires to live in Briar Creek]].

** A VampireHunter is considered as a possible culprit for killing Mrs Burdock, as whoever killed her clearly knew what they were doing (namely, that a wooden stake to the heart really will kill a vampire) and that repeatedly staking someone is the traditional execution method for lamia. It's pointed out a vampire hunter could hide more easily in Briar Creek than a Night Person [[spoiler:It turns out the culprit was another Night Person]].

** The hole in the porch of Mrs Burdock's house, which Ash trips over. [[spoiler:Ash isn't familiar with the house and so didn't know it was there. But whoever dumped Mrs Burdock's goat on the porch clearly did know because they avoided it]].

* ChekhovsGun: One of the earliest scenes has Mary-Lynette filling up her car. As a sign of her middle-class roots (as opposed to the ridiculously wealthy upbringing of Ash and his sisters) her car is an old beater; the gas cap is always stuck and she keeps a scrolled fruit knife in the car to prise it off. At the climax, she confronts the murderer, [[spoiler:who is also a werewolf. She remembers that the fruit knife is ''silver'', and uses it to kill him and save her own life]].

Not to be confused with the 1971 Belgian
[[Film/DaughtersOfDarkness1971 horror movie]] about vampires.

Not to be confused with the Belgian ''Film/DaughtersOfDarkness1971'' horror movie about vampires.

Not to be confused with the 1971 Belgian [[Film/DaughtersOfDarkness horror movie]] about vampires.

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: [[spoiler:The climatic scene with Mary-Lynette tied up and at Jeremy's mercy has undertones of sexual violence. Jeremy was prompted to capture Mary-Lynette out of jealousy when he saw her kissing Ash. Mary-Lynette desperately tries to keep him talking while avoiding showing her revulsion of him. Jeremy tells Mary-Lynette that they belong together and that she'll come to like it eventually (he's also talking about turning her into a werewolf like him, which is implied to involve a blood exchange). He starts taking his clothes off to transform while Mary-Lynette tries not to panic. At one point, when she's struggling against her ropes, he tells her not to fight because "it'll hurt more"]].

* DoesThisRemindOfAnything: [[spoiler:The climatic scene with Mary-Lynette tied up and at Jeremy's mercy has undertones of sexual violence. Jeremy was prompted to capture Mary-Lynette out of jealousy when he saw her kissing Ash. Mary-Lynette desperately tries to keep him talking while avoiding showing her revulsion of him. Jeremy tells Mary-Lynette that they belong together and that she'll come to like it eventually (he's also talking about turning her into a werewolf like him, which is implied to involve a blood exchange). He starts taking his clothes off to transform while Mary-Lynette tries not to panic. At one point, when she's struggling against her ropes, he tells her not to fight because "it'll hurt more"]].

* {{Foreshadowing}}: As Mary-Lynette herself notes, there are a lot of clues that Jeremy Lovett is a werewolf: he tends to keep to himself and has never quite fitted in with everyone else in Briar Creek, the land he and his family have lived on for generations is called Mad Dog Creek and people have mentioned seeing Sasquatch and wild wolf-dog hybrids out there for years, and Jeremy wears a signet ring with a black flower, which Mary-Lynette later realizes is a foxglove.

* VampireWerewolfLovETriangle: Mary-Lynette finds herself in one of these with newcomer Ash (the vampire) and her childhood friend Jeremy (the werewolf). Ash wins by default, as the Soulmate Principle means he and Mary-Lynette are [[BecauseDestinySaysSo destined for each other]], though the fact that Jeremy turns out to be [[spoiler:a psycho who tries to kill her]] helps too.