Daisy

During our Crime & Beyond book discussions, the term “Daisy” inevitably comes up. Seasoned members shake their head in agreement, while new members tend to look lost. I find myself called upon to explain the phenomenon quite frequently. This page is an explanation of how the term came about, and its many linguistic forms. Yes, we’ve made it a verb: “I felt Daisied,” and of course a noun: “that was a huge Daisy.”
The word originated back in 2009 when we read the book Dark Harbor by Stuart Woods (Number 12 in the Stone Barrington series). Stone is on an island in Maine settling the estate and piecing together the mysterious facts of the death of his cousin. His friend Holly is there helping him, and one day she goes missing while out jogging. Stone fears she’s been kidnapped and calls Holly’s father to let him know she’s missing. He and his girlfriend jump into their private jet and proceed to fly out and land on an unlit landing strip on the island. Stone asks them to bring Daisy with them, Holly’s dog who was left in a kennel while she was on the trip.
Stone doesn’t even know which kennel Daisy was left in, but they find her. Now I don’t know what kennel would release a dog to anyone but her owner without express permission, but surprise, surprise, they bring Daisy. Long story short (too late) Stone gets the bright idea to rub Holly’s clothing under Daisy’s nose and tell her to sniff out Holly. The dog sniffs out the direction that Holly went jogging, but that’s all she is able to manage. Later, when Holly is sent adrift in a boat, she begins to whistle (not sure at all why) and Daisy hears it from the house and runs out to the dock to discover Holly.
; Daisy (n): a ridiculous or seemingly unrelated element introduced by an author solely for the purpose of bringing about a later event that wouldn’t be possible without this element. A trick, a deceitful use of a plotpoint.
; To be Daisied (v): to be irritated by the insertion of a ridiculous element by an author just to maintain that author’s unbelievable plot.
Kerry