
It revolves around the (mis)adventures of three siblings: Daisy, Cassian, and Primrose. After their father left their mother for another woman (namely, his former secretary), he relegated them to the care of endless nannies. One day, they are attended by a very strange nanny called Miss Petronella Fryer (Pete for short). After Pete turns out to be a male burglar in disguise, Daisy, Cassian, and Primrose join him and his burglar gang that uses a cruise ship as its base, and is headed by the mysterious female Captain...
The novel can be read online on Archive
; it was followed by two sequels: Bad, Bad Darlings
(2005) and Desperado Darlings
(2006).
Not to be confused with the eponymous 2010 novel by Jacqueline Wilson.
The novels provide examples of:
- Adult Sleeps with Stuffed Toy: Beowulf the Crown Prince of Iceland, also known as the chief engineer of the cruise ship, is totally obsessed with his teddy bear.
- Alliterative Title: Desperado Darlings.
- Black-and-Gray Morality: The burglars who disguise themselves as nannies to rob houses are not what you would normally call good guys — but they are still sympathetic (and their Captain is actually the protagonists' mother), while their enemies, such as White Van Dan in the first book and Gomez Elegante in the second, lack any redeeming qualities.
- Chef of Iron: Primrose is fond of cooking, and despite being the youngest of the siblings, she is not to be messed with.
- Chekhov's Volcano: In the second book, the Skeleton Cay island, on which the story takes place, turns out to be a volcano island. The volcano explodes at the end of the book, and the villain Gomez Elegante and his minions all presumably perish in the explosion.
- Dismantled MacGuffin: Both the burglar-nannies and their enemies (the builders on white vans) are chasing after parts of a teddy bear that belonged to the Crown Prince of Iceland.
- Gadgeteer Genius: Cassian is a mechanical prodigy.
- Heel–Face Turn: In the second novel, Gomez Chico, the son of the main villain Gomez Elegante, is fascinated by the protagonists, and eventually joins their side.
- Luke, I Am Your Father: The Captain turns out to be none other than the mother of Daisy, Cassian, and Primrose.
- MacGuffin: In the first novel, both the main characters and their enemies are looking for parts of a royal teddy bear, and in the second novel, they are searching for the treasure of Deathboy Ingleby.
- Milkman Conspiracy: The story revolves around a longstanding confrontation between a gang of burglars that disguise themselves as nannies, headed by the Captain, and builders on white vans (it's implied that all the builders in the world are in on it), headed by White Van Dan.
- One-Word Vocabulary: One of the burglars, called Giant Luggage, always says just one thing: "Hur, hur".
- Wise Beyond Their Years: All three protagonists are much smarter than normal children their age. This doesn't stop them from wreaking havoc on adults around them.
