1989 – Ten-year-old’s Jonie and Bella enjoyed playing the game ‘Knock, Knock, Ginger’ (we called it knock-a-door-run). The girls dare each other to knock on the doors of the residents of Mapledon. One house neither of the girls wanted to knock on was Billy ‘Creepy’ Cawley’s bungalow, however, if you have been dared to do it, you must!

July 1989, Jonie Hayes went missing. Despite no physical evidence and no body ever being found, Billy ‘Creepy’ Cawley was convicted of her murder and sentenced to thirty years in prison after her friend testified that she had seen Jonie getting into Billy’s pick-up truck.

July 2019 – Billy has just been released from prison and he’s looking for revenge. Anna (Bella) hasn’t been back to Mapledon in over twenty-years but when her mother calls distressed that someone has nailed a dolls head to her front door, Anna returns to the place she swore she would never step foot in again.

Freelance Journalist Lizzie heads to Mapledon to cover the story of Billy’s release, but she may be there under false pretences.

What started as an innocent game thirty-years-ago has everyone on tenterhooks waiting for what will happen next.

I Dare You is a psychological thriller that truly plays with your mind. The book is told in the third person and from the points of view of Anna, Lizzie, and the events in 1989. The book is filled with twists and turns and a few red-herrings too.

The chapters are short which seems to heighten the tension and kept me on edge. I especially loved the chapters set in 1989 as they helped to bring the story together. I also found myself trying to figure out what Lizzie’s connection to Mapledon and the murder case was.

This is the first book I have read by Sam Carrington and I can tell you that the writing is superb. The way that she describes a scene has you perfectly able to visualise what is happening and she painted the village of Mapledon as this weird, strange town where secrets were behind every door.

The conclusion was satisfying and I was left feeling that all my questions had been answered. It might not have been a big climactic ending but it fitted the story perfectly.

This is a book that kept me hooked to the pages and rushing through it, so much so that I finished it in two days. I wanted to find out the truth and I wanted to find out who Billy was going to start his revenge with.

I Dare You by Sam Carrington is a psychological thriller.

First, let me thank NetGalley, the publisher Avon Books, and of course the author, for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

My Synopsis:   (No major reveals, but if concerned, skip to My Opinions)

The year is 1989.  Billy Cawley has never fit in with the people in the small village of Mapledon.  When his wife died, it got worse.  He became the town crazy, and all the kids tormented him.  Eventually, social services stepped in and took his daughter Eliza.   Then a little girl went missing.  He was the only suspect, and he has spent the last 30 years in jail.

The year is 2019.  Mapledon hasn't changed much.  Events of 30 years ago seem to have simmered beneath the village, discussed quietly, if at all.  But now people are on edge.  Billy Cawley is out of jail.  The gossip that had died down is now alive and well.  There seems to be a lot of anxiety, and a touch of guilt in the air.  There is definitely a lot of fear.  Fear that Billy will come back for revenge.

At the request of her mother Muriel, Anna returns to her hometown of Mapledon.   Muriel is being hounded by someone, and she is very frightened.  Anna thinks she is keeping secrets.  Anna is searching for her own answers.

Lizzie is a journalist.  She, too, is returning to Mapledon, the town she lived in as a child.  She is looking for the truth.  She doesn't remember much from her time there, but she hopes things will come back to her.

A village filled with those who will do anything to protect it.  Anything to protect their children.  So much gossip, so many lies.  The truth is somewhere in the middle.

 My Opinions:  

I loved how the story went back and forth between the time of the event in 1989, and thirty years later to 2019.  In this way the story unfolded nicely, and added to the mystery....slowly providing the clues as to what really happened.  The characters also developed during those time frames,  and you grew to love them or hate them as the story progressed.  Sometimes your opinions changed, and changed again.

I had guessed a few of the twists, but certainly not all of them, but this did not detract from the story.  It just kept me going to see what else I had right...or wrong.   Then there were the last couple of sentences.....I absolutely loved those last couple of sentences!

The overall theme of the book seems to be how far you will go to protect your children, and yourselves.  Will the manipulation, the lies, the secrets bring you peace? Will the truth, when told, let you move on?  What is justice?  (To be honest, I'm not sure justice was served by the end of the book, but who knows what happens next....)  Loved it!

Sam Carrington's talents just keep growing.  She wrote an amazing book, her best yet.  I highly recommend it, and can't wait for her next one.

I really wanted to like this because the premise was so good. However, the start was so clunky and offputting that I couldn't get through it. I stopped reading after a couple of pages because it did not grab my attention.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC of I Dare You in exchange for my honest opinion.

Lizzie is married with a little girl. She receives a letter stating her birth father has completed this 30 year sentence for murder and returns home. Her memories are foggy of her childhood and she wants answers.

Anna left Mapleton as soon as she could. Ever since her friend, Jonie disappeared things were never the same. Muriel, Anna's mom calls scared since Billy has been released from prison. Anna is forced to return home to face her childhood memories she's been avoiding for years.

Lizzie and Anna both find out way more than originally expected. Sometimes finding out the truth may hurt more at first but it is also what allows your mind to finally heal.

I did enjoy this book. Anna kind of got on my nerves but maybe that was the authors point. Other than that, I did enjoy the storyline and it kept me interested until the end.

I always love getting my hands on a new novel from Sam Carrington. I know that I'm assured of great story, great characters and a whole lot of mystery and tension. I Dare You, the author's latest psychological thriller, did not disappoint.

Set across two time periods, this is the story of two women, Anna and Lizzie, who are both drawn back to the town of Mapledon for very different reasons. For one of them is it a town they ran away from, only returning after being pulled back by family. For the other they are drawn there for reasons only they can understand and which the author takes great pains to hide from the reader, right until the perfect time for that oh so crucial reveal. No matter what their reasons though, the whole story circles around the disappearance of a young girl, Jonie, some thirty years earlier.

This story has a strange kind of atmosphere attached to it. It is clear from the beginning that there is far more to the story than meets the eye, more to to Anna's reluctance to return than just a difficult relationship with her mother or a fear of the small-town mentality that pervades both Mapledon and the story. This book has a kind of claustrophobic feel to it, despite swathes of it taking place out in the actual community. Everything from the fact that the residents all know each other, and each other's business, the way in which one act sends shockwaves throughout the whole tight-knit community, feels authentic, as are the problems inherent in that kind of situation. The closed ranks, the prejudice, the suspicion ... Even the setting, the sense of place, feels very real and puts you in the heart of everything.

Half of the chapters in this book take us back to that ill fated summer and counting back from the day everything changed to the months before in which the seeds of doubt are planted and what comes to pass begins it slow and inevitable progression. Those chapters in the past are told from a number of points of view, including Anna, but do start to help readers build a picture of what really happened leading to Jonie's disappearance.

Present day chapters are full of tension and doubt, making you suspicious of the motives of practically every character you meet, and you can feel how tragedy has shaped the future of the town. There are some strong clues throughout the book, ones which will probably enable the eagle eyed to spot some of the more obvious connections between past and present, but prepare to still be shocked by the closing revelations. That is one of the author's real skills - taking what you think you know, and turning it on its head.

Authentically creepy, full of mystery, misdirection and suspense, fans of the author's and of psychological thrillers are going to love it.

The story of I Dare You switches between present day and 1989 when ten-year-old Jonie Hayes went out to play and never came home. She was never seen again.

A newcomer to the area, Billy Cawley, nicknamed Creepy Cawley, was immediately suspected and later sent to prison for 30 years for the crime.

In 1989 Jonie had struck up a friendship with Bella but it was quite a controlling friendship and not one that Bella enjoyed, especially when Jonie often dared Anna to play ‘Knock,Knock,Ginger’ on Billy’s door. It was partly Bella's evidence that sent Billy to prison.

In present day, Bella, now called Anna, returns to Mapledon for the first time in 20 years as her mother has called in a distressed state. Someone is sending Anna's mother creepy messages and Billy is under suspicion again.

I found the two time-frames frustrating as, while I don’t mind a story that goes back and forth, this one went backwards in time each time we moved to the 1989 time-frame. At this point you need to read the story while taking into account that the characters are not privy by then to the things that you have already read. The chapters are only short so there was a lot of moving backwards in time. Secrets are peeled back, layer after layer, but I found it all a bit dragged out, and together with the moving back in time, it didn’t grip me.

I also had to suspend belief as there seemed to be a number of characters, now in their 30s, that had no recollection of things they did and events around them when they were children. Maybe some of this could be dismissed as people subconsciously burying unpleasant memories but at times I felt like these people had no memories at all from when they were young which I find hard to believe.

I did finally get to the end but felt that it was a plot twist that is frequently used elsewhere so didn’t surprise me.

With thanks to NetGalley and Avon Books UK for a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book stems between two different years. It is about a young girl who went missing and the town outcast was put in jail for it. 30 years later he has been released and he's out for revenge cause someone wasn't truthful.

While this book had a great mystery plot, I wasn't feeling a connection to the characters. I kept putting the book down thinking it was me but it wasn't.
Maybe there was to much mystery involved that I couldn't get a real feel of who the characters was or they just didn't have much of a personality.

I thought this was a well written book, which seemed to be more mystery than psychological thriller, but still held my attention and kept me guessing. I think it had some twists, shocks, and chills, which had me flipping pages to find out more. Overall, I was able to read through this book pretty quickly.
Will make sure u buzz it up! You

A good original read. Less a psychological thriller more a mystery in my opinion. I would recommend this book

Ooh good book! Special thanks to Netgalley and Avon Publishing for my ARC.
This novel is set in the present and past of events that occurred in a remote village in England. Those that got out don’t want to come back but when the 30th Anniversary of the killing of a local village girl approaches some are called back. The man who spent 30 years in jail for the killing of Jonie is released and he still clings to the fact that he is innocent and someone in the village needs to come clean.

Do all the main characters have something to hide or are these just the rantings of a very bitter but delusional former inmate? This book will keep you guessing and was highly enjoyable!

An excellent story of a small town and the lies and secrets they hide behind. When a convicted child killer gets paroled after serving a 30 year sentence, the town he’s from goes into a panic thinking that he may be returning to seek revenge. William Cawley was known as the creepy loner in town that the adults avoided and the children tortured with silly games of knock knock and run off. When the day William finally has enough and chases some children off coincides with the disappearance of a young girl the entire town blames him. Extremely well written, taut thriller that had me guessing until the end. I have enjoyed many of Ms. Carrington’s books in the past, but I believe this is my favorite one. Highly recommended.

Really well done psychological suspense story. A thirty-year-old murder of a child, the man convicted now released and a small insular village are all on trial. There are twists and turns that keep you going until the final - or is it - shocking secret is revealed.

I Dare You was a twisty, gripping novel that kept me turning the pages. I loved the super short chapters and added to fantastic pace.

I loved the two timelines. It gave us more clues to try and work out what actually happened on that fateful day.

I love Lizzie and her detective skills - the way she really investigated and noting everything to piece it all together. She also felt like a slightly untrustworthy character and I found it difficult to believe what she was saying.

There was a lot of jumping around in the past timeline so it was harder to follow. However I loved all the tidbits of information sprinkled throughout the book. It allowed me to paint a picture in my head and really get into the mystery.

Overall, I enjoyed this mystery and it kept me reading chapter after chapter. I look forward to reading more from this author!

A teasing, delightful thriller!

It is 1989, and in the village of Mapledon, two little girls are playing a dare game of 'knocky-nine-doors' when one of them, ten-year-old Jonie Hayes, vanishes into thin air. Later, her friend, Bella's, testimony at the trial, along with the opinions of the tightly knit community, put that same neighbour, village loner Bill ‘Creepy’ Cawley behind bars for over thirty years.

Now Anna, (who was Bella) thought she had left Mapledon and her nightmares behind but a distraught phone call from her mother, Muriel Fisher, brings her back to face her past. Cawley has been released from prison, and many of the residents of Mapledon fear that he will return with vengeance on his mind. Journalist Lizzie also arrives in Mapledon to report on the story of the released man. But is there more to her interest than just the story? Told from multiple points of view and the dual timelines, the reader learns what really happened that night and precisely who was involved.

Sam Carrington skilfully and smoothly switches the timescales between that fateful day in 1989, the days and weeks following, and the present day. The plot is extremely well-executed and cleverly written, with twists and turns in abundance. The small village mentality is depicted to perfection with a profusion of secrets, gossiping, and the need to keep up with the Joneses.

With its delightful denouement and absolutely no disappointments, I heartily recommend I Dare You!

This review was written voluntarily and was not influenced by the fact that I received a complimentary digital copy of this novel from Avon Books via NetGalley.

I found the start of this book to initially be a little slow, it took me a couple of chapters to actually get into it, but once I was I was hooked. The timeline works well switching back and forth 1989 to the present, painting a full picture of what happened 30 years earlier. Through multiple perspectives of distinctive and strong characters, well depicted. It could be so easy to get lost with the timelines and different characters, but you didn’t it seemed to flow well.

Bella and Jonie are ten years old, they have been friends for years, but one day whilst out playing the childhood game of knock, knock ginger, something happened. Only Bella returned home. She was the last person to see her friend alive. But was Bella a credible witness in the disappearance of her friend?

Thirty years on Bella goes by the name of Anna. She returns to the small village of Mapledon, with Lizzie, Her mum had called her home as someone had stuck parts of a doll to her front door, inside there are notes claiming someone knows a secret. Anna and Lizzie are determined to find out why, and if these events are linked to the release of Bill (Creepy) Cawley, from prison after being inside for 30 years for committing a heinous crime. But when they start digging up the past they may discover more than they bargained for.

Has an innocent man just spent 30 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit? Or was he guilty?

Each character has a secret, gradually these secrets are revealed.

How far does a parent go to protect their child? Their reputation? And to keep secrets buried.

This is a gripping psychological thriller, well thought out, and well written. A good read.

I would like to thank #netgalley and #Avonbooks for an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest, fair and unbiased review.

Thank you Netgalley and Avon Books UK for the ARC in exchange for an honest review,

The cover of this book is very inviting for me, I love mystery thrillers and I love it more when the story has something to do with kids.
The book follows the story of Anna and Lizzie. Both characters decided to go back to their hometown where they left behind a dark past.
30 years ago, Anna's friend Jonie went missing and has never been found. Billy, known as Creepy Cawley confessed to the crime and he was sent to prison for 30 years. When Creepy Cawley was finally released, Anna's mother started receiving threatening notes
and doll parts nailed in front of her porch. Anna with the help of Lizzie who was also in the picture when the crime happened, decided to find out what really happened and to finally get closure.
The plot at first looked promising to me, but it did not give me the thrill. The pacing was so slow until it came to the point that I got bored. I did not connect well with the story and with characters.
I was a little bit surprised by the twist in the end, but sadly that still did not satisfy me.

I Dare You is the fifth novel to be released by Sam Carrington. Out now in digital format (Nov 29th) it will be published in paperback with Avon Books on Dec 12th. I Dare You is described as a ‘gripping crime thriller' and is a dual time novel jumping between 1989 and the present day in the very creepy village of Mapledon.

In 1989 two friends, Bella and Jonie, were out playing but only one came home. A manhunt was immediately escalated and the village went into lock-down but the body of the missing girl was never discovered. A man relatively new to the area, a blow-in, nicknamed by the locals as Bill ‘Creepy’ Cawley was the main suspect and as the evidence mounted, including an eye-witness statement, Bill Cawley was charged with the murder of an innocent young girl and sentenced to life. The village breathed a sigh of relief. Their children were safe to go out and play again. But for some the verdict left a bad taste, one that festered for years.

Now, thirty years later, and Bill Cawley has been released. There are folk in the village unnerved by this turn of events and fear reprisal. Bill Cawley is a man upset, a man who has lost years of his life wasted behind bars. Bill Cawley is angry. Bill Cawley wants revenge. Bill Cawley wants the truth…..

Anna receives a call from her mother, distraught and panicked. Anna left her home place of Mapledon many years previously with the intention of never darkening it’s pavements again but her mother’s distress can not be ignored and Anna makes the journey home.

Anna is faced with a shocking discovery, one that makes her question her past and all that she has believed to be true. As secrets become unlocked and years of lies and deceit are gradually revealed, Mapledon and some of it’s residents, are exposed for what they really are.

Anna’a mother is a strange character, a person I felt absolutely no warmth toward from the get go. If I’m honest I didn’t particularly like any of the characters in this tale and felt no connection to any of them. Mapledon is a very peculiar place, an eerie village that keeps its secrets very close to its chest. The inhabitants of Mapledon are all a little odd which adds a very disturbing element to the tale. The rapport between Anna and her mother is very strained, there is a formality between them that I found very bizarre for a mother/daughter relationship. The whole atmosphere of Mapledon is one of mystery.

Sam Carrington’s depiction of Mapleton is very well portrayed as I could sense and almost feel the strangeness of the village as I read through the chapters. As the story picked up and the unraveling began it was soon evident that all was not as it seems in Mapleton. Now, thirty years later, the villagers will finally have to face their demons and reveal the truth about what really did happen in 1989.

I have very diverse and mixed feelings about I Dare You. Sam Carrington writes well, of that there is no doubt, but for me something was just missing throughout this novel. On the one hand, the atmospheric imagery of that strange little village and its inhabitants was portrayed very well. On the other hand though I felt no connection with anyone or anything and just could not invest in any of the characters. Overall, I’m a little on the fence with this one, possibly because I like to form a bond with at least one character in a novel I am reading and for some reason I just didn’t feel any link to any individual in this tale. Of course that is but my humble opinion. There are many alternate and extremely positive reviews posted online for I Dare You so please do check them out for yourself!

A really good mystery thriller with some unexpected twists!

How many of us were forced to be best friends with someone because our mothers were friends? What if that girl was just plain mean?

This is a story with many layers and even more lies. What happened to Jonie? Was Creepy Cawley responsible for her disappearance or was he innocently put in jail? Why was his daughter taken away from him and what is she aiming to achieve by coming back 30 years later? Who is pinning the doll parts with messages to Anna's moms door and who are the messages meant for?

A story that keeps you guessing till the end. I can highly recommend this!

Thank you to #AvonBooksUK and #netgalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

There are some stories that simply hook you right from the start and don’t let go. This was one of them. Who doesn’t remember the childhood game Knock, Knock, Ginger (or Tok Tokkie as we called it here in South Africa)? That game where kids run up to someone's house, knock on the front door, and run away before being seen.
Two young girls play Knock, Knock, Ginger in the tiny Dartmoor village of Mapleton in 1989 with devastatingly tragic consequences. And now, 30 years later, a new, someone is playing a macabre version of the game.
Anna and Lizzie grew up in Mapleton and find themselves back there in 2019, Anna because her mother is old and scared, Lizzie because a killer has been released from prison. The present-day story is told from their points of view. Can they trust each other? Come to that, can any of the villagers be trusted? The whole jolly lot could well be lying. Author Sam Carrington creates tension throughout and even the village itself is a slightly malevolent character in its own right, full of small-mindedness, gossips – and danger.
The present-day chapters alternate with others set in 1989, the year of the incident. I loved the very short, totally gripping chapters. (Don’t be put off, as I initially was, to see 105 chapters listed in the contents – they really are incredibly short, making for a quick read). Interestingly, those dealing with the past take the reader backwards in time, so we start on that fateful day and the move backwards to several weeks and then several months before. And because some of the main characters go by different names in the present, you have to keep your wits about you. No reading this one after a bottle of wine if you want to follow what’s going on!
The story is about family, deceit and how far people go to protect their families. And just when I thought the whole story had been laid out for us – surprises and all – there’s another huge OMG moment when I realised I didn’t have the full story at all. Highly recommended – a great read.

Thirty years ago, a little girl went missing from a quiet Devon village, and nobody’s life was ever quite the same again. Now, the past has come calling and Anna must go back to Mapledon to find out the truth about what really happened to her friend. She’s not the only one who wants some answers about the past, though, and every question asked seems only to raise more, none of which anybody wants to answer.

Told in dual timelines between the events of 1989 and the present time of 2019, Sam Carrington does a masterful job of slowly revealing snippets of the truth, letting us discover the story along with Anna and Lizzie, who were both just kids back at the time of the tragedy. There are some heavy themes explored here as a lot of adults did some terrible things to the children they should have been protecting; while it’s not graphically described, child sex abuse occurred as did violence towards children, parental gaslighting and more. The community is described several times as a ‘Stepford wives’ village, and it becomes steadily more clear that there was indeed a pressure to conform which must have been absolutely stifling for anyone who didn’t quite fit.

The twists and turns of the story are riveting, but I struggled to empathize much with Anna and Lizzie, the two who seem to be the principal protagonists, and I have to admit I didn’t find the ending particularly satisfying; the book went out with more of a whimper than a bang. Overall, I’d give it four stars.