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.

thank you so much to netgalley for this corker! I loved every page of this. I wanted to finish this so badly for my November reads, so it really helped that I couldn’t put it down. Perfectly creepy and a total page turner, well done sam carrington

1989: Teo ten year old schoolgirls play a prank. But is goes horribly wrong. One of the girls is now missing. She was seen getting into the local weirdos truck. She was never seen again. Her body was never found. Bill Crawley was given a thirty year prison sentence.

Present day: Bill Crawley has been released on licence. The local villagers wonder if he will have the gall to show face and return to the house that has been empty for the past thirty years. Anna hasn't been back to her family home for twenty years. Lizzie, a freelance journalist has not been back for thirty years. Anna returns because she got a frightening call from her mother, Muriel. Someone is purposely scaring her.

This story goes back and forth from 1989 to the present day. The narrative is told from several peoples point of view. Anna and Lizzie are the main characters who searched for clues to find out the truth behind what had happened thirty years ago. It full of twist and turns. The dual timelines are weaved together seamlessly when we find out the truth at the end of this book. Was Bill Crawley innocent of his crimes? You will have to read the book to find out.

I would like to thank NetGalley, Avon Books UK and the author Sam Carrington for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Two young girls dare each other to play Knock Knock Ginger in a small town called Mapledon, one of them thinks it's a great laugh to wind up the village "weirdo " Creepy Billy Crawley, until one day one of them doesn't return home from playing the game.
What went wrong on that day in 1989 and can Anna bring herself to go back to her home village twenty years after she left and thirty years since everything went wrong and Creepy Billy was arrested and charged with her friend Jonie abduction and murder even when the body was never found.

Who’s the killer? What’s their motive? And what everybody’s hiding and why?

So many questions and the answers turned out to be far more intriguing than I anticipated!

The story is told from various perspectives and as it alternates between timelines, we get to uncover the many facets of the well-developed characters.

Moreover, in the middle, I felt the plot did drag on a little and most of the twists were somewhat predictable but still thought-provoking.

Infused with twists, turns, and a lot of secrets, this gripping mystery is definitely worth a read!

I would like to thank the Publishers, NetGalley, and the Author for sending me an ARC of this book.

"Sometimes when you go digging you unearth things you're not looking for."

3.5 stars rounded up because it was quite the twisty tale and one I had to think about for a bit after I finished it in a single sitting tonight after only intending to read a few chapters.

In 1989, in a small town named Mapledon, two young girls are taunting a neighbor with a knock-knock-run game. At the end of the evening, 10-year-old Jonie Hayes would go missing and her friend, Bella's, testimony at the trial would put that same neighbor behind bars for over 30 years. No body was ever found, but Bella's eyewitness version of what happened would prove enough to convict Billy Cawley of abduction and murder.

Fast forward to 2019 and Bella, now using the name, Anna, hears that Cawley is going to be released from prison. She goes to Mapledon because her mother, Muriel Fisher, is worried. It seems that someone has nailed a doll's head to her front door and she thinks it might be Billy come to extract some kind of revenge over things that happened back in 1989 even before he killed Jonie. In addition, Billy's release has brought someone else to town -- Lizzie Brenfield -- and she is going to get answers to all of her questions about Billy and about the events of 1989. NO SPOILERS.

It's hard to write about this book because I don't want to give anything away. I found the most difficult impediment to my total enjoyment of this novel was the way in which it was written. It jumps between 1989 and 2019 and between characters and that shift is usually right about the moment where something important is going to happen or be revealed. In this case, I would have preferred less flashback and a more linear tale so that the story elements would be less confusing but perhaps that style was the whole point to create the tension and deepen the mystery. What can I saw about these characters, well not much as identifying my feelings about one or the others would give it away. Let's just say that there were some that I despised, some I felt sorry for, and some that I am still on the fence about.

Give this one a shot as it's drama, yes, but definitely thought-provoking and not what I was expecting. Thank you to NetGalley and Avon for this e-book ARC to read and review.