I Dare You | Sam Carrington | Review

AN INNOCENT GAME…
A SHOCKING CRIME…
A COMMUNITY FULL OF SECRETS...
– I Dare You

[ About the Book ]

Mapledon, 1989
Two little girls were out playing a game of dares. Only one returned home.
The ten-year-old told police what she saw: village loner Bill ‘Creepy’ Cawley dragged her friend into his truck and disappeared.
No body was found, but her testimony sent Cawley to prison for murder. An open and shut case, the right man behind bars.
The village could sleep safe once again.

Now…
Anna thought she had left Mapledon and her nightmares behind but a distraught phone call brings her back to face her past.
30 years ago, someone lied. 30 years ago, the man convicted wasn’t the only guilty party.
Now he’s out of prison and looking for revenge. The question is, who will he start with?

[ My Review ]

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!

[ Bio ]

Sam Carrington lives in Devon with her husband, two border terriers and a cat. She has three adult children and a new grandson! She worked for the NHS for fifteen years, during which time she qualified as a nurse. Following the completion of a psychology degree she went to work for the prison service as an Offending Behaviour Programme Facilitator. Her experiences within this field inspired her writing. She left the service to spend time with her family and to follow her dream of being a novelist.

SAVING SOPHIE, her debut psychological thriller, published in September 2016. It became a Kindle eBook bestseller, with the paperback hitting The Bookseller Heatseeker chart at #8. Sam was named an Amazon Rising Star of 2016. Her second psychological thriller, BAD SISTER, published in 2017 followed by ONE LITTLE LIE in July 2018. THE MISSING WIFE published in June 2019.

I DARE YOU is Sam Carrington’s fifth novel

Twitter ~ @sam_carrington1