The Dare ( DI Natalie Ward #3) by Carol Wyer
Genre: Crime Fiction, Thriller
Read: 27th April 2019
Purchase: Amazon
(release date: 25th April 2019)
★★★★ 4 stars
Carol Wyer has done it again. THE DARE is the third outing for DI Natalie Ward and her team set in Staffordshire, and once again we are drawn into mystery with intrigue and promise.
When Jane Hopkins is late home from work one afternoon, she is surprised to find her 13 year old daughter Savannah is not yet in. Knowing it to be unlike her, she rings around her friends but they haven't seen her since parting ways after school. DI Natalie ward is called in to assist the existing investigation into her disappearance and her team have barely begun when Savannah's body is found the following day, discarded like rubbish in what appears to be refuse behind her house.
Then before their feet can even touch the ground, another teenage girl - Harriet - goes missing. This time the girlfriend of one of the men working on the renovations to Jane Hopkins' house. Is he connected in some way? Then the next day, Harriet too is found dead beside rubbish, not far from her home.
Trawling through CCTV, Natalie's team find that both girls were last seen in the vicinity of the Aldi supermarket car park. And watching them - someone known to police. Worse still, he is a registered sex offender. Is he responsible for the missing girls and their deaths? Was that his MO as a sex offender? Or were they just looking at him BECAUSE he was a sex offender?
Investigations lead them to a phone shop in town where both girls frequented to top up the credit on their phones. There they meet "Duffy" who often chatted to the girls. CCTV, as well as Duffy's admission, revealed both girls had also been in or near the shop on the afternoons of their disappearance. Was he somehow involved? When his alibi doesn't quite check out, Duffy finds himself in the frame again.
A third girl goes missing and the team are racing against time, knowing that they have less than 24 hours to find her before she too befalls the same fate. Amidst the investigations Natalie is faced once again with the troubles in her personal life and that of her husband's gambling. With two dead girls and one missing, she doesn't need this right now.
It was during the search for Harriet that the team learn of some startling new evidence. Someone was challenging teenagers with a dare - to disappear for one, two, even three days..as long as they can. This brings a whole new light on social media and the effect it has on kids today. Harriet was known to rise to a challenge and when a friend of hers discovers a video on the website called Disappear, she is frightened for her friend. The video is simply black but the audio is of Harriet, screaming. Is the person behind "the dare" to disappear also behind the missing girls?
But the game changes for Natalie when her own teenage daughter Leigh goes missing. Has the same person taken her daughter too? The pressure is on for the team to find Leigh before the worst happens.
Tension is constant throughout the story - from the investigation to Natalie's personal life. I found myself on the edge of my seat (or rather, bed, in my case) as I swiftly turned the pages, devouring each chapter. The story is chilling, as is the killer's motivation which comes to light in alternate chapters by an unnamed person.
THE DARE is a thrilling, chilling, compelling read by Carol Wyer, ending in much the same way her previous "Last Lullaby" did. Therefore making her readers eagerly await the fourth installment of this series to see how events will unfold for Natalie in her troubled personal life.
I highly recommend this book. Brilliantly written. Compelling to the end. Get it, read it and enjoy it. I dare you!
I would like to thank #CarolWyer, #NetGalley and #Bookouture for an ARC of #TheDare in exchange for an honest review.
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