I Dare You by Sam Carrington
Genre: Psychological thriller
Read: 15th January 2020
Purchase: Amazon
(publication date: 29th November 2019)
★★★★★ 5 stars
Sam Carrington's style is not necessarily one that I would usually relish in other authors and while her previous one "The Missing Wife" was rather slow burning but it packed a punch by the end, I was still a little dubious going in with this one. I need not have feared...I DARE YOU was five star brilliant!!
I generally do not enjoy slow burn thrillers. I would rather they reel me in from the first page and get to the point to keep that ride going. However, despite being a slow build in her writing style, Carrington still manages to do all that - reel me in from the beginning, dropping little snippets through to keep me interested whilst building up to the inevitable climax. And what a climax it was!!!
1989: Two 10 year old girls, Jonie and Bella, are playing the childhood game "Knock Knock Ginger" (which here in Australia we call "Knock and Run") on the local weirdo of Mapledon village they cruelly call "Creepy Cawley". They aren't the only ones to play. In fact, the entire village children at one time or another are playing the same game, knocking on the same door, playing their childish pranks on the same man over and over again.
Until one day...the prank goes horribly wrong. The two girls go out to play and only one returns. She was last seen getting into Creepy Cawley's truck and never seen again. Her body was never found and the village was never the same again.
Billy Cawley, the subject of these games and pranks, was never going to fit in with the "Stepford wives" village of Mapledon and when his wife died, it only got worse. He became a recluse, seen as the local misfit. The local kids tormented him relentlessly. Even his young daughter Eliza was deemed weird with her perverse pleasure of dismembering her dolls.
The local village women banded together to rid Mapledon of the Cawleys. So sure were they that Billy was abusing his 8 year old daughter Eliza, that they called in social services and had her removed from his care. And then Jonie went missing. And all eyes turned to Creepy Cawley... He pleaded guilty to abducting and murdering Jonie Hayes and was given a 30 year prison sentence.
2019: In the thirty years since the tragedy that shook the village, Mapledon hasn't changed. There are secrets that have been buried for far too long, simmering beneath the surface, whispered behind closed doors...if at all. But now people are on edge. Because Billy Cawley is out on licence and the village of Mapledon awaits to see if he has the audacity to return to his home that has sat empty since his arrest 30 years ago.
The gossip that had tongues a-wagging 30 years ago is once again alive and well as villagers question what's to come. Will Billy Cawley return and exact revenge on those he deemed responsible for putting him away? Will he disclose the whereabouts of Jonie's body so her mother Tina can at last have some closure? The village is filled with anxiety, fear and even guilt.
It's been twenty years since Anna left the toxic atmosphere that was Mapledon. But now, at the request of her mother Muriel, she returns home. Someone has been tormenting Muriel, leaving dismembered doll parts nailed to her door with frightening messages alluding to the fact that Muriel knows something. Within a couple of days, her mother's erratic behaviour leads Anna to believe that she is in fact keeping secrets. So Anna endeavours to search for the truth.
Lizzie is a journalist married to Dom. Upon receiving a letter notifying her of Billy Cawley's release, she decides to return to Mapledon to seek out answers to her childhood. Although she knows she had lived in the village a long time ago, she has no real memories of that time but hopes upon her return they will begin to come back to her. But her journey is also one of truth. And it isn't long before she discovers that Mapledon isn't keen on sharing the truth with outsiders.
Anna and Lizzie team up in their search for answers, each wary of the other and wondering whether they can really trust the other. When each woman's true identity is revealed, both women are shocked while at the same time realisation dawning as to the sense it all actually makes. They both begin to question each other's motives while at the same time Anna questions her mother's role in it all.
One thing is abundantly clear...Mapledon has a toxic undercurrent simmering below its surface, reminding Anna why she escape the clutches of the poisonous village two decades ago.
But Mapledon is also a village that will stop at nothing to protect its own. Anything to protect its children. So many secrets, so many lies, so much manipulation and deceit. The truth is somewhere in between.
And Anna and Lizzie will stop at nothing to reveal it...whatever the cost.
WOW! If I had one word to describe I DARE YOU, it would be that. It starts out as one thing and ends as something not too far removed while at the same time being completely different. The toxicity in that village was so noxious I'm surprised anyone could breathe!
Told from several perspectives back and forth from 1989 to the present day, I DARE YOU is very easy to follow. The dual timelines are woven together seamlessly with a tension that is palpable throughout. Anna and Lizzie are the main narrators that bring us to the penultimate climax...and what a climax it is!! It just keeps on giving...and just when you think you have all the answers there is still even more to come. Normally the tension builds to a climax that is over within a chapter...this one kept going and going and going with many more reveals.
A slow burner initially, I DARE YOU does pull you in from the beginning and I think it's the short snappy chapters that keep the story moving at a steady pace despite its slow build. Sam Carrington has a way of weaving her stories like that in such a way it doesn't feel as if you are reading a slow burner. The twists are misleading, enlightening and confusing all at once as the pressure builds.
While the overall theme appears to be how far will you go to protect your children and yourselves, I DARE YOU is rife with manipulation, lies and secrets that would suffocate any normal person should they happen upon Mapledon. How can a village steeped in so much poison find peace? And when the truth is revealed, what then? Can all those involved move on and find their own peace? Will justice be served? I'm not sure justice was served in the end, but it left you pondering what may or may not happen. As well as the mystery of who? I have my suspicions...but who knows? It was a bit of a loose end leading us to an unknown conclusion. I guess it was subjective to the reader.
The question that remains...was Billy Cawley guilty or innocent? You will need to read the book to find out! I dare you...you won't be sorry!
I would like to thank #SamCarrington, #NetGalley and #AvonUK for an ARC of #IDareYou in exchange for an honest review.
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