To Dare

Overview

Veronica and her wealthy husband George are unpacking boxes, hoping a fresh start in their newly refurbished Victorian terrace will help them heal from a recent trauma. Next door, Simone returns to her neglected council flat. Miserable and trapped, she struggles to take care of her children under the watch of her controlling husband Terry. When childhood friend Sarah re-enters Veronica's life, things are thrown even further off balance. As tensions in their own lives rise, the painful memory that binds them threatens to spill into their present. Three lives collide in this story of family, inequality, and revenge.

Reviews

"Tense, dark and so real as to be almost unbearable, this novel is utterly compelling." —Rosamund Lupton, author, Sister

"Wayne weaves a book that is at once engrossing and an exploration of what it means to be a woman, a moral person, a parent, and a neighbour." —Rowan Hisayo Buchanan, author, Starling Days

"To Dare is a vivid, poignant, and compelling read; Jemma Wayne skilfully weaves her narrative threads tighter and tighter as the story moves towards its nerve-jangling conclusion. I loved it - I couldn't put it down!" —Saskia Sarginson

"A five star novel by one of our best writers. I was gripped." —Louis de Bernières, author, Captain Corelli's Mandolin

"Dares, violent jealousies and chasms between having and not having are at the heart of this uncomfortable urban tale. Simone has found herself a new job but is biding her time to tell her angry, addicted husband Terry. Next door, Veronica has just moved into her smart new home, and from the chill of the marital bed, hears brutal body thumps against the party wall. Then Veronica runs into Sarah, her former teenage best friend, and Sarah hesitantly allows a reconnection. A power game kicks off. The collision of their lives, determined by upbringing, powers Jemma Wayne's fierce storytelling." —Sainsbury's Magazine Book Club

"To Dare is a superior thriller, unflinching in its examination of class prejudice and in its portrayal of grief. Wayne writes beautifully with scarcely a word wasted. The characters are real and relatable and watching them all go through Wayne's devious wringer is irresistibly entertaining. The final suspenseful chapters had my heart pounding as Wayne's expertly drip-fed plot begins to congeal like spilt blood. I still can't shake the image of the shocking conclusion from my mind." —A.S. Hatch

"Jemma owes me a night's sleep! What a transfixing book. The tension spirals out of control and you have no idea how it will end . . . It's clever and well written and I can see how Jemma has been shortlisted for so many prizes." —Hilary Boyd, author, Thursdays in the Park

"To Dare is not only a skilful and intimate dissection of the power struggles that exist between female friends in any era, but also a daring exploration of our class divides, and of the most terrifying issues hidden behind closed doors . . . To Dare is a rare example of fiction that is equally literary and commercial." —Ophelia Field, author, The Favourite

Author Biography

Jemma Wayne is the author of two previous novels: After Before and Chains of Sand. She has been longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction, and shortlisted for both the Guardian's Not the Booker Prize and the Waverton Good Read Award. Jemma's journalism has appeared in the Spectator, National Geographic, Huffington Post, Evening Standard, Independent on Sunday, Red Magazine, Jewish Chronicle, and Jewish News, among others.