21 Dares

‘Is there anything darker than the heart of a teenage boy?’

At Spulling Vale High School, Morris Shipley has taken early retirement, citing the treatment given to him by four boys as the main cause. As part of their punishment, they have to clear out his classroom and the densely packed store cupboard. It’s there they find the old cigar box, and the intriguing papers inside it.

It’s a game of dares, played numerous times before by pupils past – according to the notes and transcripts inside the box – and more than once it has ended in tragedy. There are 21 dares in total, each one more challenging – and potentially more dangerous – than the last. Undeterred by the potential threat in it, the boys decide to take it on.

Not least because of the prize on offer should the game be completed. Serial killer Black Jack McKenzie, executed by Spulling residents over a hundred years ago, will rise from the dead. Murderer of young boys, he needs one more victim to complete his twisted mission.

Marcus, Bailey, George and Karl. Four very different boys but united in one thing: they’re going to make sure it’s not them that Black Jack chooses next.

As the completed dares mount up, and the school community descends into Black Jack hysteria, it becomes increasingly difficult to work out whether the boys are still playing the game, or whether the game is playing them.

At the rate of a dare a day, dare 21 is not too far away.

School-based suspense and horror from the author of ‘The Deleted’ and ‘Something Close’.