Book Description:

In 1986, Eddie and his friends are just kids on the verge of adolescence. They spend their days biking around their sleepy English village and looking for any taste of excitement they can get. The chalk men are their secret code: little chalk stick figures they leave for one another as messages only they can understand. But then a mysterious chalk man leads them right to a dismembered body, and nothing is ever the same.

In 2016, Eddie is fully grown and thinks he’s put his past behind him, but then he gets a letter in the mail containing a single chalk stick figure. When it turns out that his friends got the same message, they think it could be a prank–until one of them turns up dead. That’s when Eddie realizes that saving himself means finally figuring out what really happened all those years ago.

Hardcover, 280 pages
Expected publication: January 9th 2018 by Crown Publishing Group (NY)
ISBN 1524760986 (ISBN13: 9781524760984)
Edition Language English

MY BOOK REVIEW:

I was given this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

And you are about to get just that!  THIS is how to write a thriller.  Has the premise been done before? Not exactly, but whatever had been done that some may claim is the same, didn’t have this quality of writing!  It’s so hard to believe that this is C.J. Tudor’s debut novel.

The Chalk Man is a twisting, twisted odyssey as seen from inside the mind of a fractured adolescent, whose past incidents shaped his future self. It felt as though I was reliving his painful memories alongside him. The author manages expertly, the cruelties of a bullying act that changed a boy from a sweet innocent to something damaged and corrupted emotionally. Her skill to maneuver around controversial issues leaves you mesmerized and riveted to the pages. I found Tudor’s voice refreshing, brilliant and compelling and her story will leave you panting for more.

This narrator is in full control of mesmerizing characters, stunning twists and an easy, beautiful writing that is full of psychological suspense. I devoured each page.

The only itsy bitsy problem I had with the book is the Protagonist’s handling of what happened to him in the park… it fell a little short to me.  However, the incident would be enough to propel the Protagonist forward and down a different road/character arc, so this may just be me being picky, picky, picky! lol

If you want a book that will hold you in its thralls from beginning to end, this is the next thriller to read!

Well done!

I give this book: