CJ Tudor | Bibliotica

About the book The Chalk Man

Hardcover: 288 pages

Publisher: Crown (January 9, 2018)

The must-read thriller of 2018, this riveting and relentlessly compelling psychological suspense debut weaves a mystery about a childhood game gone dangerously awry that will keep readers guessing right up to the shocking ending

In 1986, Eddie and his friends are just kids on the verge of adolescence. They spend their days biking around their sleepy little 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.

Expertly alternating between flashbacks and the present day, The Chalk Man is the very best kind of suspense novel, one where every character is wonderfully fleshed out and compelling, where every mystery has a satisfying payoff, and where the twists will shock even the savviest reader.

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About the author, C. J. Tudor

C. J. TUDOR lives in Nottingham, England, with her partner and three-year-old daughter. Over the years she has worked as a copywriter, television presenter, voice-over, and dog walker. She is now thrilled to be able to write full-time, and doesn’t miss chasing wet dogs through muddy fields all that much. The Chalk Man is her first novel.

Connect with C.J.:

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My Thoughts:

This was the first novel I read after Christmas, and it was the perfect moody read for a chilly winter day. I loved the scenes with young Eddie and his friends using their chalk man code, and their reactions to the initial discovery of the dead body, but the mystery that adult Eddie and his now-grown friends had to solve kept me absorbed – and even guessing – to the end of the story.

What I really appreciated in Tudor’s writing was the way she lulls readers into the every-day life of a sleepy town before throwing in a suspenseful twist. Her voice, at least in this novel, is quietly engaging, and I would have been equally happy if she’d written something that was a family drama, but I’m glad she used it for suspense. I like the way she underplayed so much of the dark parts of the story. I’m looking forward to more from Tudor, hopefully very soon.

The Chalk Man is a satisfying read with a plot that keeps you just uncertain enough of the eventual outcome that you keep reading.

Goes well with: carnival food – a hot dog on a stick or a hot pretzel with mustard, and root beer.