The chalk man A novel

Review by Booklist Review

Childhood pals Eddie, Fat Gav, Mickey, Hoppo, and Nicky started the summer of 1986 gleefully covering their English village of Anderbury with chalk stick-figure codes. But their game turned dark when they found chalk figures pointing to the drowned body of Mickey's brother and, later, the body of a teenage girl. Police zeroed in on Mr. Halloran, a popular teacher whose scandalous relationship with the murdered girl was recently outed. Despite a lack of evidence, Halloran's guilt was cemented in the public eye after the teacher committed suicide. The town moved on, relieved. Now, more than 30 years later, Mickey returns to Anderbury, courting Eddie to collaborate on a documentary about the deadly summer. The day after their meeting, Eddie discovers chalk figures covering his hearth, and Mickey's body is found near the spot where his brother died. As police eye Eddie as the last person who saw Mickey alive, he learns that his lodger and only friend, Chloe, has been hiding devastating secrets. An absorbing debut with a well-crafted mystery and a solid dose of Stand by Me creepiness.--Tran, Christine Copyright 2017 Booklist

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.

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Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Scottish theater actor Morton performs a dramatic rendition of Tudor's debut novel, a psychological thriller focusing on five 12-year-olds who experience a series of life-altering events in an English village in 1986. The preteen quintet includes Eddie, the thoughtful narrator; boisterous Gav; soft-spoken introvert Hoppo; raspy-voiced, annoying Mickey; and Nicky, the tomboy daughter of the town's vicar. The book shifts from the preteen memories to Eddie's unsettled life in 2016, in which he is still haunted by the series of horrific accidents and unsolved murders he and his friends witnessed 30 years earlier. Reader Morton adds depth to each of the characters in his reading for the audio edition. His Eddie has a melancholy personality that lingers from childhood into his 40s. There's a touch of menace in the latter-day Mickey, while Gav's brashness is diminished in adulthood. Tudor's novel is more character study than psychological thriller, and Morton's fully realized character voices help convey that. A Crown hardcover. (Jan.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

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Review by Library Journal Review

DEBUT A band of preteens in a quaint English village in the late 1980s confront true evil and grapple with the lifelong consequences in this gripping debut mystery/thriller. Eddie and his sometimes-buddies/sometimes frenemies Fat Gav, Metal Mickey, Hoppo, and Nicky, spend a summer hanging out at the playground, inventing a message system using sidewalk chalk, and avoiding the psychopathic attentions of Metal Mickey's violent older brother and his gang. They bear witness to a horrific accident, observe the ongoing battle between prolife protestors and the doctors and clinicians who run a local Planned Parenthood-type facility (headed by Eddie's no-nonsense mother), and, finally, are led-via ominous chalk drawings-to the remains of a gruesome murder scene. Fast-forward to 2016, when Eddie, still living in his hometown, gets mired in his grim past again. In addition to the core murder mystery, Tudor plays with themes of aging, memory, and paranoia. While the ending is a bit melodramatic and unlikely, readers who relish dark, twisty thrillers will be kept guessing. VERDICT Taut plotting, smooth writing, and a compelling premise will satisfy fans of Jo Nesbo, Camilla Läckberg, and Tana French. [See Prepub Alert, 7/24/17.]-Kiera Parrott, Library Journal © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

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Review by Kirkus Book Review

Murder, mayhem, and chalk figures in a sleepy English village.In 1986, 12-year-old Eddie Adams enjoys spending time with his group of friends: Fat Gav, Metal Mickey, Hoppo, and the lone girl in the group, Nicky. He's largely insulated from his mother's work as an abortion provider and its accompanying risks, and it's her income that keeps the household afloat, since his father's freelance writing jobs are hit and miss. When Eddie finds the decapitated and dismembered body of a local girl in the woods, it stirs up terrible secrets and forbidden passions. In 2016, Eddie is a teacher who harbors a mild crush for his much younger boarder, Chloe, and isn't eager to revisit the traumatic events of '86. He still feels particularly bad about his part in the downfall of a teacher with albinism who was kind to him. When he's contacted by Mickey Cooper, who claims he knows who really killed that girl, it opens old wounds, and a body count follows. Readers will undoubtedly be reminded of the kids of Stand by Me and even IT. The dynamics among the kids are similar, complete with Nicky's flaming red hair, and Eddie's first-person narration alternates between past and present, taking full advantage of chapter-ending cliffhangers. The chalk markings the group works out to communicate tap into kids' universal love for secret code and, of course, getting one over on their parents. Things takes a creepy turn when the symbols are twisted to fit someone's not-so-innocent agenda.A swift, cleverly plotted debut novel that ably captures the insular, slightly sinister feel of a small village. Children of the 1980s will enjoy the nostalgia. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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Prologue  The girl's head rested on a small pile of orange-and-brown leaves. Her almond eyes stared up at the canopy of sycamore, beech and oak, but they didn't see the tentative fingers of sunlight that poked through the branches and sprinkled the woodland floor with gold. They didn't blink as shiny black beetles scurried over their pupils. They didn't see anything any more, except darkness. A short distance away, a pale hand stretched out from its own small shroud of leaves as if searching for help, or reassurance that it was not alone. None was to be found. The rest of her body lay out of reach, hidden in other secluded spots around the woods. Close by, a twig snapped, loud as a firecracker in the stillness, and a flurry of birds exploded out of the undergrowth. Someone approached. They knelt down beside the unseeing girl. Their hands gently caressed her hair and stroked her cold cheek, fingers trembling with anticipation. Then they lifted up her head, dusted off a few leaves that clung to the ragged edges of her neck, and placed it care- fully in a bag, where it nestled among a few broken stubs of chalk. After a moment's consideration, they reached in and closed her eyes. Then they zipped the bag shut, stood up and carried it away. Some hours later, police officers and the forensic team arrived. They numbered, photographed, examined and eventually took the girl's body to the morgue, where it lay for several weeks,  as if await­ing completion. It never came. There were extensive searches, questions and appeals but, despite the best efforts of all the detectives and al the town's men, her head was never found, and the girl in the woods was never put together again.  Chapter 1 2016 Start at the beginning. The problem was, none of us ever agreed on the exact beginning. Was it when Fat Gav got the bucket of chalks for his birthday? Was it when we started drawing the chalk figures or when they started to appear on their own? Was it the terrible accident? Or when they found the first body? Any number of beginnings. Any of them, I guess, you could call the start. But really, I think it all began on the day of the fair. That's the day I remember most. Because of Waltzer Girl, obviously, but also because it was the day that everything stopped being normal. If our world was a snow globe, it was the day some casual god came along, shook it hard and set it back down again. Even when the foam and flakes had settled, things weren't the way they were before. Not exactly. They might have looked the same through the glass but, on the inside, everything was different. That was also the day I first met Mr. Halloran, so, as beginnings go, I suppose it's as good as any. Excerpted from The Chalk Man by C. J. Tudor All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.

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