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Author : C.J.Tudor
Title : The Chalk Man
Published : 11/01/2018
Pages : 352
Genre : Mystery Thriller
Publisher : Michael Joseph







     None of us ever agreed on the exact beginning. 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?

       I don't remember the first time I heard of this book but I do remember seeing the cover come up on my twitter feed. I thought the cover had a simple design but it drew me to look it up and find out what the book was about. How could a childhood game turn fatal for this group of friends? And what would they have to go through to get themselves to the truth of what really took place all those years ago?

     This is defiantly a very disturbing book within the first few pages I could feel it creeping under my skin. The way the author describes her first scene was one I wasn't expecting a lot of time an author will start there book with some bloody murder or horrific act. But here the act has already taken place. Somehow she has managed to blend both a beautiful way of describing the scene all the while what is going on it is very disturbing. And this set me off on a story I had difficulty tearing my self away from.

     It's a funny thing when you a reading a book and it takes you back to your childhood. Now I and my friends never found a dead body, but this group of friends does take a trip to the local funfair when it came to town.  And I could remember doing this when I was there age. The way they joke about and make fun of each other to me felt very real and just the sort of thing I use to do. Even down to the logic behind the way they came up with nicknames for each other. It all holds an internal logic that only really works when you are a child.

     Now the story is told from the perspective of Eddie this is his view of events that took place in nineteen eighty-six and two thousand and sixteen. For the portion that takes place in the past, it very much felt like I was sat talking to an eleven-year-old. The way Tudor writes Eddie's dialogue felt very much the way someone of that age would talk even down to the use of slang terms. Sometimes in books about teenagers or children, they seem to act way above their age. The way he acts and how he interprets the event that take place around him never felt like they strayed from what i would expect from people his age.

     In the present day, Eddie is trying to live a normal life all the while struggling to deal with events from his past. This is a man who struggles greatly with everything that took place. I think he properly would have fallen apart if he was on his own. To some extent, this void is filled by his lodger Chloe. The friendship may not be the most traditional one but for most of the book, it seemed to work for them. 

     What Tudor has done is write a book that felt to me just as much about nostalgia as it is a mystery book. And believe me, it is one hell of a mystery. The way Eddie looks back to his past is one that is full of regret. He longs for a simpler time when he and his friends could a wallow in adolescence. This is the first murder and everything went upside down. In the present day, she shows how these events can fracture lives and send thing spiraling out of control years beyond following us like a ghost. But it is only through piecing these things together can any of the characters in this story hope to try and get some semblance of a normal life.
    
     The events that we come to learn about are dark and disturbing most of which were very much out of our leads control. He got swept away by a tidal wave of hypocrisy and secrets. And the damage done to a small town is one that would probably never truly go leaving a dark stain on its very heart. This is a book that also took me down many false leads on it's way to the truth much like Eddie I fell into the writers traps mostly down to the plausibility of her narrative.  I have no wish to spoil the ending suffice to say it left me feeling very ill at ease with how I had perceived the story. This was a book that I greatly enjoyed Tudor has managed to knock one out of the park with her debut novel. And proved to me she is defiantly up there with other great British mystery writers. I can't wait to see what she comes up with next.