In 1986 Eddie and his friends Fat Gav, Hoppo, Metal Mickey and Nicky are growing up and doing all the things that 12 year olds usually do. But a day at the fair ends in a horrific accident, the first of a series of unpleasant events to befall the English town of Anderbury and its residents.. Even 30 years later in 2016 there are still many unanswered questions about the things that happened.

This is a fantastic murder mystery with wonderful characters and I highly recommend it to everyone.

Crime fans seeking something new and exciting, listen up: this is a riveting, intriguing novel which I absolutely loved!

The Chalk Man has the right balance of creepiness (plenty of that at times!) and comedy (dark comedy, mind!) plus some great character development. I loved Ed, despite his flaws and/or strangeness at times, and though the people around Ed had their own problems, and weren't always that likable, they were very interesting so I still hugely enjoyed reading about them!

Ed was a great narrator, leading the reader back in time (to the 80's - one of my favourite decades to immerse myself in) and then back around to present day, when I couldn't wait to find out what on earth was - and had been - happening! 

The Chalk Man featured lots of subtle clues and hints (which I always love!), plus BIG twists and turns (also love!) and that ending... it left me reeling!

I don't want to say much more on the plot as I don't want to give anything away or lead the reader to expect anything. I'll just say that the writing is excellent - I can't believe it's a debut novel, and to be honest I'm sort of upset that it is because I want MORE to read now by C.J. Tudor - please, release something new soon!

The Chalk Man is a rollercoaster of mystery and surprise and a brilliant novel that I'd highly recommend. Read it now!

Ok, so this review could be very, very short. Basically, all that I will say in it can be summed up in these few words 'It is bloody brilliant and you should read it.' 

If you'd like to know a little bit more about the book then keep reading, no spoilers obviously, but if not then you get the gist and that is all that you need to know. 

I'd heard a lot about The Chalk Man by CJ Tudor and was desperate to read it, I just couldn't wait until publication day so I totally abused my position as a book blogger and begged the publisher to let me read it earlier. Luckily for me, they were very obliging. I was so excited when it landed on my Kindle that I started to read it straight away and once I started I struggled to stop. It was just so so good I couldn't put it down! Forget the washing/cleaning/cooking/shopping/kids/pets/work/tv/sleep/anything, it won't get done until you finish reading this book. I'm a slow reader and I read it in two days, sleep didn't matter, I just had to keep reading. 

That this book is a debut is incredibly impressive, the writing is solid and the plot is twisted and well written, the characters are believable and realistic. It's pretty much as close to a perfect book as you can get.

It is 1986 and Eddie Adams is 12 years old when he first experiences the tragic event that will haunt him and his friends throughout their lives.

Eddie, Fat Gav, Metal Mickey, Hoppo, and Nicky are friends in the English town of Anderbury. They have the hopes and fears of all youngsters of that age and they have never been so excited as when they are allowed to go to the town fair by themselves.

As Eddie stands by the Waltzers, admiring a strikingly beautiful girl with red hair, the air is suddenly rent with screams and blood spray - as a part of a fairground ride breaks loose and smashes into Elisa, the girl Eddie was admiring – right in front of him. Eddie and a new teacher at the school, Mr Halloran, try and stem the worst of the bleeding from Elisa’s severed leg as Eddie fights hard not to look at Elisa’s heavily disfigured and bloody face.

Told in a dual timeline in alternating chapters between 1986 and 2016, The Chalk Man is in part a rites of passage story and in part a psychological thriller.

C.J. Tudor offers a well painted picture of 12 year old Eddie and his friends, and it is easy to understand how, through the alternating timeline chapters, the young Eddie morphs from being a strange little boy to being a teacher, living alone (except for his lodger) without any close attachments.

The narrative is very well told and the reader’s interest is extremely well held throughout the book as more and more plot points are added in and bodies begin to surface in the small town with increasing alacrity. There’s darkness at the heart of this story and it creeps and seeps into every corner of the reader’s mind.

From the pretty gruesome opening prologue to the sometimes quite graphic descriptions of violence, this is a book that does not shy away from tackling some quite difficult subjects, but the richness of the book lies in the way that the events of 1986 are shown to stick and reverberate some 40 years later, using Eddie’s voice as the coherent storyteller through that period.

I did enjoy it very much and found it to be an extremely accomplished book, especially given that it is a debut novel – I’d never have guessed that because the writing is so strong.

Where I did have a bit of an issue was with the way in which the various plot strands were tied together. In the end, for me, it all felt just a bit too rushed; a touch implausible and over dramatised.

Nevertheless, I thoroughly enjoyed it and would definitely look for more from this author.

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I enjoyed this story which twists and turns and leaps back and forth in time. The writer ensures we can stay on board by starting each chapter with a reminder of the year (up to 2016) and keeping the story close to home, set mostly in one English town. The one constant throughout is that we never leave the point of view of Eddie, from being a boy of 12 through to being a troubled man thirty years later.

The plot gives many opportunities for thriller readers to suspect, to guess and to leap to conclusions. But there will always be some niggling doubt, some element which doesn't quite fit or an unexplained gap. We know what Eddie knows but he doesn't always know what he knows. And there are secrets to be uncovered.

This story is mainly about friendships and there are many to be explored. I felt sympathy for most of the characters and we see them again and again at different ages. It's always fascinating to see the influences on children affecting them as adults and this novel is a carefully crafted 'coming of age' story. Of course adults change too over thirty years and Eddie is very sensitive to indications of deterioration, giving a poignant counterpart to the maturing youngsters.

I definitely recommend this novel to lovers of psychological thrillers and I'm sure you'll enjoy the crawling sense of horror and mystery. But there is more to it than that; it is beautifully written and has some moments of emotional clarity which, on rereading, are somehow merely hints, combinations of words which tease out forgotten personal memories. A neat trick or the magic of a poet?

It's incredibly hard to believe that The Chalk Man is a debut novel. The writing is so effortless, and the words seem to reach out and speak to you - I could of quoted so many passages from the book (but I would be here forever!).

The book is told in a dual timeline that is perfectly weaved together and very easy to follow. We go from 1986 when Eddie is 12 years old, and in 2016 when he is middle aged.

Eddie and his group of friends; Fat Gav, Metal Mickey, Hoppo and Nicky are living a fun, carefree life in the school holidays like 12 year olds do. That is until a fair ground accident takes place, injuring and disfiguring one young girl. It's also the night when Eddie first encounters The Chalk Man.

When one of the group gets an odd present of chalk for his birthday present, Eddie gets a spark of an idea in his head after talking to The Chalk man - they start using the chalk to leave each other messages and symbols. Each friend has a different colour so they know who has left it for them. It's all fun at first, until one day they find chalk arrows leading them to the discovery of a body.

Eddie in 2016 is now a school teacher, he still lives in the same place he grew up, in the same house, with the same childhood friends - but his memories keep resurfacing from that summer....

I have to say that I thought I had a pretty strong idea of what this book would be like, where the story would go - but I could not of been more wrong, and I love being proved wrong in a book, as you know it's something special! It was a whole goodness of a surprise.

It's hard in a book to make separate adult and child voices for the same person, that ring true and are believable. I have to give full credit to the author for making both Eddie's voices 100% convincing.

I also massively loved the whole nostalgia going on in this book. The chapters in 1986 were set to perfection; making it feel you were actually back in that time - the way the kids spoke, how they hung around on their bikes just exploring (as it was safe in those days and there were no such things as X boxes etc..) references to good old Woolworths, hubba bubba, wham bars, even a famous tennis saying. If you spent your childhood in the 80's and 90's you'll just smile at these little things, get a good little trip down memory lane and realise how well thought out this book is.

Yes, The Chalk Man is a fresh, quirky, nostalgic, murder mystery, but it also focuses a lot on growing up, childhood friendships, life through a child's eye - how they see things and understand things. It's a book of consequences and what if's. There are also a host of tougher subjects blended in; alzheimers, rape, suicide, bullying and abortion.

I wouldn't say this is a fast paced book but, it doesn't need to be - the writing, and all the twists, turns and secrets will have you completely engrossed - with an ending that is oh so satisfying!

The Chalk Man is so much more than you'd expect, and is going to be pretty blooming huge in 2018!!

This is one of those books that keeps you up all night, you do not want to put it down!
So much mystery and intrigue, so many things to keep you hooked.
If you have not bought and read this book yet I highly recommend it!

This book alternates between 1986 and the present day. In 1986, children still played out all the time and had gangs of friends. Eddie and his pals, Mickey, Hoppo, Gav and Nicky were not part of the cool crowd. They had their own gang and shared adventures and secrets. They communicated with each other by leaving drawings of chalk stick men for each other.
In the present day, Ed looks back on those childhood years when everything changed following an incident at a fairground. Mickey reappears after an absence and suddenly messages start arriving with drawings of those chalk stick men.
This is a tense, well written thriller which keeps the reader guessing to the end.
I just loved the retro feel of the 1986 chapters in the book – took me straight back there!
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a review copy if this book.

I had heard so much about this book that I was looking forward to getting stuck in... and I wasnt disappointed!

The Chalk Man focuses on 5 friends along two different timelines - in 1986 when they are carefree kids and modern day now they have gone seperate ways but each haunted by the events of 1986.

Its difficult to review more without giving away any spoilers... there literally are twists and turns of everypage of this rollercoaster of a story!

The only reason that I lost a star in the rating is that the book reminded me a little of the British TV series 'The Five' written by Harlan Coban.

Eddie was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Standing near the fairground hot-dog stall, across from the Waltzers, a twelve-year-old not ready to become a hero. But fate flung itself into his life, pulling him into a swirl of events, the ramifications of which haunt Eddie for the next three decades.
So starts C.J. Tudor's excellent debut novel. Set in the small town of Anderbury, the story contrasts coming-of-age angst with the sinister local underbelly of colliding ideologies, perversion, and murder. It's a story that encompasses the fickleness of friendships and family, of misplaced love, and, above all, of the destiny that awaits, be it kind or cruel.
Eddie is on the cusp of becoming a teenager, and spends his time with his gang of mates. Their adolescent innocence of creating a code of chalk pavement drawings seems like a neat idea. It allows them to send secret messages to each other. But when the same chalk men drawings presage a horrific attack and the uncovering of dismembered bodies, the fragility of Eddie's naivety is dealt a blow that follows him into adulthood.
Told over the dual time-lines of 1986 and 2016, the narrative is intricately crafted. The pace never slackening. The young Eddie's main interests are being cool, the somewhat mysterious Mr Halloran — who has arrived from out of town to teach at Eddie's school — and Nicky, the girl who tags along with him and his friends. Thirty years later and Eddie still lives in Anderbury. He is a bachelor and inwardly ill at ease with himself — and he holds a crush for Chloe, his much younger female lodger. The townsfolk appear to have forgotten and moved on from the upheaval of the past, but Eddie hasn't. As the plot unfolds, we learn that Eddie isn't the only person preoccupied with the past. The chalk man drawings materialise again, scrawled on paper and sent out to the former childhood friends. Are these fresh chalk man drawings an intentional harbinger of another suspicious death?
This is a story crammed full of surprise and suspense — and a nagging sense of disquiet. The current-day Eddie feels that life has left too many enigmatic loose ends unresolved, and an unexpected visit from one of his boyhood friends prompts Eddie to search for a satisfactory conclusion to the uncomfortable memories he carries. Will he be able to fasten off those loose ends from the present? And if he can, will he be able to cope with the truth of the role he played in Anderbury's murky bygone years?
Wading further into the lapping of the fast-approaching tide of mystery, each chapter will beckon you deeper in, and once you become immersed there is no natural break. You'll always suspect that a dark secret lies just beneath the surface of the current page. And you'll be correct. Like warm blood dripping from the tip of a sharp blade, the narrative will fascinate and horrify, keeping you within its grasp. It will invariably leave you wondering what is around the next corner... or concealed by a pile of fallen leaves amid the trees in the woods... or hidden in a box under loose floorboards...
This is a novel that spins more violently than a fairground waltzer. The ride is exhilarating and highly recommended. Read it.

When I was a little girl we used chalk to mark out beds to play peever on – hopscotch, for non-Scots. Sometimes we’d use them to draw pictures, the braver among us describing an approximation of male genitalia on the hot summer pavements of Glasgow. In The Chalk Man, a group of disparate friends use chalk figures to send messages to each other. Lets meet at the park, see you in the woods.

But when the chalk figures start to reappear when the kids are all grown up, they know something sinister is afoot.

On the basis of this book it would be easy to call CJ Tudor the British Stephen King: outsiders? check; death? Check; a band of kids? Check; the past coming back to bite them on the bum? Huge check.

I have read several thriller/mystery books recently that share the King vibe, yet each one has been different and enjoyable in it’s own way. Knowing the time between writing and publication, it’s unlikely this is a fall out from the recent successful film of It. But I do wonder why there seems to be so many. At least it’s a welcome change from all ‘The Girl ...’ titles.

The Chalk Man is well written. The characters are well drawn, not all likeable, but their actions seem reasonable within their circumstances and I really was rooting for the main protagonist, Ed. I enjoyed the plot and the creepy vibe and I’d definitely read more by this author. It’s a shame that the book’s impact might be diluted because of other similar themed titles, but if you decide not to read this book because of that, you’d really be missing out.

The year is yet young, but if this is the standard of book I can expect this year, I’m going to be a very happy Nettie!

4.5 rounded up to 5 .. what a debut novel this is . Slow simmering suspense with a totally wow ending I loved this book !! Definitely one look out for in 2018 . Thanks to netgalley and the publishers and also the the author for my chance to read this . I look forward to reading more

After reading just the first few paragraphs, I was hooked straight away on this book and on the clever writing which instantly created so many questions in my mind, that I knew I wouldn't be able to put The Chalk Man down any time soon. The book was packed with tension and every single paragraph made me want to read on.
The narrative was split into past and present which added to the haunting sense of foreboding created by the little hints and breadcrumbs of information that were dropped in along the way to give a small taste of what had happened in 1986. I often found myself suddenly realising the significance of earlier things which seemed unimportant when I first read them, and I really appreciated this level of detail.
I particularly enjoyed the build up to finding out the 'why' and even though I had guessed the 'who', I was so riveted by the story, that it didn't detract from my enjoyment in the slightest. I stayed up way too late finishing this because I simply couldn't stop reading!
The twists and shocks continued until the very end, even after everything seemed to be over. I found myself gasping constantly and at times it got so tense I almost forgot to breathe!
Overall, I'm giving The Chalk Man 4.5 out of 5. It was haunting, dark and hypnotising. A really fantastic debut from C. J. Tudor.

The Chalk Man by C.J. Tudor

In 1986 12-year-old Eddie and his four friends live in the small town of Anderbury. They entertain themselves as best as they can, avoiding the bullies when possible, worrying about their friend Nicky, the daughter of the vicar, who regularly has bruises on her arms. They set up a code – they contact each other with drawings of stick men, each of them using a different coloured chalk. But one day the chalk men lead them into the woods and there they discover a dismembered body.

Thirty years later, Eddie believes that he has left the past behind but when one of his four friends, long estranged from the others, turns up out of the blue, raking up the past, he’s not so sure. And then each of them receives a letter with a chalk man and soon one of them is dead. Eddie realises he has no choice but to face a past that refuses to let him go. He has to find out what really happened all those years ago.

The Chalk Man is a debut novel by C.J. Tudor and it is a fine achievement. As much horror as crime thriller, its atmosphere is second to none. This is a deeply moody and evocative mystery horror, moving between past and present, and filling both with a deep foreboding and chill. You can feel it in the woods, in the river, in the school, in the pub and the houses, in the fairground – everywhere in Anderbury is infused with a fear. It’s very effective indeed.

Eddie is a brilliant character and he is the heart of the novel. We see everything through his eyes and we feel his moods. But he remains elusive. He is trying to deal psychologically with the trauma of the past and with events of the successive years that have changed his relationship to his close childhood friends. At its core, this is a novel about friendship and one young man called Eddie. We learn about him as he learns about himself and it’s such a fascinating tale. And on the sidelines we have the lives of his four school friends and their parents and siblings. At times it is horrifying – there is are moments that shock in this book – and at other times it is desperately tragic. And adding to it is the sense that something is watching.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Chalk Man. It’s a compulsive read. I read it until late into the night and finished it in a couple of days. It’s so hard to put down, the characters so hard to forget. I loved how the mystery developed and welcomed its surprises. Above all else, though, I loved Eddie, Gav and Nicky, and I was haunted by that beautiful girl we glimpse in the fairground through Eddie’s eyes at the beginning of the novel. This is a book that stays in the mind. It’s a fantastic debut novel and I look forward to seeing where C.J. Tudor will take us next.

Intriguing from start to finish. ‘The Chalk Man’ is a fast paced chilling story which had me wanting to keep turning the pages to find out what happens next. The writings style is nice and the plot well build. I’d like to read more from this author.

This is a debut novel that fully deserves all the accolades that it is receiving. I really, really, enjoyed loosing myself in its pages, only looking up to feed the family and catch a few winks of sleep.

The book alternates between the 80's and the present day. Back in the 80's, Edie and his gang of friends are focussed on attending the highlight of the Summer, the travelling fair. A tragic event at the fair marks the start of a strange and unsettling Summer, one where a gift of a bucket of chalk sets of a chain of events that leads to discovery and tragedy.

In the present day, Edie is a teacher, living with his lodger in the family home, he receives a letter with a chalk man in it and discovers that his friends have also received one. They need to figure out who is sending them and return to the events of the 80's if they are to lay this to rest.

If that brief description sounds simple, the book is anything but. It reads beautifully, yet there is so much packed into the pages. Each of the characters are so well drawn, it felt as though I was hanging out with my childhood friends and enemies! There are twists and turns throughout the story and lots of little threads that join together and build up to the shocking ending. There are gruesome events, but the book is also shot through with an incredible sense of humour that had me laughing out loud in some parts. It really is an exhilarating read.

So, why only 4 stars? Well, the events that happen near the end in a tent (trying not to give anything away) didn't feel plausible to me. I can only liken it to the end of a film when the baddie just WILL. NOT. DIE. despite being shot several times.

I would still urge anyone to read the book though, when I got to the end and read those final pages, I wanted to go straight back and re-read it to see if my knowledge cast events in a different light.

Absolutely loved this book. I could not put it down as I was constantly racing ahead to see what happened next. There were some fabulous plot twists and the suspense was incredible. I can't wait to see this made into a film as I think it would transfer very well.

Totally compelling and gripping, this is a great thriller and a great debut novel.
I really enjoyed the split timeline, especially as I was of a similar age in 1986, it just resonated with me. I also really liked the little twists as much as the big ones and it kept me engrossed the whole way.
A definite recommend for crime lovers and thrill seekers, although it is a bit graphic in places.

The Chalk Man is such an interesting book!

I anticipated a creepy if somewhat standard crime novel, but The Chalk Man is far more than that. It certainly is creepy, with remarkable moments of spine-tingling eeriness, but also layers of character depth and themes of friendship, growing-up, secrets, secrets, always secrets. I was expecting more thriller & less humdrum humanity, so pleased I was wrong! It’s humdrum with the sharpness of tacks, puncturing nostalgia!

Fascinating and compulsive reading.

I've been given an ARC of this book in exchange of my honest review. All of opinions are my own.

I started this book a few days ago but with the rush from Christmas and New Years Eve it took me more time to finish than it would have, I must say I'm digesting this book and its end.
The book release is now for January and I think it will be a good hit between people who likes a mystery and a light thriller reading between the past and present of how a group of twelve years old found a mutilated body in the middle of the woods and why the consequences of the past it's reflecting on their future more than thirty years after it. The story is about this group that started to communicate with chalk figures each one of them with a different color to identify and then an outside person (aka the murderer) using white chalk leads them to a dead body.

Eddie or Ed is the main character of the story and who we read the story through. You already starts the story with the plot and the murder but you still don't know who it is or who did it; I was feeling the book from the beginning and this is one of the firsts for me it usually takes me more than a few pages to get me hooked. At first I really thought it would be about a serial killer or a psychopath on the loose who happen to like to play with chalks for fun and have its own signature but through all of the book you start seeing that it's not really about this.

He's really smart for a twelve-year-old for most part of the book, you start seeing what he's like and his friends a group of 3 other boys and 1 girl that a little before they discover the dead body starts to crumble down. For me all of the friends were a tiny bit annoying, Fat Gav and Metal Mickey the most I don't think I could have stand more of them than what it's given on the book and I'm glad for this.

But what annoys me the most is something on the book involving Nicky the only girl being the daughter of a Vicar. Being surrounded by adults and seeing her almost all the time with the boys they should have done something and helped her, the only girl character in the story and the author just got her there to do nothing, literally Eddie has a huge crush on her and then she goes away and that was it, she comes back thirty years later and I hated how dismissive it was and how quick even more her ending in the whole story.

Even being a good book overall I expected way more than what was given. There was some gaps in the storyline and at the end you're left half away satisfied. I admit I was shocked with the end, Ed's end. I start suspecting of the killer by the middle of the book but the twist at the end I did not see it coming.
I liked Eddie's parents and I think it was very interesting to choose his Mother job and how it affected them as a family and the small town they lived in. It was a nice change around book.

Eddie as a grown up got me a bit bored, I liked him as a child but I think after everything he went through something broke loose inside of him, when everyone was having fun he was taking care of his father and then he just lost himself. His love interest for me was an awful choice and I was actually glad the book didn't revolved around romance for anything, it was just about the suspense and the mystery of why killing that person. I think Ed's turned into a teacher because of Mr. Halloran and I felt his ending was sad and a lot like Romeo and Juliet.
I think Mr. Halloran character was very mysterious and deep down very cool, unfortunately his story ends too soon and I felt bad for him and for the way he died how people thought of him. From hero to judged for a crime he might have or have not committed.

For being the first book of the author I thought it was very good. I liked the suspense, the mystery, the author's writing style got me hooked from the first moment and overall a good book. I would have been ok with a bit more psychological but maybe next time. I'll be definitely waiting for more books to come. The ending was a good one too, I love when author's get open endings just right. Like I said before some books are way better with open endings and this one was just this case, I'm still breathless and digesting this whole book.

Readers who likes a light good moving pace book with a bit of suspense and a mystery this book is for you.