The Chalk Man
The chilling and spine-tingling Sunday Times bestseller
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4.3 • 133 Ratings
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- $15.99
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
IT WAS ONLY MEANT TO BE A GAME . . .
None of us ever agreed on when it started.
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?
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THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER, SHORTLISTED FOR A NATIONAL BOOK AWARD & THE STEEL DAGGER, BEST THRILLER AWARD, SOON TO BE A MAJOR BBC DRAMA
'WONDERFULLY CREEPY - LIKE A COLD BLADE ON THE BACK OF YOUR NECK' LEE CHILD
'If you like my stuff, you'll like this' Stephen King
'A tense gripper with a leave-the-lights-on shock ending' Sunday Times
'Sent shivers down my spine. Brilliant book from start to finish' 5***** Reader Review
'A must-read' Daily Express
'I couldn't tear myself away' 5***** Reader Review
'There are shades of Stephen King in this very creepy timeslip' Guardian, BOOKS OF THE YEAR
'Reality bends into the sinister . . . a deliciously creepy finale' Daily Mail
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
A killer’s been claiming victims in an English town, leaving little chalk drawings as a calling card. The Chalk Man ricochets between 1986 and 2016, tracking a group of friends who discovered one of the victims and tracing protagonist Eddie Adams’ attempts to sort out whodunit. C.J. Tudor ratchets up the uncertainty with cleverly developed internal tensions between Eddie and his pals; every time we were ready to dismiss him as a suspect, his peculiarities—sleepwalking, kleptomania, portentous nightmares—threw his role into question again. This spine-tingling mystery totally gripped our imagination.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In 1986, Eddie Adams, the narrator of British author Tudor's promising debut, and his four best mates, all early adolescents, become ensnared in a series of ghastly events in the picturesque English town of Anderbury, with the nightmarish inevitability of the Grimmest of tales. In the most shocking episode, a mysterious man leads them to the dismembered remains of a teenage girl in the woods. Not surprisingly, these traumas, which also include abuse, sadistic bullying, and a prank that turns deadly, cast a sizeable shadow over the friends' futures. In 2016, Mickey, one of Eddie's old friends, returns to town after more than 20 years away, planning to write a book about the girl's murder upon the occasion of the murder's 30th anniversary. Danger looms after Mickey announces that he knows who really killed the girl (the prime suspect killed himself before his likely arrest). Though Tudor makes a couple of rookie missteps, including excessive plot twists seemingly for the sake of surprise, her storytelling prowess is undeniable.
Customer Reviews
Great book
Recommended by a friend this was a great read really enjoyable will look out for more of this authors novels
Brilliant Debut - Stand By Me meets Stranger Things
Wow this is the best book I have ever read. A great cast of characters, a story line that keeps you constantly guessing and every chapter ending on a cliff hanger. The story is engaging and the imagery immersive. If this is CJ Tudor’s first novel I can’t wait to see what she continues to share with us.
Very well written story
I suspected the whodunnit early on, but that didn’t stop me from enjoying the story getting there and confirming my suspicions.
I found this book to be well written and engaging — I liked that, even though it jumped through time with each chapter, the flow of the narrative was seamless and structuring it that way made perfect sense.
I finished it in a couple of hours, as I couldn’t put it down. I will seek this author out again.
Now to catch up on all of the chores I should have been doing......