The Chalk Man by C. J. Tudor

This was Tudor’s debut novel, and she’s gone on to write a few more. She’s been compared to Stephen King. In The Chalk Man, Tudor very carefully mentions Harlan Coben as the writer the narrator is reading, and I think she wanted to make that connection in the reader’s mind.

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The Chalk Man by C.J. Tudor
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Be warned, this review contains spoilers!

Tudor credits some friends who gifted her little girl coloured chalks for her birthday for this thriller. Hmmm, it sounds like a wild, crazy, creepy leap from a girl’s birthday party to a story where a teenage girl is murdered and her head and limbs are hacked off.

There’s a birthday party, although it’s for one of the teenage boys, Gavin or Fat Gav, as his friends call him. And someone, an anonymous someone, leaves a bucket of coloured chalk as a birthday gift for Gavin. This is important because the narrator (it’s in first-person point of view), Eddie, mentions this gift as a possible beginning of all the troubles.

In my opinion, all the troubles began when the pastor or reverend at the local parish seduced and impregnated one of the local teenage girls. But of course, Eddie wasn’t to know that until much later.

As in life, actions have consequences is the theme running through this book. And most of the characters do some very bad things. The story weaves back and forth between 12-year-old Eddie and 42-year-old Eddie. You’ll see either 1986 or 2016 written at the top of the page whenever Eddie narrates a story from the appropriate time.

My favourite character from this book is Mr Halloran, and I wish the author had done more with him. He seemed like a gentle, caring man.

Overall, I liked the book. There’s talk that it’ll be made into a film. I wonder who’ll play Mr Halloran.

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