REVIEW OF THE CHALK MAN (2018) BY C.J. TUDOR
One thing you'll no doubt notice as I add more books to this blog is that I'm in love with the mystery/suspense/horror genre. I'm not sure why but my chosen method of literary escapism is to read about horrible crimes people committed. While I'm not sure this is great for my mental health it's worked for the last 25 years and I assume it'll keep working for me for 25 more.
I've been watching Broadchurch obsessively lately. It's a British crime procedural and I'm nearly done with all three seasons. Naturally the first thing I did when I realized this was to google "what to read if you like Broadchurch" and C.J. Tudor's 2018 thriller The Chalk Man was in the middle of the list. It has many things I like in a mystery: small town setting, multiple decade scope, secrets behind closed doors, a small supernatural element, urban legends. I checked this out in audiobook format (I like to listen while I run) but read parts of it in print as well. Unfortunately, it did not live up to my expectations.
The premise of this book follows two story lines: one in the mid eighties and one in 2016. We are told the story via Eddie. Eddie, who as a boy witnesses a traumatic event as a girl is nearly decapitated and disfigured at a fairgrounds, is a disaffected youth joined by his friends Mickey ("Metal Mickey"), Nicky, "Harpo", and "Fat Gav." They live in a small seaside town in England and play a game communicating with each other by drawing differently colored chalk drawings. Once this game starts deaths begin to happen and when chalk drawings seem to appear in conjunction their group is ripped apart. Flash forward to 2016 and Eddie, "Fat Gav" who is now Gavin, and Harpo all live in the same town. Each receives a letter with a small man drawn on paper, and a stick of white chalk. Mickey comes back into town to propose to Eddie that he is writing a book on the chalk men murders, only to be found dead in the river after leaving Eddie's house. The friends fear that the ghosts of their past are coming back to haunt them via the chalk men and that one of them may be the next to die.
C.J. Tudor writes a quick novel but it was not engrossing. I felt this was a very bare bones thriller, no eloquent writing, a sad and misanthropic narrator, disjointed storylines, but with enough twists to keep me going. This book was easy enough to follow but the pacing was too fast in some areas and too slow in others. I didn't feel this stood out in its genre as remarkable. It was not as remarkable as promised in reviews of it, and I expected a lot more about the angle of the chalk men. They seemed coincidental almost, not as much of a focus as I had wanted them to be. Also Tudor throws in supernatural elements that don't seem to go much of anywhere. It's her debut novel so perhaps the bugs will be worked out in further works of hers.
Do I suggest this? Sure, as a fun Halloween read, something quick and dirty and then you get it over with and rarely think about it again. Do I suggest it over some of the other novels in this genre that I've read? No. I think I'm biased because the reviews I'd read of it had been so thrilling that perhaps I was expecting too much out of it. Perhaps it is because Broadchurch is a show with genius writing and I was coming off the tail end of it and expecting something of that caliber. I wouldn't dismiss Tudor entirely though. I think she has potential as an author and I was genuinely interested in parts of this book, particularly the ending. It's gonna be like a 6/10 from me though.
RATING: 💛💛💛💔💔
LINKS:
Interview with C.J. Tudor from Read it Forward: https://www.readitforward.com/author-interview/c-j-tudor/
Interview with C.J. Tudor from Crime by the Book: https://www.readitforward.com/author-interview/c-j-tudor/
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