I was thrilled to receive an early copy of this book because The Chalk Man was one of my favourite reads of 2018. C.J. Tudor is a brilliant writer with a strong, distinctive voice and I love the way she references 80s/90s films and books.
When Joe Thorne was a teenager his little sister went missing, vanishing from her own bed. After forty-eight hours she came back - but she wasn't the same. Twenty-five years later and two children have died suspiciously. Suicide? Murder? Or is history repeating itself?
C.J. Tudor has the ability to get right inside the heads of her characters, meaning they are so believable and relatable they fairly jump off the page. Joe isn't the most pleasant individual but you can't help rooting for him all the same, and the story had me completely gripped. The way the author mixes in humour reminds me of Harlan Coben's thrillers, another favourite author of mine, but although I do love the references to Stephen King's novels, I did feel the plot was too similar to a couple of his most famous books (which I won't mention, because of spoilers). So if you've read those books, you might be able to work out where this one is going. However, there are a couple of good twists at the end, which I didn't see coming!
C.J. Tudor is a very talented author and I love her books. I would recommend this one to fans of early Stephen King and to readers who like a few supernatural chills in with their crime fiction.
Thank you to C.J. Tudor and Michael Joseph (Penguin UK) for my copy of this book, which I requested from NetGalley and reviewed voluntarily.
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