The Chalk Man by C.J. Tudor

I have been to London which is always inspiring. I will tell you what I did there in another post. This one is about a book I saw advertised on big posters in the underground, The Chalk Man by C.J. Tudor. It sounded thrilling, but since I already have a lot of unread books I was hesitant. However, arriving at the airport I found an offer for two books for 1 1/2 of the price so could not resist. The other book I bought is Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman. I read a review recently by Laurel-Rain at Curl Up and Read which intrigued me to want to read it. But first to the 'Chalk Man'.

"'Never assume,' my dad once told me. 'To assume makes an "ass" out of "u" and "me".'"
When I stared at him blankly, he went on, 'See this chair? You believe it will still be here, where it is now, in the morning?'
'Yes'
'Then you assume.'
'I suppose.'
Dad picked up the chair and stood it on the table. 'The only way to be sure this chair is going to stay in the exact same spot is to glue it to the floor.'
'But that's a cheat?'
His voice got more serious. 'People will always cheat, Eddie. And lie. That's why it's important to question everything. Always look beyond the obvious.'
I nodded. 'Okay.'
The kitchen door opened and Mum walked in. She looked at the chair, and then at Dad and me, and shook her head.
'I'm not sure I want to know.'"

It says it is a horror story, so I was a little bit reluctant. Not my ordinary kind of books. The reviews on the cover was very good though, and recommended by writers like Stephen King and Lee Child. Well, it was a great book. I would not say it was a horror story, more like something lurking behind that you could not grasp. I find it difficult to put it into one genre because there are so many inside this very well written book. It is a murder mystery spanning thirty years; a teenage story and coming of age theme and mysterious chalk figures.

"The chorus is about no one getting remembered for the things they didn't do."

"But that's not entirely true. My life has been defined by the things I didn't do The things I didn't say. I think it's the same for a lot of people. What shapes us is not always our achievements but our omissions. Not lies; simply the truths we don't tell."

Tudor takes us from a group of youngsters in 1986, who were very close until a few dead persons turn up, until 2016 when all of a sudden the happenings thirty years earlier turns up unexpectedly. The story is told from Eddie's point of view. The characters are very well developed and Tudor manages to get into the head of twelve year olds and their thoughts and habits. Relationships in a small town where every one knows everything about every one. Or so we think.

It is difficult to tell the story without revealing the different angles. It is not just a murder mystery, around which the story normally is concentrated. It is so much more and each of the different directions of the story has a different solution. All in all, I really enjoyed this multifaceted story with its spooky atmosphere and unexpected turns. It was only in the very end that I could guess the murderer. All and none seemed to have been able to do it.

"I suppose it felt, even though we had an ending, that it wasn't the right one. It wasn't a good one. It was an anticlimax. It felt like there should be something more. And there were things that niggled at me. 'Plot holes', I guess you would call them, If you were talking about Doctor Who. Things the writers hoped you wouldn't notice, but you did. Even at twelve years old. In fact, especially at twelve years old. You're pretty hot on not being cheated when you're twelve."

It seems Tudor is coming out with another book in 2019, and I am really looking forward to read it. As a first book it is really very good and I enjoyed her way of writing, and the way she adds reflections on life, as highlighted by a few quotes. 

"Remembering - perhaps that was the killer."