C.J. Tudor (Michael Joseph Books)
On the surface, the small market town of Alderbury, near Bournemouth, seems like a peaceful place to grow up. At least so it appears to Eddie Adams, known as Munster,and his adolescent gang, Metal Mickey, Fat Gav, Hoppo, and the lone female Nicky, where he lives with his semi-hippy parents, and collects thingsā¦strange things
Set in 1986, all is not as idyllic in the town as the inhabitants would have us believe. Villainy lurks around every corner in this tremendous debut from C.J. Tudor. Violence against people and property, rape, murder, and worst of all for the gang, loss of innocence, culminating in one terrible discovery which changes their lives, the lives of their families, and the whole town forever. It all starts with an innocent game the kids play, drawing chalk men on the pavements to send secret messages to each other, until they seem to take on sinister lives of their own, luring the youngsters to hidden corners of the town and the nearby countryside, each time with horrifying results.
Told in the first person by Eddie,now semi-alcoholic, hating his job as a teacher at his old school. He also still lives in his old family house with a strange punk/goth lodger who he secretly desires, but is too scared to admit to it, with the narrative jumping in time from the eighties to the present day and back again.
Tudor certainly paints a nightmarish portrait of a hidden world behind a respectable facade. I hope this first novel gets the attention it deserves. Terrific stuff!
Price: Ā£12.99. Info: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/305129/the-chalk-man/
words MARK TIMLIN