Oh, my. What a dark piece of work THE CHALK MAN is. I have long preferred the honest violence and vice of the major metropolis to the deceptively idyllic and peaceful appearance of the small village or town for the simple reason that it is easier to deal with rot that you can easily see than with that which is hidden beneath a smile and a fresh coat of paint. This remarkably surefooted novel by first-time author C. J. Tudor is a prime example of why.

THE CHALK MAN is set in the small tourist town of Anderbury, England. The narrative, which alternates between 1986 and 2016, is provided by Eddie Adams, a lifelong resident of Anderbury who is a participant and indeed the nexus of what occurs. Eddie was 12 years old in 1986, and with his small group of friends was on the cusp of adolescence. When not in school, they would walk and bike around Anderbury, looking for the unusual, which, in their provincial town, was a rare commodity. Or was it?

"Tudor balances memorable characters --- you grew up with people like Eddie’s friends, or at least knew them from a distance --- with a couple of plots that conceal unexpected mysteries among their other surprises."

Two events occur that slowly reveal the sickness of the cultural substratum of their small universe. The first is a horrific accident that takes place at a local carnival and causes Eddie to momentarily experience some time in the spotlight and develop a relationship that will prove fateful. The second is the grisly discovery of a dismembered body in a local woods that Eddie and his friends like to frequent. Both incidents are joined by the boys’ penchant for drawing chalk men figures that become their secret way of passing information to each other about where to meet, who to see and what to avoid.

In 2016, Eddie is in his early 40s, living in the house in which he grew up, taking on a lodger and working as a schoolteacher. He still maintains contact with a couple of his schoolboy friends, who have had their own shares of misfortune. Things change, though, when each receives an enigmatic letter, written in chalk and prominently featuring the chalk man figure they had always used. Meanwhile, one of their friends, long absent from the town, reappears, seeking their cooperation on a book project that he promises will reveal one of Anderbury’s long-held and most notorious secrets. This, in turn, sets off a violent chain reaction during which Eddie discovers that many things he held to be true for over three decades are not true at all. By the time the book reaches its unsettling conclusion, everything is forever changed, and not necessarily for the better.

Tudor balances memorable characters --- you grew up with people like Eddie’s friends, or at least knew them from a distance --- with a couple of plots that conceal unexpected mysteries among their other surprises. THE CHALK MAN ultimately put me in the mind of a darker, more violent vision of WINESBURG, OHIO by Sherwood Anderson --- one of my favorite literary works --- but it more than stands on its own terms while establishing Tudor as an author to read now and from whom we can anticipate more novels of equal or greater quality in the future.