“The Chalk Man” by C.J. Tudor is a mystery that follows Eddie and his group of friends—Fat Gav, Hoppo, Metal Mickey, and Nicky—as their game of communicating by chalk figures turns deadly. The story is narrated between 1986—the year when the gang was twelve and the tragedies took place—and the present, 2016, when the childhood friends suddenly receive letters with chalk men on them, and one of them winds up dead. However, he is far from the only casualty as the past plays out.

I found this story to be very twisty. Each character is well-developed, from Eddie and his hippy father and abortion clinic mother, to slippery Mickey and his bully of an older brother Sean, to the more modest Hoppo and his mother who works as a cleaning woman, to the rich and spoiled Fat Gav, and reticent, bruised Nicky, a daughter of the local vicar, who is also the only girl in the group but feels like one of the boys. Then there’s the local vicar himself, whose followers are protesting Eddie’s mother’s abortion clinic, a police officer who is angry over his teenage daughter’s predicament, and a local teacher who may or may not be the good-doer he comes across as.

The writing was breezy, making this a quick and easy read. The plot was an eventful one, with a new development playing out every couple of pages, which kept me turning the pages. The twists were too many count. Overall, an engrossing whodunit.