One of the hundred books a year I read:

Book 27 on my “March to 100 for 2019″—C.J. Tudor: The Chalk Man—In flashbacks to his childhood, a teacher unravels a murder mystery.

In 2016, Eddie is a lonely teacher with an odd roommate and tenuous bonds with the childhood friends who have remained in his hometown. He needs to make changes in his life to find happiness, but finds he must first confront a childhood mystery.

In 1986, Eddie was one of a gang of twelve-year-olds who bicycled around their small town, drew stickmen with chalk, and played childhood games. But it was also the last year of their friendship as a series of events drove them apart.

A freak accident at a fair maims a girl, drives Eddie into the unwanted role of hero, and introduces a mysterious new man who will be teaching at their school. A bully, who is also the older brother to one of the friends, terrorizes the group and learns how vicious karma can be. Religious protestors and Eddie’s parents confront each other with increasing intensity. And the friends make a horrific discovery of a body in the woods.

Part murder mystery and part thriller, with a touch of horror thrown in, the book reveals the story layer by layer as it bounces between present and past.

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