Eddie is a young boy in 1986 and he does what other 1980s teenagers did: hang around with his friends during a long, hot summer. They devise a plan to send each other secret messages using stick figures that they draw in chalk. Then, a terrible accident happens and not soon after, a body is found in the forest.
If books and TV shows are anything to go by, it’s amazing that anyone managed to escape the eighties unscathed. Then again, the point of the book is that they don’t. Or something. It’s not particularly deep.
The Chalk Man is a good beach read; it’s easy, it’s twisty and it’s fairly nonsensical but fun. Nonsensical with plot twists isn’t my preferred genre; usually, these twists are forced into the plot with a complete disregard for tact or logic. This novel is guilty of that, too. The Whodunnit is both predictable and insane, which, I suppose, is an accomplishment of sorts. Other twists are less predictable and actually rather fun. I just wish the main plot hadn’t been so outlandish.
Nevertheless I enjoyed reading it. The novel switches between the present tense, where adult Ed still lives in his old hometown and works as a teacher. He receives a visit from one of his childhood friends, Mickey, who wants to write a screenplay about the murder that took place in their hometown when they were children. Ed and Mickey were never particularly close, and Ed isn’t sure what to do with him, but then Mickey disappears and Ed begins to look at the crime in a way he wasn’t able to do as a child.
There is also a subplot about a local preacher, a mother who works at an abortion clinic, and a father with Alzheimer’s disease. It’s all very convoluted and messy. Parts of the plot are predictable, but also oddly satisfying depending on your particular proclivities (I doubt the average bible thumper would appreciate this book). The characters are fairly flat, but they serve their purpose and they largely steer clear of the plethora of teenage clichés that so many authors employ.
All in all, it’s a fairly forgettable but fun book with a couple of entertaining twists and gotchas. High art, this ain’t, but I had fun reading it.