The elevator pitch:
I know, not a very original one, but this is Lean on me in a sleepy English villageWhat I liked:
First of all, I love a good opening chapter. One of the best is John Grisham's the Client, and the Chalk Man's opening reminded me of Grisham's setup. It takes place at an amusement park; all the major players are introduced, there are tension, misdirection and a punch in the gut. After that, I dare you to put The Chalk Man away. The other thing I appreciated is that it spins many tales, each with their twist and turns, it makes it challenging to predict what will be happening. Lately, I have been reading so many thrillers where halfway to the end it becomes evident to me what is going on. I was pleasantly surprised to be put on the wrong foot a few times with this one. The story evolves in two timelines, 1986 and 2006, and both come alive and are engaging, you won't rush through one of them to get to the main plot. There's a lot of care for the characters; they are humanized and easy to emphatize with. The only thing I would say that I expected it to be scary, and even if suspensful, it wasn't that.