I finished reading this book a few months back. I purchased this book in one of my Blossom Book Store hauls. I will try and keep my review of this book short and do not really want to talk too much about the story.
The book mostly keeps alternating between present day and 1986 and is narrated through the protagonist and the narrator Eddie. The part of the story covered in 1986 are a series of events in Eddie's childhood, which comes to haunt him in his present day adulthood. These events are murders of different people that happened and the clues that were left behind were- chalk men.
In his adult life, Eddie is a teacher at a local school, has a room mate Chloe, and is still in touch with some of his childhood friends. Even his room mate Chloe seems to have a connection with one of his childhood friends. One of his childhood friends is killed in his adult life which unravels the mysterious murders that happened in his town in his childhood days.
As expected, at the end of the book, we come to know who was responsible for some of the murders. The story for me is not really an unforgettable one. To be honest, I has to read up the summary of the story to recollect. While chalk men, which are nothing but stick figures of men drawn in chalk (reminds me of Hangman which we played as kids) are supposed to be clues to the murder(s), I really did not understand how they were clues. There were other things which are actually bigger clues than the Chalkmen. I mean, it really did not come across that the Chalkmen was the main clue or even important enough to earn the title of the book.
The book is written simply and is quite fast-paced and does keep one hooked. However, I was hoping that the Chalkman would make a bigger impact and kept reading but just the lack of the connect was disappointing. The book becomes a little predictable at one point and you can almost tell who the murderer was.
I would rate the book 3.5/5 as it was an engrossing, yet a very forgettable book.
