The Chalk Man

March 26, 2018
Scottish theater actor Morton performs a dramatic rendition of Tudor’s debut novel, a psychological thriller focusing on five 12-year-olds who experience a series of life-altering events in an English village in 1986. The preteen quintet includes Eddie, the thoughtful narrator; boisterous Gav; soft-spoken introvert Hoppo; raspy-voiced, annoying Mickey; and Nicky, the tomboy daughter of the town’s vicar. The book shifts from the preteen memories to Eddie’s unsettled life in 2016, in which he is still haunted by the series of horrific accidents and unsolved murders he and his friends witnessed 30 years earlier. Reader Morton adds depth to each of the characters in his reading for the audio edition. His Eddie has a melancholy personality that lingers from childhood into his 40s. There’s a touch of menace in the latter-day Mickey, while Gav’s brashness is diminished in adulthood. Tudor’s novel is more character study than psychological thriller, and Morton’s fully realized character voices help convey that. A Crown hardcover.

Euan Morton deftly narrates this psychological thriller as it shifts back and forth in time. In an English tourist town in the 1980s, tween Eddie and his friends create a game involving writing secret signs in chalk. They find themselves on the periphery of increasingly violent incidents until their game leads them to a body. Morton portrays young Eddie with soft vulnerability and a measured cadence; in contrast, his adult Eddie carries the weight of years in a hardened, sardonic voice as an old friend stirs up the past. Morton's skill lets the listener know where the story is at all times. His performance grounds the disjointed plot and captures the pathos of Eddie's search for answers in his murky past. S.T.C. � AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine