C.J. Tudor’s utterly gripping, terrifying thriller, The Chalk Man (Penguin Random House / Michael Jopseph), has gone from strength to strength.

Only last week, it was announced that her chilling debut was awarded the Barry Award for the Best First Novel at Bouchercon 2019. Established in 1997, the awards are named after Barry Gardner, an American Critic and crime lover. The awards are voted on by the readers of Deadly Pleasures Mystery Magazine and presented at the Bouchercon World Mystery Convention, which was held this year in Dallas, Texas.

And The Chalk Man hasn’t just captured the attention of the UK and US… Last week, it was announced that it has triumphed at the inaugural Kniha roku (Book of the Year) awards in the Czech Republic, winning the suspense category. At this new national event an industry jury creates a short list of titles from those nominated by the publishers. This list is then put to a public vote with the readers choosing the overall winners. C.J. Tudor’s Czech publishers, Euromedia, were there to collect this incredible award on her behalf.

Everyone has secrets. Everyone is guilty of something. And children are not always so innocent…

Looking back, it all started on the day of the fair and the terrible accident. When twelve-year-old Eddie first met the Chalk Man. It was the Chalk Man who gave Eddie the idea for the drawings: a way to leave secret messages between his group of friends. And it was fun, to start with, until the figures led them to the body of a young girl. Most of it, at any rate.

That was thirty years ago and Ed thought the past was behind him. Then he receives a letter containing just two things: a piece of chalk, and a drawing of a stick figure. As history begins to repeat itself, Ed realises the game was never over… 

To date, The Chalk Man has won the Strand Critics Award for Best Debut Novel (2019), the ITW award for Best Debut Novel at Thrillerfest Awards, New York (2019),  The Golden Bullet Award at the Norwegian Krimfestivalen (2019), The Cabot Cove Award at The Dead Good Reader Awards (2018) was shortlisted in the Crime & Thriller Category at the National Book Awards (2018), was shortlisted for the Hebban Thriller Club Award (2018) and was longlisted for Crime Writers’ Association Ian Flemming Steel Dagger Award (2018).

C.J. Tudor is a bestselling author in the UK & US (Penguin Random House / Ballantine) as well as internationally, and overall, The Chalk Man has sold into an outstanding 38 territories. Both her debut, The Chalk Man, and her most recent novel, The Taking of Annie Thorne ranked highly on the Sunday Times bestseller list.

In Norway, where the novel is published by Cappelen Damm, The Chalk Man was awarded the prestigious Golden Bullet Award at the Norwegian Krimfestivalen (Crime Festival).

In Germany, her second novel, The Taking of Annie Thorne, hit an incredible No. 8 on the German Spiegel bestseller list, where the novel is published by Goldmann.

C.J. Tudor travelled to Brazil in August this year to meet her Brazilian publishers, Intrinseca, and to attend the Rio Book Fair, where she signed around 400 copies of The Chalk Man over the three days she was there. The novel has sold over 110,000 copies in Brazil – an outstanding feat.

The Other People, C.J. Tudor’s next, hugely anticipated novel, is published in the UK & US in January 2020.

What an incredible list of accolades, we couldn’t be more thrilled for you, Caz!