Following its paperback publication last Thursday, The Chalk Man by C. J. Tudor has gone straight in at No.9 on the Sunday Times bestseller list.

Released under the Penguin Random House imprint, Michael Joseph, this week’s charts reveal that the debut sold close to 7,500 copies, with eBook and audio figures yet to come.

The hardback publication of this spine-chilling thriller in January, also went straight in at No.9 on the Sunday Times bestseller list, and sold over 30,000 copies across all formats. C. J. Tudor has enjoyed a similar of level success in the American market with 30,000 copies sold, and she’s a bestseller in Australia where she sold over 17,000 copies across trade paperback and eBook. Having sold in 40 territories worldwide, The Chalk Man has been a bestseller in multiple other markets too, including Brazil, Denmark, the Netherlands, France, Turkey and Portugal where it reached No.2.

C. J. Tudor has been heralded across the globe for her prestigious thriller fiction debut, and The Chalk Man has garnered support and rave reviews from fellow acclaimed crime authors, including Stephen King who said, “If you like my stuff, you’ll like this “, and agency author Fiona Barton who revealed, “I haven’t had a sleepless night due to a book for a long time…The Chalk Man changed that.” Praise also came from bestselling author Val McDermid who described it as “a labyrinthine tale that kept me guessing right to the end.”The Chalk Man is shortlisted for the CWA Steel Dagger Award, and after legions of fans voted in their thousands, C. J. Tudor was the recipient of a Dead Good Reader Award at Harrogate earlier this year, positioning herself alongside big brand authors such as Lee Child and Clare Mackintosh.

In 1986, Eddie and his friends are just kids on the verge of adolescence. The chalk men are their secret code: little chalk stick figures they leave for one another as messages only they can understand. But then a mysterious chalk man leads them right to a dismembered body, and nothing is ever the same.

In 2016, Eddie is fully grown, and thinks he’s put his past behind him. But then he gets a letter in the mail, containing a single chalk stick figure. When it turns out that his friends got the same message, they think it could be a prank . . . until one of them turns up dead.

So why not see for yourself what all the hype is about, and pick up your copy here.