As an author I am so used to starting a book and recognising the signals almost immediately of who dun it, or at least a sense of who, why what.

Not with Tall Oaks. The first chapter drew me straight in, without me having a clue what was going on, not really. Yes, it was a recording of an event, and the man listening was reluctant to continue listening at times. But who was he, what, why?

Was it a ghost story? Was he a psychiatrist? Was he a copper? The tension built, and I totally colluded with the author, trusting in him and his writing, and the world he was creating.

Tall Oaks is a blast. For a debut novel it is extraordinarily self-confident, almost swaggeringly so as it strides across the pages, a scarf drifting in the wind behind it, gathering characters, events, emotions, action, and storming to a resolution.

It is by turns funny, dark, and ultimately comes close to ripping your heart out as Whitaker exposes the secrets of Tall Oaks, California. Of course the media descends once it sniffs out the story of a three year old who has gone missing, but without an end game, they leave. Together the young lonely distraught mother and Jim the local police chief are left to try to find the boy. There are other living breathing characters, some missing, some not, some suspicious, some…

Nope, read it. Clever, original and not really fair because this is a new writer, and it all seems so effortless. But then we all know it isn’t. This has been thought through, and then again, and the idea pushed further until originality came to the fore. The writing is tight, the plotting supreme.   Bravo young Chris Whitaker. Get going on the next one please.

Tall Oaks pub Twenty7. £7.99 ebook £4.99