Coming 7.8.25
A new dark academia thriller set in Oxford
The Rabbit Club
An American student at Oxford. A secret society with a sinister streak. An unexpected twist you won’t see coming. Welcome to The Rabbit Club.
Watch the book trailer here ↓
About Christopher
Photo credit: Jason Rice/Tom Crown Kills
CHRISTOPHER J. YATES is the author of the novels Black Chalk , Grist Mill Road and The Rabbit Club.
Black Chalk was an Indie Next Pick that was also named a best book of the year by NPR, and a “must read” by the Boston Globe, BBC.com and the New York Post.
The Rabbit Club is a second dark academia novel, set in the same Oxford universe as Black Chalk, full of Easter eggs, overlaps and with three characters in common.
Grist Mill Road was an Entertainment Weekly "Must Read" and one of the NPR Book Concierge's "Best Books of the Year."
He was born in London and studied law at Wadham College, Oxford. He currently lives in New York’s Hudson Valley and was the area’s dining critic for the Times Union newspaper until 2024. You can find his food writing, as well as fiction updates on his substack Pen & Palate.
He’s also the co-author of 5 Minute Murder, a book of whodunit puzzles. (Click here to purchase in the US, or here for UK links.)
Black Chalk
“This is the smart summer thriller you've been waiting for." — NPR's All Things Considered
NAMED A MUST READ BY THE BOSTON GLOBE, BBC.COM, AND THE NEW YORK POST
NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY NPR
***
A compulsively readable psychological thriller set in New York and at Oxford University in which a group of six students play an elaborate game of dares and consequences with tragic result.
It was only ever meant to be a game played by six best friends in their first year at Oxford University; a game of consequences, silly forfeits, and childish dares. But then the game changed: The stakes grew higher and the dares more personal and more humiliating, finally evolving into a vicious struggle with unpredictable and tragic results. Now, fourteen years later, the remaining players must meet again for the final round. Who knows better than your best friends what would break you?
A gripping psychological thriller partly inspired by the author's own time at Oxford University, Black Chalk is perfect for fans of the high tension and expert pacing of The Secret History and The Bellwether Revivals. Christopher J. Yates' background in puzzle writing and setting can clearly be seen in the plotting of this clever, tricky book that will keep you guessing to the very end.
Grist Mill Road
An Entertainment Weekly "Must Read" • One of the NPR Book Concierge's "Best Books of the Year"
"Twisty and told from multiple perspectives, this meaty thriller races to a satisfying finish." —People magazine
"The intensity of the storytelling is exhilarating and unsettling." —Booklist (starred review)
***
Twenty-six years ago Hannah had her eye shot out. Now she wants justice. But is she blind to the truth?
Christopher J. Yates’s cult hit Black Chalk introduced that rare writerly talent: a literary writer who could write a plot with the intricacy of a brilliant mental puzzle, and with characters so absorbing that readers are immediately gripped. Yates’s new book does not disappoint. Grist Mill Road is a dark, twisted, and expertly plotted Rashomon-style tale. The year is 1982; the setting, an Edenic hamlet some ninety miles north of New York City. There, among the craggy rock cliffs and glacial ponds of timeworn mountains, three friends—Patrick, Matthew, and Hannah—are bound together by a terrible and seemingly senseless crime. Twenty-six years later, in New York City, living lives their younger selves never could have predicted, the three meet again—with even more devastating results.
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Contacts
Literary Agent:
Jessica Papin
Dystel, Goderich & Bourret
jpapin@dystel.com
Email me:
cjy@christopherjyates.com
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