Chasing the Boogeyman

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Chizmar’s writing is engrossing and compelling as he intersperses parts of his own past and beginnings to his writing career with the overall fictional story of a serial killer in his hometown. Even though I knew I was reading fiction, I couldn't shake the feeling that the events were not real, which made this an intriguing reading experience. Let me tell you, this was an amazing read and an awesome way to finish my reading challenge for the year much earlier than expected. This could be the story you read over your morning cornflakes; cruel, unremittingly sad but so plausible. For your own safety, you should… The Boogeyman will soon enter the pantheon of suburban legends that fill our backyards like summer fireflies, his name whispered into ears all over.

RICHARD CHIZMAR is the co-author (with Stephen King) of the New York Times bestsellers Gwendy's Button Box and Gwendy's Final Task , and the author of the solo work Gwendy's Magic Feather . I wanted to turn that last page, close the book, and still question whether or not this was real or made up. I will undoubtedly recommend this book to anyone that loves horror or true crime as it was one incredible reading experience that just felt so real. His hometown of Edgewood, MD was in a state of panic after four young girls were murdered, the work of a serial murderer nicknamed The Boogeyman.Author Richard Chizmar grew up in Edgewood, Maryland, a town where each generation of children feared the “Rubberband Man” and where the “Phantom Fondler ” found his prey.

This is one of the those books where the story is just as important as the format, and both worked together to create that perfect narrative. I see a lot of other reviewers saying this is a 5 star idea and a 2 star plot and I’d have to agree.Every time I took a break from the computer screen and glanced outside, I imagined the ghosts of my childhood friends sprinting shirtless across the lawn, whooping with laughter and disappearing into the wavering shadows, beneath the towering weeping willow whose spindly branches had snagged so many of our taped-up Wiffle balls and provided hours of cooling shade in which to play marbles and eat pizza subs and trade baseball cards.

This is a slow-paced yet suspenseful read, especially as the tension between the narrator and the killer builds. However, at the very beginning of the book, Chizmar divulges that Chasing the Boogeyman is indeed a work of fiction. Chasing the Boogeyman is an unflinching look at a real-life monster and the ordinary heroes obsessed with stopping him. He moves back to his childhood home with his parents in the small town of Edgewood after finishing college.If you like an out-of-the-box compelling, tension fueled, suspenseful, and terrifying story that blends horror and true crime. As with a real true crime book, there are some unanswered questions in the end, and although it gives authenticity to the story, it was frustrating to me. Maryland State Police Department and Federal Bureau of Investigation promised to continue pursuing active leads and testing additional person of interests. Overall, this is a creepy book that offers a sense of foreboding throughout and I read it fairly quickly wanting to know who had committed these murders and why. Most of the book was so boring and the author just dragged on about these stories from his childhood (which may or may not be true?

The lines between Chizmar the author and Chizmar the character are blurry and that added to the story's sense of realism. Chizmar invented his own genre, and that's more than enough to cement his status as one of horror fiction's greats.

A clever, terrifying, and heartrending work of metafiction, ' Chasing the Boogeyman does what true crime so often cannot: it offers both chills and a satisfying conclusion' (Stephen King).