The serial killer’s victims and law enforcement members who deal with the case are characters created by Chizmar, but almost everyone else in the book is real. Although I’ve often thought about that moment over the years, I’ve never spoken or written about it until now. Soon, gentlemen sportsmen from northeastern cities as far-ranging as New York and Boston traveled to Edgewood to take part in the hunt. A clever, terrifying, and heartrending work of metafiction, Chasing the Boogeyman is the ultimate marriage between horror fiction and true crime. Chizmar did a lot of little things right in this novel/memoir, but it’s the mixing of both that makes it a truly standout read.

Chasing the Boogeyman – Richard Chizmar

A solid true crime facsimile, mixing background detail with action, suspense, and a compelling pace.Every small town has a haunted house—a place where horrific things were rumored to have happened, where bad things still lingered, and your heart trip-hammered and arm hairs stood on end every time you walked past it. There was, Carly explained, one interesting trend beginning to emerge in Edgewood, and, just as the satanic panic and multiple serial killer theories could be attributed to a recent increase in gossip—somewhere along the line, suspicion had begun to replace caution—so to could this new pattern of behavior. Brooklyn, Verbicide, Heavy Feather Review, Crimespree, HorrorTalk, The Brooklyn Rail, and other venues.

Book Review: Chasing the Boogeyman by Richard Chizmar Book Review: Chasing the Boogeyman by Richard Chizmar

The terrifying sequel to the acclaimed New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling novel Chasing the Boogeyman, which was hailed as “genuinely chilling and something brand-new and exciting” (Stephen King) and “unforgettable” (Harlan Coben). The house loomed over us in the darkness, hungry and alert and sly, and to dare walk past it was a terrifying odyssey that only the bravest of neighborhood kids would even consider undertaking.

Richard Chizmar has pulled off one hell of a sequel, delivering the rare thriller that is truly original and unlike anything else you’ll read this year. Despite my somewhat biased viewpoint, my vision of Edgewood was not entirely colored by the haze of nostalgia or the golden-tinted memories of Norman Rockwellian Americana bliss. The grand Victorian home featured fifty-one windows and seven gables, and was the first house in Edgewood to enjoy indoor plumbing. The first involved crossing Edgewood Road at the main traffic light and traveling several blocks along Hanson Road.