Chasing the Boogeyman by Richard Chizmar is a wonderful work of fiction. The story of this novel reads like true crime and includes photographs, but is completely fiction, except for it truly being Richard Chizmar’s home town and few of the characters were taken from real life. Chasing the Boogeyman is a slow burn fictionalized true crime. It is about a series of gruesome killings occurring in the late 1980s.
It is 1988, and Richard Chizmar (the writer) has quite recently graduated college and moved back home to his folks house in Edgewood. After a couple of teenaged girls are found killed, it becomes obvious that there is a serial killer haunting the roads of Edgewood.
Watch groups are created by the neighbourhood, curfews are made mandatory, and everybody is alert. Richard is in the center of all this, as an aspiring writer, and somebody who is familiar with the roads, paths, and history of the town.
As the FBI tries to find the leads, Richard and his journalist companion, Carly, work to track down their own discovery, but Richard should be careful. It feels to him as if he’s being watched. He’s getting mysterious calls at his folks home. Chasing the boogeyman may not be a good idea.
This is written completely as a true crime story, with pictures as well. Chizmar’s writing is engaging and convincing as he mixes parts of his own past and beginnings to his writing profession with the overall fiction story of a serial killer in his hometown. It’s smart and exceptional, completely atmospheric, and charming.
I recommend Chasing the Boogeyman by Richard Chizmar to those readers who like excellently written books. To the individuals who love detail and inside and out descriptions of settings that cause you to feel like you have had a real involvement with that place. Maybe you are there, directly at that point, smelling the scents and encountering individuals and places around you. I recommend this novel to fans of true crime, to people who are encountering a reading slump, and readers of spine chillers and mystery books.
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