The book is written in a way that suggests that the event did actually occur very much in the way a faux documentary plays out or a found footage film that claims, What you are about to see actually happened. But if we step back from how “real” it all feels and just look at it as a novel, for a second, there is brilliant work here. Although I was hesitant to give Chasing the Boogeyman a go given its peculiar nature, this was an awesome pick for this Halloween season and I’m not disappointed I gave it a try! In the summer of 1988, the mutilated bodies of several missing girls begin to turn up in a small Maryland town. Props to Chizmar, as this is a tightly plotted, unique read that took me on an intense reading journey.

Whilst this may seem ludicrous, anyone who has actually read The Inferno or indeed The Divine Comedy as a whole will testify that there is a strangely convincing reality to the whole experience. J. Tudor, New York Times bestselling author) writing is on full display in this truly unique novel that will haunt you long after you turn the final page. Specially designed full-colour illustrated signature page personally signed by Richard Chizmar and Ben Baldwin. Chasing The Boogeyman is an engaging and cleverly told suspenseful mystery, and I look forward to reading more of Chizmar’s work. Young women are abducted seemingly out of midair and found dead with the killer taking a trophy each time and staging the bodies.Then Richard receives a message that a man has been charged, although a very unlikely suspect, he confesses all.

Chasing the Boogeyman perfectly captures the feeling of growing up in a small town facing an existential threat from real evil. Richard teams up with Carly, a fellow journalist, to try and solve the case, and is given details of the case from a detective (if I didn’t already know it was fiction, this would have been my first clue). He combines horror fiction, a small-town mystery, with true crime that uniquely defies any tired, overused tropes around murdered girls and small towns.He left missing dog sign, pennies, pumpkins as he took lives of Kacey Robinson, Madeline Wilcox, Cassidy Burch. I was impressed by Chizmar's writing, and he was able to paint a vivid image in my mind of his town in my mind. He has won two World Fantasy awards, four International Horror Guild awards, and the HWA’s Board of Trustee’s award. It is masterfully written, and the plotting is so watertight that not a single droplet of blood spills.