A Book A Week

Richard Chizmar’s Chasing the Boogeyman has been sitting on my TBR for years. I first discovered Chizmar’s work through his collaboration with Stephen King on Gwendy’s Button Box. And while those books are still waiting for me too (anyone sensing a theme here?), I knew I wanted to start with Boogeyman. October felt like the perfect time to finally dive in. The novel is a kind of metafiction that draws on nostalgia for both the past and the childhood fears that never quite let us go. It seemed like the perfect book to read during spooky season.

It’s the summer of 1988, and recent college graduate Richard Chizmar has returned to his small Maryland hometown. The streets are familiar, but something feels different this time. A chill has settled over the quiet community. A killer is on the loose, targeting young women and sending waves of fear through the town. Chizmar arrives just as a curfew goes into effect and a neighborhood watch begins to form. He’s standing at a crossroads in life, preparing for marriage and trying to carve out his place as a fiction writer. But as the details of the murders emerge, the young journalism grad finds himself unable to look away. His curiosity turns to obsession as he begins documenting the terror around him.

Rumors soon swirl that the evil stalking local teens might not be entirely human. While law enforcement insists the killer is flesh and blood, the townspeople aren’t so sure. Whispers of something darker echo through the streets. Chizmar’s investigation blurs the line between reality and myth, and the deeper he digs, the more he questions what’s real. How much of the horror is born from the town’s fear, and how much from within himself? He’ll soon learn that the story he’s chasing may be far more personal than he ever imagined, and one that will haunt him for the rest of his life.

I have vivid childhood memories of the nightmares I used to have, figures moving through my house that were never actually there. But gosh, I was certain they were. It’s that very fear and paranoia that makes Chasing the Boogeyman so deeply unsettling. Chizmar casts himself as the main character in this piece of metafiction, giving the novel a sense of lived-in authenticity. It’s a haunting blend of nostalgia, horror, and true crime that compels readers to imagine the unimaginable. I couldn’t help but think, what if this happened in my own town? Chizmar blurs the line between reality and imagination, grounding his horror in a place that feels real—because it is. This is his hometown, his life. Only the murders and the monster are fiction. And maybe that’s why this story scares like no other. Chasing the Boogeyman is a triumph of originality, a book that lures us in with comfort and nostalgia before preying on our most primal fears.

For more information, visit the author's website, Amazon, and Goodreads. 

(2025, 79)