Chasing the Boogeyman by Richard Chizmar
Published: 2023
Genre: Horror
Trigger Warnings: Graphic violence; death; references to sexual assault
Official Synopsis:
(from Amazon.com)
In the summer of 1988, the mutilated bodies of several missing girls begin to turn up in a small Maryland town. The grisly evidence leads police to the terrifying assumption that a serial killer is on the loose in the quiet suburb. But soon a rumor begins to spread that the evil stalking local teens is not entirely human. Law enforcement, as well as members of the FBI, are certain that the killer is a living, breathing madman—and he’s playing games with them. For a once peaceful community trapped in the depths of paranoia and suspicion, it feels like a nightmare that will never end.
Recent college graduate Richard Chizmar returns to his hometown just as a curfew is enacted and a neighborhood watch is formed. Amid preparing for his wedding and embarking on a writing career, he soon finds himself thrust into a real-life horror story. Inspired by the terrifying events, Richard writes a personal account of the serial killer’s reign of terror, unaware that these events will continue to haunt him for years to come.
A clever, terrifying, and heartrending work of metafiction, Chasing the Boogeyman is the ultimate marriage between horror fiction and true crime. Chizmar’s “dazzling work of fresh imagination and psychological insight” (Caroline Kepnes, New York Times bestselling author of You) is on full display in this truly unique novel that will haunt you long after you turn the final page.
Review:
There were a lot of reasons why I should have liked Chasing the Boogeyman by Richard Chizmar, a Stephen King protegé and past collaborator: the book features a fictional murder investigation set in a small Maryland town that could be confused with one of King’s very own signature towns. Additionally, the mystery surrounding the killer and their crimes intensifies to the point where both take on a supernatural quality. Despite this all, Chasing the Boogeyman was a slog, making more investments into its fictional world than those that actually pay off.
My main gripe about Chizmar’s novel is that he, himself, is the main character in his fictional tale. While there have been other novels that have attempted this metafictional style of writing (book 6 of Stephen King’s The Dark Tower series, Song of Susannah), the decision to do so is just distracting, and makes me less willing to believe in the character. Furthermore, Chizmar’s fictional self drones on incessantly, a quality made worse by the narrator of the audiobook. Chizmar also spends quite a bit of time establishing the town of Edgewood, Maryland, an actual town to the northeast of Baltimore. While it is always enjoyable to spend time following the narrator as they take you through these worlds, Chizmar’s narration of Edgewood again feels like more dry information, rather than a living and breathing place.
Perhaps my experience with Chasing the Boogeyman would have been different if I had read the print version, but the audiobook was certainly not the most entertaining experience.
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