I realize I don’t know if I’ve ever read Chizmar. Which is ridiculous for a devoted long time genre fan. I know of him, of course, I’m familiar with Cemetery Dance, I even own one of their gorgeous signed editions in my collection and there’s a very good chance I might have read a short story of his at some time in some anthology, but never actually dedicatedly read him as an author. Until now. And boy, does that man know how to make a first impression. 
    And at first impression, this is a true crime book. A properly (in fact, overwhelmingly so) steeped in nostalgia throwback to a more innocent (was it?) time some three decades ago when Chizmar as a young man fresh out of college and temporarily staying with his parents back in his picturesque small Maryland town finds himself tangentially involved in investigating the brutal murders of the local girls. 
    The small town idyll straight out of any King story, the geehaw aw shucks good naturedness of the, well, almost everybody, and specifically the saintly Chizmars and their son’s fiancé contrasts strikingly with the horrific nature of the crimes and the sinister presence behind them. It makes for a pretty riveting read. There are plenty of photos with each chapter to…take you there, if you will. It’s first rate suspense fiction with a stunning resolution, but wait…it isn’t over yet. You got to read the entire thing, including the author’s note. In fact, it is crucial that you do. And beware, minds might be blown if not properly secured.
     I mean, that ending…that ending made me kind of wild with joy at its sheer cleverness and originality. And the thing is, I can’t talk about it, of course, don’t want to give things away, but it’s so good. It elevated my opinion and rating of the book immediately. And…oh so frustrating not to be able to discuss it…but yeah, you just gonna have to find out for yourself. 
    Suffice it to say…wow. Awesome. And this terrific potentially ingenious blend of memoir, true crime and metafiction is perfectly singular it its awesomeness. What a ride. Loved it. Recommended. Thanks Netgalley.

“Chasing the Boogeyman” was a fascinating and thoroughly engaging read. This was my first time reading a book by Richard Chizmar and I must say I love his writing style. For some odd reason it made me think of Robert McCammon in its flow and readability. Written as a true crime novel from the perspective of the author, but a work of fiction, it tells the story of a killer who stalked the town of Edgewood back in the 80’s. The author makes the bold decision to have his 22 year old self “not only serve as the narrator of the Boogeyman’s dark story, he would also act as its conscience.” This choice at times was compelling, but also led to moments that felt emotionally distant since we were essentially getting a slasher flick and manhunt told to us by one person. Chizmar does his best to get the emotional hooks in with nostalgic memories, interviews with family and friends, and ingeniously staged photos of characters and the town that all lend a real weight to the story and is mostly successful. While the title “Chasing the boogeyman” portends something edge of your seat thrilling the story never quite ascends to those heights, instead simmering in creepy happenings and inklings of impending doom which make for breakneck page turning, but may disappoint some. MINOR SPOILER
 I was expecting some grand climax or final struggle with the titular villain, but instead chizmar chooses what is probably the more true to life ending and I was fine with that. Overall I really enjoyed this work. I was consistently intrigued and didn’t want to put it down. I really enjoyed the author’s style and look forward to picking up other works of his.

I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley.

This book is a novel that has as its conceit that it's actually a true crime story. This sounds like it might be a good idea, or at least an interesting one, but it's flat. It doesn't read like true crime, and, since it's sticking to that premise, it glosses over and eventually ignores the supernatural hints that might make it an effective horror story. I read the whole thing in a day, hoping until the last page that the story would finally take off, but it didn't even have enough style to crash and burn in an interesting way. It just wobbles around for awhile then falls over with a sigh.

Richard Chizmar has graduated college, and in the intervening months before his girlfriend graduates and they get married, he moves back to his parents' house in a small town called Edgewood. While he's there, the town is tormented by the abduction and murder of four teenage girls by a killer called The Boogeyman. Richard writes a true crime book/memoir about this time and then updates it again years later when the killer is finally caught.

Does it make me a bad person that I do not believe nor care that Richard, fictional or otherwise, had such an idyllic, perfect childhood? It's straight out of Andy Griffith, moved a little north, and it's so anodyne and sugary it gave me a toothache. That's the first problem I have with this. The protagonist has no problems. Yeah, girls are getting murdered in his town, but none of it seems to really touch him, and any moments of fear he has are heavily leavened with drinking beer and going fishing. Why am I getting this story from Rich? I can think of half a dozen more interesting characters to center off the top of my head.

Every time this book approaches something interesting or genuinely scary it backs away just as quickly. Examples- There's a scary haunted house in Edgewood. All the neighbor kids are freaked out by it, and do stuff like dare each other to camp out on the lawn at night. Does this go anywhere at all? Is the killer hiding out in the house, or does the history of the house have anything to do with the crimes? Nope. The house stuff is there seemingly to only give Edgewood some personality.
Then there's the killer. When Richard interviews him in prison, he claims to be able to do magical things like walk through walls and be invisible. He also refuses to talk about the number symbols that have shown up at the crime scenes and take up a huge part of Rich and Cathy's investigations. I was certain that we were going to get a super creepy explanation for all of that and it would be horrifying because the killer would say something that would make the reader believe that there was some supernatural force behind his crimes. Nope. It reads like Rich wanted to give his killer some of the trappings that fictional serial killers always have and real ones almost never do, but he couldn't come up with any good reasons for them and he thought they might be creepy enough on their own. They are not. The book is full of this kind of stuff, stuff that should be interesting or scary, but it's just sprinkled around and it never develops into real scares.

I can't recommend this one. Read an actual True Crime book, there's a bunch of good, satisfying ones out there. Or read some actual horror, maybe by Rich's buddy Stephen King or his very talented son Joe Hill.