Night Worms Customer Review: CHASING THE BOOGEYMAN by Richard Chizmar

CHASING THE BOOGEYMAN by Richard Chizmar

#1 Release in Supernatural Thrillers!

TW/CW: Kidnapping, Rape, Murder, Mutilation of Humans, Killing/Mutilation of Animals, and Suicide

In the summer of 1988, four teenage girls are kidnapped and murdered in Edgewood, Maryland. Recent college graduate Richard Chizmar is moving back to his hometown in preparation for his upcoming wedding and into the middle of the chaos that is unfolding. 

Focusing on writing and starting his magazine, Richard can’t help but get drawn into the investigation surrounding the murders of the girls. Along with his friend newspaper reporter Carly Armstrong, Chizmar sets out to assist police by piecing together clues left by the killer in hopes of finding the identity of “The Boogeyman” before he kills again. 

“Chasing the Boogeyman” has been high on my Must-Read List of 2021, and it lived up to the hype and then some. A combination of memoir/love letter to his hometown and metafiction that reads like a true crime novel. More than once while reading, I had to stop myself from googling the names of the victims in the story or to look for updates on the killer because I forgot that the story isn’t true. To be able to create such an expansive world where your reader gets deeply immersed to the point where they forget that the circumstances aren’t real, to me, that is a sign of a great storyteller. Chizmar is a great storyteller.

5/5 Stars

All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Brandi Guarino is a voracious reader and has a To Be Read list that never ends. She is passionate and committed to championing the work of independent writers and publishers in horror, science fiction, and fantasy. She is on Twitter at @bgbibliophile and Instagram at www.instagram.com/brandi_the_bibliophile.