I have been suffering from the slump of all slumps over the past few weeks. I haven’t been able to concentrate on a single book, and have abandoned more than a few. For anyone who has suffered from a book slump, you’ll understand how frustrating it is to want to read without actually being able to settle into a book.

Then, along comes Richard Chizmar’s novel Chasing the Boogeyman. Although I was familiar with Chizmar’s name (he has co-authored three books with Stephen King), this was the first time I have ever read anything by him and it was a thoroughly enjoyable experience. I started and finished the book in a couple of sittings. #slumpbuster

Chasing the Boogeyman is a novel, but it reads like true crime. That’s because Chizmar himself is purportedly telling the story of the summer after college when he returns home to Edgewood, Maryland to write, assemble his horror magazine, Cemetery Dance – a publication that actually does exist – and save money before he gets married.

Just before Chizmar arrives back home in 1988, a young girl was taken from her bedroom in the middle of the night, her savaged body discovered in the woods the next day. Over the coming weeks, more girls end up dead.

I can’t explain how or why it happened the way it did, the timing of me being back there on Hudson Road when the murders occurred. […] I was there. I was a witness. And, somehow, the monster’s story became my own.

With the help of a high school friend who works at the local newspaper, Chizmar begins to try to piece together what happened to the victims. Although Edgewood wasn’t crime-free before these horrific murders, “no one could remember anything remotely this violent or depraved. It was almost as an invisible switch had been thrown….”

Chasing the Boogeyman is a clever and compelling (fake) true crime book complete with photos, that is also a nostalgic look at coming home again. It is clear that Chizmar is a fan of the genre and he certainly does it justice here. I really enjoyed my read and I would definitely read more by this author.