Becoming the Boogeyman

by Richard Chizmar

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

If you enjoy guesswork and being glued to the edge of your seat, this is the book (and series) for you. With an intricately woven plot and seemingly unlimited thrills, you won’t be able to stop turning pages. Nor will you want to.

The “worthy and frightening sequel” (Stephen King) to the acclaimed and “unforgettable” (Harlan Coben) New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling novel Chasing the Boogeyman.

Back in the summer of 1988, a young Richard Chizmar was catapulted into the center of a living nightmare as the serial killer Joshua Gallagher—dubbed by the media as “The Boogeyman”—stalked his tranquil Maryland town. A lot has changed in the intervening years.

These days, Chizmar enjoys a certain level of celebrity and notoriety himself, being the only person that an incarcerated Josh Gallagher will speak to on or off the record. Chizmar likes to believe that he’s doing the world a public service by visiting Gallagher in prison, as there are plenty of other nameless victims out there who Gallagher might finally admit to killing and bring closure to grieving loved ones, and a dark rhythm and routine begin to take hold. But Chizmar eventually finds there’s a price to be paid for dancing with the devil, when a masked figure with all the hallmarks of Gallagher’s reign of terror from thirty years ago now leaves a horrifying calling card in front of Chizmar’s home, and it’s clear there’s a new player on the board in the ongoing game that the Boogeyman controls…

A riveting, haunting sequel to the New York Times bestselling thriller Chasing the Boogeyman, this is a tale of obsession and the adulation of evil, exploring modern society’s true crime infatuation with unflinching honesty, sparing no one from the glare of the spotlight. Will those involved walk away from the story of a lifetime in order to keep their loved ones safe? Or will they once again be drawn into a killer’s web? As the story draws to its shattering conclusion, only one person holds all the answers—and he just may be the most terrifying monster of them all.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781668009185
Publisher:	Gallery Books
Publication date:	10/10/2023
Series:	Richard Chizmar's Boogeyman Series , #2
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	448
Sales rank:	40,087
File size:	24 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Richard Chizmar is the coauthor (with Stephen King) of the New York Times bestselling novella Gwendy’s Button Box and Gwendy’s Final Task, and the solo novella Gwendy’s Magic Feather. Recent books include the New York Times bestsellers Becoming the Boogeyman and Chasing the Boogeyman, The Girl on the Porch, The Long Way Home, his fourth short story collection, and Widow’s Point, a chilling tale about a haunted lighthouse cowritten with his son Billy Chizmar, which was recently made into a feature film. His short fiction has appeared in dozens of publications, including Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine and The Year’s 25 Finest Crime and Mystery Stories. He has won two World Fantasy awards, four International Horror Guild awards, and the HWA’s Board of Trustees award. Chizmar’s work has been translated into more than fifteen languages throughout the world, and he has appeared at numerous conferences as a writing instructor, speaker, panelist, and guest of honor. Follow him on Twitter @RichardChizmar, or visit his website at RichardChizmar.com.

Editorial Reviews

08/21/2023

In this clever but overstuffed sequel to Chizmar’s 2021 bestseller Chasing the Boogeyman, the author again brings a metafictional approach to the serial killer thriller. Decades after the first book’s Boogeyman killings in Edgewood, Md., journalist and horror writer Rich—who is closely patterned on Chizmar—finds a garbage bag filled with human remains while walking his dog. They belong to Annie Riggs, the sole survivor of the Boogeyman’s 1980s killing spree, and Rich, who became a key figure in that investigation, is thrust back into the spotlight. As media attention about a potential copycat killer starts to overwhelm Rich and threaten his marriage, more girls begin to disappear; when their bodies are found, each is missing an ear. Reluctantly, Rich investigates once again. Sections about Rich’s childhood in Edgewood (formatted as bits of an in-progress memoir) possess a certain Stand by Me charm, and his visits to the Boogeyman in prison vibrate with the intensity of Clarice Starling and Hannibal Lecter’s interactions in The Silence of the Lambs. But the novel’s ambitious structure, which folds news clippings and reviews of the last book into the narrative, sometimes weighs down the central mystery too much. Still, fans of the first book will likely be satisfied. Agent: Kristin Nelson, Nelson Literary. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

Becoming the Boogeyman is a worthy and frightening sequel to Chizmar’s Chasing the Boogeyman. Terrific storytelling. You won’t be disappointed.” —Stephen King

“Becoming the Boogeyman is a compulsive, utterly immersive twist of fact and fiction. Richard Chizmar masterfully blends reality and imagination to deliver something wholly original and totally gripping from start to finish. I couldn’t stop turning the pages, even when I wanted to turn away. Don’t miss this edge-of-your seat chiller that will keep you guessing—and guessing again.” —Lisa Unger

“Becoming the Boogeyman is at times almost unbearably suspenseful and at times incredibly poignant. Richard Chizmar delves deep into our worst fears and touches the darkness that lives there. An amazing book.” —S. A. Cosby

“Becoming the Boogeyman is Richard Chizmar at his most original and creative. A book that is as fun as it is smart and scary. I love the Boogeyman books so much!” —Caroline Kepnes

“A deliciously chilling follow-up to Chasing the Boogeyman—suspenseful, unsettling, and absolutely compelling. I couldn’t put it down.” —Meg Gardiner

“Richard Chizmar has pulled off one hell of a sequel, delivering the rare thriller that is truly original and unlike anything else you’ll read this year. While the tension is high and the chills plentiful, it is the human heart of the book that lingers once the tale is told.” —Michael Koryta

“Sinuous and twisting and utterly unputdownable, Becoming the Boogeyman slices deep from the start and twists the knife until the very end. I was terrified, moved, and gripped by turns. A tour de force.” —Catriona Ward

“Chasing the Boogeyman was brilliant. Becoming the Boogeyman is even better. An engrossing mystery, a chilling portrayal of obsession, and a terrifying take on how we commercialize evil and condemn the innocent. Fascinating, gruesome, heartbreaking, and chilling. This is masterful storytelling that will hold you in its icy claws to the very bitter end.” —C. J. Tudor

"Richard Chizmar knows his way around a frightening story...deeply unsettling...[he] blends reality and fantasy in a way that can only be described as intoxicating: heightening your emotions, blunting your skepticism, and luring you into trouble." —Vanity Fair

“Like its predecessor, Chasing the Boogeyman, this is a novel that masquerades as fact, and does so to startling effect, the reader never quite knowing what is fact and what is fiction. And like his friend and former co-author Stephen King, Chizmar is a master of capturing the horrors beneath the surface of suburbia. King would certainly approve here—this is stunning.” —Daily Mail (UK)

From the Publisher

A compulsive, utterly immersive twist of fact and fiction…I couldn’t stop turning the pages, even when I wanted to turn away. Don’t miss this edge-of-your seat chiller that will keep you guessing—and guessing again.”

New York Times bestselling author Lisa Unger

Terrific storytelling. You won’t be disappointed.”

#1 New York Times bestselling author Stephen King

Will chill you to the bone.”

author of Look Both Ways Linwood Barclay