Becoming the Boogeyman

A worthy and frightening sequel to Chizmar's Chasing the Boogeyman. Terrific storytelling - Stephen King

Back in the summer of 1988, a young Richard Chizmar was catapulted into the centre 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 who an incarcerated Josh Gallagher will speak to, on or off the record. Chizmar likes to believe 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. 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 the hallmarks of Gallagher's reign of terror from thirty years ago now leaves a horrifying calling card in front of Chizmar's home. It's clear there's been a new player on the board in the ongoing game that the Boogeyman controls...

A riveting, haunting sequel to 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.