Chasing the Boogeyman

I spent a lot of this book with my mind in two places - in the story, and wondering where the story and reality meet. As it turns out, the only thing that's real in the story is the author and his memories of his childhood and his town. Which made me feel like I wasted a bunch of mental energy on a book that was overall fine.

Inspired by events in his hometown, Richard Chizmar weaves an interesting blend of memoir and novel creating a faux true-crime piece of fiction. It's an...interesting experiment. Most writers would take his inspiration (a serial “fondler” that was breaking into women's homes in his hometown) and then turn it into pure fiction - but Chizmar wanted to do something very different. The main character is not someone based off him, it is him. The town isn't based off his hometown, it is his hometown. But the events at the center of the story, and the people they pertain to, are entirely fictional.

I think what mostly didn't click with me is the writing style. I don't read a lot of true crime, but it's my understanding there is still plenty of art and style to writing non-fiction. Chizmar's prose is pretty bland - I'm pretty sure this is intentional, but I don't think he needed to go that far with it. His recollections of his hometown and his life border on hokey with their sentimentality, and while its sweet that something like this is written with so much love, I wasn't really looking for something sweet. The mystery at the center - a serial killer attacking and killing teenage girls - feels fairly generic. A decent but forgettable episode of Criminal Minds, basically.

As such, I don't really have much to say about this. The primary appeal of this book is the novelty of what it is, and that it is a fairly easy read. Otherwise, I didn't really get much out of it.