What Richard Chizmar has said about Chasing the Boogeyman

Chizmar says the first Boogeyman book was never intended to have a sequel.

“Especially because there was never supposed to be a second book”

Morbid: Morbid Book Club: Killing The Boogeyman by Richard Chizmar (Sep 25, 2026) · Listen from 1:35

Chizmar says he deliberately placed photographs at the end of each chapter rather than in a central insert as true crime books do.

“So I knew I wanted photos and I knew I wanted to put them at the end of each chapter”

Morbid: Morbid Book Club: Killing The Boogeyman by Richard Chizmar (Sep 25, 2026) · Listen from 4:51

Chizmar says the first book used real names of his friends and parents and functioned largely as a memoir, with only the murders invented.

“everyone's names are all my true friends' names. I like my parents' names. It was just, it was a memoir in a lot of ways”

Morbid: Morbid Book Club: Killing The Boogeyman by Richard Chizmar (Sep 25, 2026) · Listen from 20:17

Chizmar says he learned the book's success came from readers relating their own childhoods to it rather than from interest in him.

“it was never about me in the first place. It was about how they related to it”

Morbid: Morbid Book Club: Killing The Boogeyman by Richard Chizmar (Sep 25, 2026) · Listen from 46:48

Chizmar considers Chasing the Boogeyman closer to a thriller than a traditional horror novel.

“I still think Chasing the Boogeyman in a lot of ways is more of a thriller than it is a traditional horror novel”

Morbid: Morbid Book Club: Killing The Boogeyman by Richard Chizmar (Sep 25, 2026) · Listen from 1:57:36