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Plot Summary
The second installment in a series that began with Chasing the Boogeyman, this novel presents itself as a true crime memoir written by a fictionalized version of its real-life author, Richard Chizmar. Though grounded in actual people, places, and autobiographical details from Chizmar's life in Maryland, the crimes, victims, and central mystery are entirely fictional.
The novel opens with fabricated newspaper clippings and media transcripts. In 1988, four teenage girls were murdered in the small town of Edgewood, Maryland, by a killer dubbed "the Boogeyman" for his ability to strike and vanish without a trace. His signature included strangling victims, severing their left ears, leaving bite marks, and posing bodies in public. He also left cryptic messages called "telltales" at crime scenes, including hangman figures that tracked his victim count. In 2019, fifty-four-year-old Joshua Gallagher, a machinist who grew up two blocks from Chizmar, was arrested for all four murders, including the killing of his own younger sister, Natasha. Gallagher agreed to speak only with Chizmar, and the resulting book, Chasing the Boogeyman, became a bestseller and spawned a feature film.
The main narrative begins on June 3, 2022. Chizmar, living in Bel Air, Maryland, with his wife, Kara, is exhausted from promotional tours and weighed down by melancholy. His best friend, veteran journalist Carly Albright, has grown distant after losing her husband, Walter, to cancer. While walking his dog, Chizmar discovers a garbage bag on his property that turns out to contain human remains. He calls Lieutenant Clara McClernan, the Maryland State Police detective who solved the Gallagher case. Security footage shows a figure at 3:25 a.m. carrying the bag in dark clothing and a burlap mask echoing Gallagher's crimes. Gallagher calls from prison to deny involvement. McClernan identifies the victim as Annie Riggs, age fifty-one, the only person to survive Gallagher's 1988 attacks. The murder coincided with the June 2 anniversary of Natasha Gallagher's death, and McClernan warns that the killer is finishing Gallagher's unfinished work.
Chizmar provides background on Gallagher, who was adopted from a Russian orphanage and raised by parents who never disclosed this. Over three years of prison interviews, Chizmar has recorded over seventy hours of conversation with Gallagher, who has become a cultural phenomenon, receiving more fan mail than any other inmate at Cumberland Penitentiary. In recent interviews, Gallagher claims to be physically changing and growing stronger, insisting he is unlike any killer ever captured.
Three days later, sixteen-year-old Peyton Bair is abducted from a swim club parking lot and found dead on a wooden bridge at Winters Run, a location from Chizmar's childhood. She has been strangled and posed, her left ear severed, with bite marks mirroring Gallagher's methods. A hangman figure on her palm displays the number seven, continuing the count from Gallagher's telltale system, which reached six with his final 1988 victim. McClernan suggests the seven blank letters could spell C-H-I-Z-M-A-R.
The community panics. Chizmar reviews home security footage and discovers a masked figure behind his springhouse the same night Peyton was killed. In a parallel narrative, he reveals a secret carried for nearly forty years: in 1983, a coworker named Henry Metheny stalked him and tried to lure him into a car whose interior door handle had been removed. Chizmar escaped by striking Metheny with rebar but never reported the incident. Eight months later, Metheny was arrested for multiple murders, and Chizmar has been haunted by the possibility that his silence cost an innocent life.
Events escalate. The trooper guarding the Chizmar house is called away, and Kara discovers three mannequins hanging from a yard tree with Annie Riggs's severed head attached to one. Investigation reveals the killer exploited blind spots in the security system and left no evidence. McClernan notes the springhouse figure appeared shorter than the man who delivered the garbage bag, suggesting two perpetrators may be involved. When Chizmar offers to leave, Kara refuses, insisting the killer will not drive them from their home.
Carly arrives and reconnects with Chizmar. Watching the footage, she notes something familiar about the masked man's walk. A third victim, seventeen-year-old Mallory Tucker, is found murdered atop Cedar Drive hill, staked to a cross like a scarecrow. This location, like the bridge where Peyton was found, appears in Chizmar's unpublished memoir, meaning the killer has accessed his private files. Cybercrime officers confirm both his laptops were hacked. The bite marks on Mallory match Gallagher's dental records exactly, despite his imprisonment.
While reviewing Gallagher's fan mail, Chizmar and Carly discover embedded clues leading them to a Victorian house from Chizmar's childhood, where they find three objects stolen from his home. At the annual bonfire Chizmar hosts for childhood friends, Jeremy Hollister, Peyton Bair's drunken stepfather, ambushes Chizmar in the woods with an axe handle, blaming him for Peyton's death. Chizmar receives stitches and a concussion.
McClernan confronts Chizmar with evidence that he bribed a prison guard to obtain Gallagher's classified records. Chizmar confesses everything, including the Metheny story, explaining he was trying to understand why two serial killers became entwined with his life. In a final prison interview, Gallagher admits to speaking with the copycat via a smuggled burner phone but claims not to know the killer's identity. He reveals he has watched Chizmar for years and could have killed him at any time. As guards lead him out, Gallagher calls Chizmar "Richie Rich," a nickname that, beyond first-grade classmates, only Metheny ever used, confirming the two killers have communicated. McClernan reveals that Metheny, imprisoned in Georgia, slipped into an unexplained coma the same night Annie Riggs was killed. Carly identifies the masked man's gait as consistent with a shoe insert for a leg-length discrepancy.
The investigation converges on Chizmar's mailman, Daniel Kelly, who wears a shoe insert, and his girlfriend, Alicia Fetterman, who rents Chizmar's childhood home at 920 Hanson Road. Police find a soundproofed garage containing an embalming table with shackles, mannequins in burlap masks, severed ears in the freezer, and fake teeth replicating Gallagher's bite pattern. Kelly cooperates, claiming he acted at Fetterman's direction; investigators believe Fetterman was the controlling architect. Chizmar deduces that Gallagher and Metheny communicated through an online crossword puzzle platform accessible from their prison libraries and concludes the hangman word is M-E-T-H-E-N-Y.
That night, a third conspirator, Sean Phillips, a temporary HVAC worker who had access to the Chizmar home months earlier, breaks in and attacks Chizmar. As he loses consciousness, Kara kills Phillips with a fireplace poker. McClernan tells Chizmar to step away. He and Kara fall asleep on the back porch, Kara assuring him they will be okay.
In a brief epilogue set in July, McClernan calls with devastating news: Gallagher has escaped from Cumberland Penitentiary, vanishing between security checkpoints along with a guard. A hangman figure on his cell wall contains seven blanks in two words. Chizmar knows the answer: ITS TIME.
The novel opens with fabricated newspaper clippings and media transcripts. In 1988, four teenage girls were murdered in the small town of Edgewood, Maryland, by a killer dubbed "the Boogeyman" for his ability to strike and vanish without a trace. His signature included strangling victims, severing their left ears, leaving bite marks, and posing bodies in public. He also left cryptic messages called "telltales" at crime scenes, including hangman figures that tracked his victim count. In 2019, fifty-four-year-old Joshua Gallagher, a machinist who grew up two blocks from Chizmar, was arrested for all four murders, including the killing of his own younger sister, Natasha. Gallagher agreed to speak only with Chizmar, and the resulting book, Chasing the Boogeyman, became a bestseller and spawned a feature film.
The main narrative begins on June 3, 2022. Chizmar, living in Bel Air, Maryland, with his wife, Kara, is exhausted from promotional tours and weighed down by melancholy. His best friend, veteran journalist Carly Albright, has grown distant after losing her husband, Walter, to cancer. While walking his dog, Chizmar discovers a garbage bag on his property that turns out to contain human remains. He calls Lieutenant Clara McClernan, the Maryland State Police detective who solved the Gallagher case. Security footage shows a figure at 3:25 a.m. carrying the bag in dark clothing and a burlap mask echoing Gallagher's crimes. Gallagher calls from prison to deny involvement. McClernan identifies the victim as Annie Riggs, age fifty-one, the only person to survive Gallagher's 1988 attacks. The murder coincided with the June 2 anniversary of Natasha Gallagher's death, and McClernan warns that the killer is finishing Gallagher's unfinished work.
Chizmar provides background on Gallagher, who was adopted from a Russian orphanage and raised by parents who never disclosed this. Over three years of prison interviews, Chizmar has recorded over seventy hours of conversation with Gallagher, who has become a cultural phenomenon, receiving more fan mail than any other inmate at Cumberland Penitentiary. In recent interviews, Gallagher claims to be physically changing and growing stronger, insisting he is unlike any killer ever captured.
Three days later, sixteen-year-old Peyton Bair is abducted from a swim club parking lot and found dead on a wooden bridge at Winters Run, a location from Chizmar's childhood. She has been strangled and posed, her left ear severed, with bite marks mirroring Gallagher's methods. A hangman figure on her palm displays the number seven, continuing the count from Gallagher's telltale system, which reached six with his final 1988 victim. McClernan suggests the seven blank letters could spell C-H-I-Z-M-A-R.
The community panics. Chizmar reviews home security footage and discovers a masked figure behind his springhouse the same night Peyton was killed. In a parallel narrative, he reveals a secret carried for nearly forty years: in 1983, a coworker named Henry Metheny stalked him and tried to lure him into a car whose interior door handle had been removed. Chizmar escaped by striking Metheny with rebar but never reported the incident. Eight months later, Metheny was arrested for multiple murders, and Chizmar has been haunted by the possibility that his silence cost an innocent life.
Events escalate. The trooper guarding the Chizmar house is called away, and Kara discovers three mannequins hanging from a yard tree with Annie Riggs's severed head attached to one. Investigation reveals the killer exploited blind spots in the security system and left no evidence. McClernan notes the springhouse figure appeared shorter than the man who delivered the garbage bag, suggesting two perpetrators may be involved. When Chizmar offers to leave, Kara refuses, insisting the killer will not drive them from their home.
Carly arrives and reconnects with Chizmar. Watching the footage, she notes something familiar about the masked man's walk. A third victim, seventeen-year-old Mallory Tucker, is found murdered atop Cedar Drive hill, staked to a cross like a scarecrow. This location, like the bridge where Peyton was found, appears in Chizmar's unpublished memoir, meaning the killer has accessed his private files. Cybercrime officers confirm both his laptops were hacked. The bite marks on Mallory match Gallagher's dental records exactly, despite his imprisonment.
While reviewing Gallagher's fan mail, Chizmar and Carly discover embedded clues leading them to a Victorian house from Chizmar's childhood, where they find three objects stolen from his home. At the annual bonfire Chizmar hosts for childhood friends, Jeremy Hollister, Peyton Bair's drunken stepfather, ambushes Chizmar in the woods with an axe handle, blaming him for Peyton's death. Chizmar receives stitches and a concussion.
McClernan confronts Chizmar with evidence that he bribed a prison guard to obtain Gallagher's classified records. Chizmar confesses everything, including the Metheny story, explaining he was trying to understand why two serial killers became entwined with his life. In a final prison interview, Gallagher admits to speaking with the copycat via a smuggled burner phone but claims not to know the killer's identity. He reveals he has watched Chizmar for years and could have killed him at any time. As guards lead him out, Gallagher calls Chizmar "Richie Rich," a nickname that, beyond first-grade classmates, only Metheny ever used, confirming the two killers have communicated. McClernan reveals that Metheny, imprisoned in Georgia, slipped into an unexplained coma the same night Annie Riggs was killed. Carly identifies the masked man's gait as consistent with a shoe insert for a leg-length discrepancy.
The investigation converges on Chizmar's mailman, Daniel Kelly, who wears a shoe insert, and his girlfriend, Alicia Fetterman, who rents Chizmar's childhood home at 920 Hanson Road. Police find a soundproofed garage containing an embalming table with shackles, mannequins in burlap masks, severed ears in the freezer, and fake teeth replicating Gallagher's bite pattern. Kelly cooperates, claiming he acted at Fetterman's direction; investigators believe Fetterman was the controlling architect. Chizmar deduces that Gallagher and Metheny communicated through an online crossword puzzle platform accessible from their prison libraries and concludes the hangman word is M-E-T-H-E-N-Y.
That night, a third conspirator, Sean Phillips, a temporary HVAC worker who had access to the Chizmar home months earlier, breaks in and attacks Chizmar. As he loses consciousness, Kara kills Phillips with a fireplace poker. McClernan tells Chizmar to step away. He and Kara fall asleep on the back porch, Kara assuring him they will be okay.
In a brief epilogue set in July, McClernan calls with devastating news: Gallagher has escaped from Cumberland Penitentiary, vanishing between security checkpoints along with a guard. A hangman figure on his cell wall contains seven blanks in two words. Chizmar knows the answer: ITS TIME.
Related Titles
By Richard Chizmar
