In the late 80's, in Edgewood, Maryland, a serial killer terrorizes the small community. Burgeoning horror writer, Chizmar, is living at his parents' home in Edgewood, the town where he grew up, awaiting his upcoming marriage. Chizmar and a newspaper reporter friend of his begin doing a little digging of their own and are soon caught up in the investigation and possibly even become targets of the murderer. The genre-bending book is a little hard to explain, but easy to read. Very loosely based on a few facts, but mostly a product of the author's imagination, it's referred to as a "true crime novel". It reads like a mash-up of a good non-fiction true crime story and a good psychological thriller. You can't be sure what's real and what isn't, but it's decidedly creepy and hard to put down..