Examines the figure of the bogeyman, monster and other figures of male terror in literature, mythology, folk tale, jokes and lullaby.

Ogres and giants, bogeymen and bugaboos embody some of our deepest fears, dominating popular fiction, from tales such as 'Jack the Giant Killer' to the cannibal monster Hannibal Lecter, from the Titans of Greek mythology to the dinosaurs of JURASSIC PARK, from Frankenstein to MEN IN BLACK. Following her brilliant study of fairy tales, FROM THE BEAST TO THE BLONDE, Marina Warner's enthralling new book explores the ever increasing presence of such figures of male terror, and the stratagems we invent to allay the monsters we conjure up. From ogres to cradle songs, from bananas to cannibals, Warner traces the roots of our commonest anxieties, unravelling with vigorous intelligence, originality and relish, the myths and fears which define our sensibilities. Illustrated with a wealth of images - from the beautiful and the bizarre to the downright scary - this is a tour de force of scholarship and imagination.

Everyday life in Bogeydom is examined as Fungus the Bogeyman describes the skills of scaring people in the nighttime and living underground amidst slime and grime in the daytime.

A year after the death of her husband, Blythe Wyndham moves with her four-year-old daughter, Maddie, back to the small town where she grew up. But soon after they move in to their new home, strange things begin to happen. Maddie has disturbingly intense nightmares—so intense that Blythe fears one night she may not be able to awaken her daughter. A psychologist explains that Maddie's dreams are simply the result of her father's death, but Blythe knows something else is wrong. Because she's also heard the ghostly tapping at her daughter's window…. Convinced the house is haunted, Blythe researches the town's history and discovers that a little girl had been brutally murdered in the area twenty-five years ago. Could there be some connection between this dead child and Maddie? With the help of Sheriff Cade Jackson, Blythe tries to separate past horrors from present dangers and struggles to distinguish the real from the imagined. But someone is clearly determined to keep a secret—and will kill again to do so.

Warned that the Bogeyman will turn him into salt if he is naughty, Peter sets out to catch the Bogeyman and turn HIM into salt.

"In the summer of 1988, the mutilated bodies of several missing girls begin to turn up in a small Maryland town. The grisly evidence leads police to the terrifying assumption that a serial killer is on the loose in the quiet suburb. But soon a rumor begins to spread that the evil stalking local teens is not entirely human. Law enforcement, as well as members of the FBI are certain that the killer is a living, breathing madman--and he's playing games with them. For a once peaceful community trapped in the depths of paranoia and suspicion, it feels like a nightmare that will never end"--

The New York Times bestselling author “gives a master class on true crime reporting in Bogeyman. He writes with both muscle and heart” (Gregg Olsen, #1 New York Times bestselling author). Bogeyman describes in dramatic detail and with heartrending poignancy the efforts of tenacious Texas lawmen to solve the cold case murders of three little girls and hold serial child killer David Elliot Penton accountable for his horrific crimes. From the book: “For years he’d stalked elementary schools and playground looking for young girls from low-income neighborhoods to abduct, rape and murder. He thought of them as ‘throwaway kids’—hardly missed, and soon forgotten, except by those who loved them. He was every parent’s worst nightmare. The bogeyman they warned their children about . . . the fiend who lurked outside bedroom windows.” “Absorbing and haunting! Bogeyman spills creepily across the page with Steve Jackson’s hellacious verve and insight, reminding us there are few better explorers of the American berserk.”—Ron Franscell, bestselling author of Alice & Gerald: A Homicidal Love Story “Steve Jackson’s latest, Bogeyman, reveals a living, breathing nightmare that haunted parents, as well as detectives. Be sure to add it to your reading list if you’re a fan of true crime books.”—Aaron Habel, host of Generation Why Podcast “There are true crime books that just lay out the facts, and there are true crime books that pull you deeply into a world. Jackson writes deeply . . . It’s all in Bogeyman, a fascinating, well-paced read about the lows and highs of cold case investigations.”—Katherine Ramsland, bestselling author and professor of forensic psychology, in Psychology Today