14. 'The Boogeyman' and 15. 'Trucks' (both 1973).
The next two stories show what a difference a likeable main character can make. Both The Boogeyman and Trucks are interesting ideas, well executed, but Trucks is, in my opinion, easily the more successful, in the main because the narrator takes us with him. We like him and want him to survive. In The Boogeyman , the final appearance of the monster, come to take away the dreadful Lester Billings, comes as a bit of a relief. The Boogeyman We hear this story through the ears of the psychiatrist Dr Harper, who is listening to the wretched tale of Lester Billings, who claims that each of his three children was murdered by an evil monster they called 'The Boogeyman'. This monster, Billings claims, appeared from the children's closets, each time shortly after Billings insisted upon them moving into their own rooms, against his wife's wishes. Billings is a horrid character, almost entirely unsympathetic in spite of the horrendous trauma he and his family have gone throu...