The book I would love to find again is a young-adult novel about a mysterious man that comes to a town with a carnival or circus. I know it sounds like Something Wicked This Way Comes, but it’s not. It is actually so similar to that plot, that it’s pretty much a ripoff. I don’t remember anything else about the book except that the cover was creepy and dark, possibly with a chalk-like drawing on it. I read this one probably around 1987 or 1988. It was a hardcover book and pretty long, at least for me at the time.