The Color of Evil, Wilson Connie Corcoran

Tad McGreevy has a power that he has never revealed, not even to his life-long best friend, Stevie Scranton. When Tad looks at others, he sees colors. These auras tell Tad whether a person is good or evil. At night, Tad dreams about the evil-doers, reliving their crimes in horrifyingly vivid detail.

But Tad doesnt know if the evil acts he witnesses in his nightmares are happening now, are already over, or are going to occur in the future. He has no control over the horrifying visions. He has been told (by his parents) never to speak of his paranormal power. All Tad knows is that he wants to protect those he loves. And he wants the bad dreams to stop.

At Tads eighth birthday party (April 1, 1995) in Cedar Falls, Iowa, the clown his parents hire to entertain Tads third-grade classmates is one of the bad people. Pogo, the Killer Clown (aka Michael Clay) is a serial killer. So begins 53 nights of terror as Tad relives Pogos crime, awakens screaming, and recites the terrifying details to his disbelieving family. The situation becomes so dire that Tad is hospitalized in a private institution under the care of a psychiatrist---who also does not believe the small boys stories of having paranormal power.

And then the police arrest Pogo, the Killer Clown. Flash forward to the beginning of Tads junior year in high school, 8 years later. Tad is 16 and recovered from the spring of his third-grade year. When Michael Clay was caught and imprisoned, the crime spree ended and so did Tads bad dreams.