Release date: November 8, 2019
Subgenre: Horror
About Doll Crimes:
‘It’s not that there aren’t good people in the world. It’s that the
bad ones are so much easier to find.’
A teen mother raises her daughter on a looping road trip, living hand-to-mouth in motel rest stops and backwater towns, stepping occasionally into the heat and chaos of the surrounding cities. A life without permanence, filled with terrors and joys, their stability is dependent on the strangers—and strange men—they meet along the way. But what is the difference between the love of a mother, and the love of a friend? And in a world with such blurred lines, where money is tight and there’s little outside influence, when does the need to survive slide into something more sinister?
A teen mother raises her daughter on a looping road trip, living hand-to-mouth in motel rest stops and backwater towns, stepping occasionally into the heat and chaos of the surrounding cities. A life without permanence, filled with terrors and joys, their stability is dependent on the strangers—and strange men—they meet along the way. But what is the difference between the love of a mother, and the love of a friend? And in a world with such blurred lines, where money is tight and there’s little outside influence, when does the need to survive slide into something more sinister?
“From page 1, Runge grabs you by the hand and drags you along. Her
protagonist is a bird in constant flight, beautiful, brittle,
broken−but there’s gold in her fractures, holding her together as
she soars on thermals of simmering rage. Doll Crimes is an exquisite, painful, heartbreaking meditation on memory
and of the evil that men—and women—do.”—Angela Slatter, award-winning author of The Bitterwood Bible
“Karen Runge is writing some of the darkest, most unsettling,
gritty horror out there. A mix of The Girl Next Door, Requiem for a Dream, Hard Candy, and The Last Exit to Brooklyn there is no looking away from the tragedy on these gripping
pages. An uneasy tale told with no apologies, you will walk away
from this story heartbroken.”—Richard Thomas, author of Disintegration, and the Thriller-nominated Breaker
Excerpt:
“Okay
kitten,” my mother says as we speed-walk across the parking lot. “Stay right by
me for the next few blocks, okay?”
I
wouldn’t know where else to go, but this is something she always says after
what she calls a ‘paper-tiger heist’. The famous paper tiger, a cut-out form
that fools only the utterly gullible or the absolutely stupid. My mother, she’s
not made of paper, though. The tiger in her has teeth. Scarlet-marked and all.
That
we’ve just risked a major scene for some milk and crackers, it’s not important.
Adrenalin, endorphins, the sweet mayhem-jolt anxiety and excitement make when
they swirl into each other. My heart pounds. My throat is swollen with all the
giggles I’m keeping trapped down there. Scary as it is right now, it’s also
sort of funny. Later it’ll be hilarious.
“Try
to look innocent,” she tells me over her shoulder, half-smile,
fast-stepping in her heels. I’ve never seen any other woman walk so fast with
spikes on her feet. Battered concrete or rough country road, my mother steps
like all the world is her linoleum.
The
box of crackers slides out from under the clasp of her jacket—it thuds against
the concrete and rolls onto a battered side. Probably all shattered in there,
now.
“Goddammit,”
she mumbles, pausing to snatch the box up, glancing at me through the fall of
her hair.
I
raise an eye at her, flash her the tube of lubricant, the carton of eggs. I
lifted them right out of those tight-clenched baskets while their holders gazed
in stunned outrage at my mother’s shining-smile antics. I could’ve swirled
these items over my head on the way out, shrieking, and nobody would’ve
noticed. Back there, I was that invisible and she was that bright.
“My
girl.” She grins.
Without
having to try this time, I smile.
I
don’t know where we’re going, but she leads us. My momma in her pretty spiked
shoes, with her lovely dark lips. Her blonde hair glittering, her silhouette
stark as black velvet tossed on tall flames. Like an angel on fire. Like a
shadow thrown against the sun.
Amazon
About Karen Runge:
Karen Runge is an author and visual artist based in South Africa. She is the author of
‘Seven Sins: Stories’ from Concord Free Press, ‘Seeing Double’ from
Grey Matter Press, and ‘Doll Crimes’ from Crystal Lake Publishing.
Never shy of darker themes in horror fiction, she has been dubbed
'The Queen of Extreme' and 'Princess of Pain' by various bloggers
and book reviewers. Jack Ketchum once said in response to one of
her stories: 'Karen, you scare me.'
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