The Alternate Girlfriend by Declan Conner

 

Release date: August 5, 2024

Sub-genres: Psychological thriller, Science Fiction

About The Alternate Girlfriend:

Deceit is the oldest sin as Doug Carter will discover

Doug Carter, is blessed with autism and a brilliant mind, but his sheltered upbringing have led him to a life of isolation. When asked to beta test an AI pen pal site, he sees it as the perfect solution - an AI construct that can't cheat on him and fulfills his desire for a loyal lifetime partner.

Using AI, he creates a pen-pal on his computer in the image of his ex-girlfriend, Doug's reality becomes blurred as the trial takes a dangerous turn when they offer to extend the trial with a humanoid in the image of his ex-girlfriend. And when those with a connection to him start dying in mysterious circumstances, all signs point to Doug as the culprit.

As he races against time to uncover the truth, Doug realizes that his isolation may have been his worst mistake yet. With childhood enemies resurfacing and his own past coming back to haunt him, he must confront the deceit that has been lurking in the shadows all along.

Excerpt:

Doug Carter took a sly look at his friend sat beside him, wondering if he could keep a secret.

The day he sat there among the students at his graduation from university in San Francisco, it was as though he were at a Fourth of July firework display, waiting for it to ignite, and he held the touch paper.

Excitement at his graduation aside, he was beside himself at the good news he’d kept inside his head, and was busting a gut to tell his girlfriend, Donna. It was just as hard for him to have kept the life-changing news from his one and only friend, Gregg, for fear Donna would find out before he could talk to her. Doug shuffled on his seat. His skin crawled as the allotted time approached to make a move to the podium.

“You okay?” Gregg asked.

Doug held out a hand. Fingers shaking.

“Just a little nervous. I’ll be fine.”

Having said that, and with a distaste for crowds, he was just thankful that the audience of students was behind his back, and he’d managed to get a seat on the front row. All the same, anxiety overcame him at thinking all eyes behind him were focused like laser beams at his brain. Gregg nudged him in encouragement to join the line leading to the stage. It took a second more forceful nudge with an elbow to his arm to get him to move. His legs were leaden as he waited in line, nerves on edge for what was to come.

It was his turn to climb the steps and on over to the podium. Doug lowered his head. Cheeks burned like a furnace, while following his footsteps to the podium, fingers trembling. Handed his BSc diploma in computer sciences, he turned to the assembled students and family members, holding his diploma aloft. In the sea of faces, he couldn’t see Donna, but he did pick out the huge grin on Gregg’s face as he gave him a thumbs-up. His chest puffed out in pride at the applause, despite the clapping offending his hearing. At the same time, he sensed his cheeks still rouged in self-conscious embarrassment with all eyes on him. He stepped back down the steps and on over to Gregg, thankful that his ordeal was over, with his insides still tremoring.

“Well done buddy,” said Gregg and they clasped each other’s hand, then shared a shoulder nudge.

“Thanks.”

Presentation over, and after a final motivational speech from the principal, he stood and threw his cap in the air along with the rest of them. An immense sense of self-worth and achievement encompassed him now that the ceremony had concluded. He turned to Gregg, unable to keep his secret any longer before he might implode.

“Hey, guess what? The day couldn’t get any better. Got a job as a programmer at an international accountancy firm. I’m to work in their computer software sales division. Unbelievable salary and perks.”

Amazon

About Declan Conner:

Declan Conner lives something of a nomadic life, travelling and living between Portugal, the UK, and Brazil. Having written thrillers over the past 12 years, lately with the advances of AI, it has led him to speculate on how human interactions with AI will develop in the future, both in the realms of the internet, and with robotics. Hence, his latest psychological thriller, The Alternate Girlfriend.

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The Exorcist's House by Nick Roberts

 

Release date: May 6, 2022

Subgenre: Horror, Psychological Thriller

 

About The Exorcist's House:

This psychological thriller follows a family to their Appalachian farmhouse, where they encounter an unimaginable horror.

In the summer of 1994, psychologist Daniel Hill buys a rustic farmhouse nestled in the rolling hills of West Virginia.

Along with his wife and teenage daughter, the family uproots their lives in Ohio and moves south. They are initially seduced by the natural beauty of the country setting. That soon changes when they discover a hidden room in the basement with a well, boarded shut and adorned with crucifixes.

Local legends about the previous owner being an exorcist come to light, but by then, all Hell has broken loose.

This 1990s horror novel is perfect for fans of family thriller books, stories of demonic possession, exorcism fiction, the occult, or thrillers like The Exorcist, A Head Full of Ghosts, and The Amityville Horror.

Proudly represented by Crystal Lake Publishing—Tales from the Darkest Depths.

 

Excerpt:

 

The old man pressed his cheek against the door and felt warmth from the wood. A child giggled from inside the room.

“Who is that?” the old man asked with excitement.

“You know who it is.”

“Is that…” the old man couldn’t bring himself to say the name of his son who died from a snakebite when he was just eight years old.

“It is,” the female voice replied.

“Daddy?” a child’s voice spoke from behind the door.

The old man dropped to his knees so that he could be face level with his son who he hadn’t seen in decades.

“My boy! Oh, my boy!” he said as he again pressed his face against the door and caressed the wood. The door was getting warmer, but he didn’t mind.

“Daddy, will you come in here with us?”

“Absolutely, my boy,” the old man said as he stood back up, not feeling the ache in his bones any longer. He held the gun in his right hand and used his palm to press against the doorknob to stand up.

Searing pain shot through his nerves as the blazing metal knob burned his skin. He recoiled and looked at the red mark on his hand that had snapped him out of his delirium. His surroundings were now clear to him. He saw the yellow smoke fuming from under the door; he saw the orange glow of dancing flames; he smelled the pungent odor; he thought about the heat of the doorknob.

Hellfire.

The old man could now hear the sounds of the engulfing blaze in the bedroom. The fire roared as it ate its way up the walls and spread across the ceiling and up into the roof through the bedroom.

“Devils!” he shrieked as he raised his gun to the door once more.

He pulled his white undershirt out from the side of his overalls and used it to grip the hot doorknob and push it open. The sudden rush of oxygen into the room caused the fire to flare through the entry and engulf the old man in flames.

He fell to his side and frantically rolled on the floor, screaming for dear life. A charred wooden beam from the ceiling dropped and slammed atop the old man’s chest, breaking his ribs. The air was too hot and smoky to breathe, and he was soon coughing in and out of consciousness. A dark figure grinned down from the burning ceiling. Merle knew the wretched thing would crawl back to the basement once he was dead. It was just enjoying the show for now.

“Gertie…” His voice trailed off as his head rolled to one side. Bloody saliva dripped from his mouth. Visions of his wife and child took shape in the smoke, and his pain subsided.

The flames raged above him until the entire roof collapsed. Smoke twirled through the air until it was caught in a breeze with the fading laughter.

 

Amazon

 

About Nick Roberts: 

 Nick Roberts is a resident of St. Albans, West Virginia and a graduate of Marshall University. He is an active member of the Horror Writers Association and the Horror Authors Guild. His short works have been published in The Blue Mountain Review, Stonecrop Magazine, The Fiction Pool, Haunted MTL, The Indiana Horror Review, and anthologies by publishers, such as J. Ellington Ashton Press and Sinister Smile Press. His novel, Anathema, won Debut Novel of the Year at the 2020-2021 Horror Authors Guild Awards. His second novel, The Exorcist's House, will be released in 2022 by Crystal Lake Publishing

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Doll Crimes by Karen Runge

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?

“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

“Doll Crimes is gut-wrenching, heartbreaking, and so smooth it reads like reality.”—Kaaron Warren, award-winning author of The Grief Hole and Tide of Stone

 

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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