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On the Lips of Children

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On the Lips of Children

By: Mark Matthews
Narrated by: Bob Dunsworth
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Meet Macon. Tattoo artist. Athlete. Family man.

He's planning to run a marathon, but the event becomes something terrible.

During a warm-up run, Macon falls prey to a bizarre man and his wife who dwell in an underground drug-smuggling tunnel. They raise their twin children in a way Macon couldn't imagine: Skinning unexpecting victims for food and money.

And Macon, and his family, are next.

©2013 Mark Matthews (P)2014 Mark Matthews
Horror Suspense Thriller & Suspense Scary
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Critic reviews

“An ordinary running trail becomes the most terrifying place on the planet for Mark Matthews' troubled, likeable, marathon-running, tattooed, hipster protagonists and their young daughter. But, for the horror-show clan living under that trail - who subsist on flesh and bath salts in a nightmare orgy of blood and crazy - the hipsters are a rare treat indeed. As the family v. family showdown transpires underground and off the beaten path, the vulnerability of running on a trail - alone but for the watchers in the woods - makes the setting unique and well-crafted. Written with verve, surprising compassion, and bite, On the Lips of Children is a seriously demented must read.” (Sacha Z. Scoblic, author of Unwasted: My Lush Sobriety)
“Mark Matthews' On the Lips of Children is a sprint down a path of high-adrenaline terror that never offers the comfort of monsters you can dismiss by reminding yourself ‘there's no such thing as...’ The story alternates between harsh reality and an almost dream-like surreality while never losing sight of the real heart of good storytelling. Matthews demonstrates that you don't have far down to go to reach the underworld, yet the road back up is a lot harder run than anyone is prepared to make.” (Bracken MacLeod, author of Mountain Home)
On the Lips of Children by Mark Matthews, is a dark, terrifying page-turner. It's Stephen King's Misery on bath salts. In a cave. It scared the crap out of me. The story was original. The characters were fascinating, exposing the reader to worlds foreign to most of us. Matthews has a knack for pacing his story then jolting the reader with a frightening plot twist. I was impressed by how he wrapped up the ending. Read this book.” (Michele Miller, author of The Thirteenth Step: Zombie Recovery, an Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award quarterfinalist)
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