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Kiss the Girls and Make Them Die
In the sterile white corridors of a mental ward - and the unexplored passages of the mind - unfolds a novel of heart-clutching terror, with a cast of characters caught inextricably in its lurking
DAN BOLLINGER - Ex-Vietnam vet drifting on a marijuana cloud. Women came to his wilderness cabin, one after another, and never left. He insisted he never killed them - until terrifying mental images made him realize, with startled horror, that he knew the burial sites of each girl, though their deaths remained shrouded in mystery!
ELIZABETH BODAC - Charmed and challenged by Dan’s enigmatic, elusive personality and the riddle locked in his brain, she vowed to discover Dan’s secret - and save him. But was she trying to save a madman, a murderer, or both?
DEBRA BOLLINGER - Dan’s twin sister, a brooding eccentric consumed by a long-standing psychic love for her brother - and a smoldering passion for him that yet threatened to erupt.
DR. JEFFREY KOSSUTH - Head of the mental hospital, he swore Dan was the killer even as he began to write Dan’s 'exclusive' story to sell to the highest bidder. Was he treating a patient, or protecting an investment?
With explosive force and pulsing tension, Charles W. Runyon has created a novel combing the dark mysteries of the mind and the breathless excitement of a first-rate thriller.
DAN BOLLINGER - Ex-Vietnam vet drifting on a marijuana cloud. Women came to his wilderness cabin, one after another, and never left. He insisted he never killed them - until terrifying mental images made him realize, with startled horror, that he knew the burial sites of each girl, though their deaths remained shrouded in mystery!
ELIZABETH BODAC - Charmed and challenged by Dan’s enigmatic, elusive personality and the riddle locked in his brain, she vowed to discover Dan’s secret - and save him. But was she trying to save a madman, a murderer, or both?
DEBRA BOLLINGER - Dan’s twin sister, a brooding eccentric consumed by a long-standing psychic love for her brother - and a smoldering passion for him that yet threatened to erupt.
DR. JEFFREY KOSSUTH - Head of the mental hospital, he swore Dan was the killer even as he began to write Dan’s 'exclusive' story to sell to the highest bidder. Was he treating a patient, or protecting an investment?
With explosive force and pulsing tension, Charles W. Runyon has created a novel combing the dark mysteries of the mind and the breathless excitement of a first-rate thriller.
252 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1977
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42 people want to read
About the author
Charles W. Runyon
46 books2 followersUS author of thrillers and some sf, who began publishing the latter with "First Man in a Satellite" for Super-Science Fiction in December 1958; sixteen further short sf/fantasy stories followed, chiefly for The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. His first sf novel Pig World (1971) depicts a Near-Future USA governed by a right-wing tyranny challenged by a vicious would-be demagogue. Soulmate (April 1970 F&SF; exp 1974) is a novel of possession (see Horror in SF), the victim being a young prostitute. I, Weapon (1974) features much violence and Sex involving Aliens. Runyon's sf tends to be action-filled, without extensive displacement or speculative content.
Runyon was one of several sf authors who ghosted paperback-original thrillers under the Ellery Queen byline.
Runyon was one of several sf authors who ghosted paperback-original thrillers under the Ellery Queen byline.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
March 10, 2021
"Kiss The Girls And Make Them Die" has a title which makes the book sound like a second-rate, campy horror film. You would be mistaken if you thought that Charles Runyon had merely created a cheap, second-rate horror film. This book is filled with poetic words and imagery which are equaled in few other books. It is a story about a serial murder, about drugs and acid trips, about hippies, about mental illness and conning the psychiatrists, about the death penalty, about childhood and family relations.
It is a story which on the surface has some things in common with both John D. MacDonald's "Dress Her In Indigo" (hippies in Mexico, vulnerable people losing touch with the outside world and getting used and taken advantage of of in the malestrom that was the drug-using, free-love, no connections culture) and Ken Kesey's "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest" (a criminal placed in psychiatric hospital with the cuckoos and the shock treatment and is he crazy or just faking it) and even has a nod to Robert Heinlein's "Stranger in a Strange Land" (sharing water, sharing thoughts).
However, this is no pastiche and no imitation. Instead, it is a five-star read all its own that stands as a terrific piece of prose writing with some of the most vivid imagery ever penned whether it is talking about the crazy guy being arrested by the local police, the bodies unearthed in the mud behind the cabin, the hippie women who flocked around Dan Bollinger like so many moths to the flame, or the wild trip through Mexico that takes the reader on a journey to the hippie commune by the sea and the orgies and drug trips by the Pacific Ocean led by a sort of charismatic cult leader.
Just what is so terrific about the imagery here? For one thing, Runyon goes inside Bollinger's mind and explains: "Questions, like lumps of cold clay, plonked his skull. The meanings kept wriggling away, burrowing into the back of his brain." What a great description of Bollinger's drug trip. For Bollinger, words were slipping out of the sheriff's mouth "like little silver fish. If he could catch just one, he could examine it, and the gubble-bubble would start making sense." For Bollinger, "the stars fell out of the sky and broke like icicles." He recalls sitting "on the beach and watch[ing] the sea giving itself up in long coils of froth, white claws scratching the yellow sand." And what goes on in the psych hospital for Bollinger: "The eyes are everywhere. The nightmares of the patients leak out through the bars and hump across the lawn." But the imagery here is not just through Bollinger. Elizabeth, the psychiatrist, goes down to Mexico and what does she experience there: "She could feel the earth tilting beneath her feet, she looked up at the stars spread out like a jeweled fan, like diamonds on velvet, fluttering."
Is this a book about murders? Is it about what it means to be crazy? Is it about the demons that might cause one to kill and kill and kill? There is so much here and so much depth
It is a story which on the surface has some things in common with both John D. MacDonald's "Dress Her In Indigo" (hippies in Mexico, vulnerable people losing touch with the outside world and getting used and taken advantage of of in the malestrom that was the drug-using, free-love, no connections culture) and Ken Kesey's "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest" (a criminal placed in psychiatric hospital with the cuckoos and the shock treatment and is he crazy or just faking it) and even has a nod to Robert Heinlein's "Stranger in a Strange Land" (sharing water, sharing thoughts).
However, this is no pastiche and no imitation. Instead, it is a five-star read all its own that stands as a terrific piece of prose writing with some of the most vivid imagery ever penned whether it is talking about the crazy guy being arrested by the local police, the bodies unearthed in the mud behind the cabin, the hippie women who flocked around Dan Bollinger like so many moths to the flame, or the wild trip through Mexico that takes the reader on a journey to the hippie commune by the sea and the orgies and drug trips by the Pacific Ocean led by a sort of charismatic cult leader.
Just what is so terrific about the imagery here? For one thing, Runyon goes inside Bollinger's mind and explains: "Questions, like lumps of cold clay, plonked his skull. The meanings kept wriggling away, burrowing into the back of his brain." What a great description of Bollinger's drug trip. For Bollinger, words were slipping out of the sheriff's mouth "like little silver fish. If he could catch just one, he could examine it, and the gubble-bubble would start making sense." For Bollinger, "the stars fell out of the sky and broke like icicles." He recalls sitting "on the beach and watch[ing] the sea giving itself up in long coils of froth, white claws scratching the yellow sand." And what goes on in the psych hospital for Bollinger: "The eyes are everywhere. The nightmares of the patients leak out through the bars and hump across the lawn." But the imagery here is not just through Bollinger. Elizabeth, the psychiatrist, goes down to Mexico and what does she experience there: "She could feel the earth tilting beneath her feet, she looked up at the stars spread out like a jeweled fan, like diamonds on velvet, fluttering."
Is this a book about murders? Is it about what it means to be crazy? Is it about the demons that might cause one to kill and kill and kill? There is so much here and so much depth
March 25, 2017
KISS THE GIRLS AND MAKE THEM DIE by Charles Runyon is the story of Dan Bollinger, a Vietnam vet awarded for bravery but now a recluse in a cabin in the woods where he is a habitual marijuana smoker and has had several female visitors over time. Dan is arrested when they find the bodies of several of the women in close proximity to his remote cabin, and it looks like a slam dunk case for the authorities to link him to the murders, but he first must undergo a psychiatric evaluation to determine if he is mentally capable of being tried for the murders.
Dr. Elizabeth Bodac is assigned the case, and is intrigued with Dan who has charm and seems to have had power over women. Debra, Dan's twin sister, and the story of their childhood and father's suicide are factors that have played a part in the development of Dan's life.
Elizabeth becomes obsessed with Dan to the point of wanting his freedom at any cost, and becomes completely irrational in her behavior and professional conduct not to mention her own decisions regarding her private life.
Overall this was a book that was really intriguing and exiting, but unbelievable in places with events that took place, and suffered from a lead character in Elizabeth that was really annoying with her interactions with others and poor decisions made almost every step of the way. Runyon added some twists and turns that kept things interesting, and the final outcome was well done.
I listened to an audio copy of this book, and I have to say that the Ray Porter once again does a great job and is definitely my favorite narrator hands down, books read by him should get an extra half star.
4 stars.
Dr. Elizabeth Bodac is assigned the case, and is intrigued with Dan who has charm and seems to have had power over women. Debra, Dan's twin sister, and the story of their childhood and father's suicide are factors that have played a part in the development of Dan's life.
Elizabeth becomes obsessed with Dan to the point of wanting his freedom at any cost, and becomes completely irrational in her behavior and professional conduct not to mention her own decisions regarding her private life.
Overall this was a book that was really intriguing and exiting, but unbelievable in places with events that took place, and suffered from a lead character in Elizabeth that was really annoying with her interactions with others and poor decisions made almost every step of the way. Runyon added some twists and turns that kept things interesting, and the final outcome was well done.
I listened to an audio copy of this book, and I have to say that the Ray Porter once again does a great job and is definitely my favorite narrator hands down, books read by him should get an extra half star.
4 stars.
July 14, 2017
"Kiss The Girls And Make Them Die" has a title which makes the book sound like a second-rate, campy horror film. You would be mistaken if you thought that Charles Runyon had merely created a cheap, second- rate horror film. This book is filled with poetic words and imagery which are equaled in few other books. It is a story about a serial murder, about drugs and acid trips, about hippies, about mental illness and conning the psychiatrists, about the death penalty, about childhood and family relations.
It is a story which on the surface has some things in common with both John D. MacDonald's "Dress Her In Indigo" (hippies in Mexico, vulnerable people losing touch with the outside world and getting used and taken advantage of of in the malestrom that was the drug-using, free-love, no connections culture) and Ken Kesey's "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest" (a criminal placed in psychiatric hospital with the cuckoos and the shock treatment and is he crazy or just faking it) and even has a nod to Robert Heinlein's "Stranger in a StrangeLand" (sharing water, sharing thoughts).
However, this is no pastiche and no imitation. Instead, it is a five-star read all its own that stands as a terrific piece of prose writing with some of the most vivid imagery ever penned whether it is talking about the crazy guy being arrested by the local police, the bodies unearthed in the mud behind the cabin, the hippie women who flocked around Dan Bollinger like so many moths to the flame, or the wild trip through Mexico that takes the reader on a journey to the hippie commune by the sea and the orgies and drug trips by the Pacific Ocean led by a sort of charismatic cult leader.
Just what is so terrific about the imagery here? For one thing, Runyon goes inside Bollinger's mind and explains: "Questions, like lumps of cold clay, plonked his skull. The meanings kept wriggling away, burrowing into the back of his brain." What a great description of Bollinger's drug trip. For Bollinger, words were slipping out of the sheriff's mouth "like little silver fish. If he could catch just one, he could examine it, and the gubble-bubble would start making sense." For Bollinger, "the stars fell out of the sky and broke like icicles." He recalls sitting "on the beach and watch[ing] the sea giving itself up in long coils of froth, white claws scratching the yellow sand." And what goes on in the psych hospital for Bollinger: "The eyes are everywhere. The nightmares of the patients leak out through the bars and hump across the lawn." But the imagery here is not just through Bollinger. Elizabeth, the psychiatrist, goes down to Mexico and what does she experience there: "She could feel the earth tilting beneath her feet, she looked up at the stars spread out like a jeweled fan, like diamonds on velvet, fluttering."
Is this a book about murders? Is it about what it means to be crazy? Is it about the demons that might cause one to kill and kill and kill? There is so much here and so much depth.
It is a story which on the surface has some things in common with both John D. MacDonald's "Dress Her In Indigo" (hippies in Mexico, vulnerable people losing touch with the outside world and getting used and taken advantage of of in the malestrom that was the drug-using, free-love, no connections culture) and Ken Kesey's "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest" (a criminal placed in psychiatric hospital with the cuckoos and the shock treatment and is he crazy or just faking it) and even has a nod to Robert Heinlein's "Stranger in a StrangeLand" (sharing water, sharing thoughts).
However, this is no pastiche and no imitation. Instead, it is a five-star read all its own that stands as a terrific piece of prose writing with some of the most vivid imagery ever penned whether it is talking about the crazy guy being arrested by the local police, the bodies unearthed in the mud behind the cabin, the hippie women who flocked around Dan Bollinger like so many moths to the flame, or the wild trip through Mexico that takes the reader on a journey to the hippie commune by the sea and the orgies and drug trips by the Pacific Ocean led by a sort of charismatic cult leader.
Just what is so terrific about the imagery here? For one thing, Runyon goes inside Bollinger's mind and explains: "Questions, like lumps of cold clay, plonked his skull. The meanings kept wriggling away, burrowing into the back of his brain." What a great description of Bollinger's drug trip. For Bollinger, words were slipping out of the sheriff's mouth "like little silver fish. If he could catch just one, he could examine it, and the gubble-bubble would start making sense." For Bollinger, "the stars fell out of the sky and broke like icicles." He recalls sitting "on the beach and watch[ing] the sea giving itself up in long coils of froth, white claws scratching the yellow sand." And what goes on in the psych hospital for Bollinger: "The eyes are everywhere. The nightmares of the patients leak out through the bars and hump across the lawn." But the imagery here is not just through Bollinger. Elizabeth, the psychiatrist, goes down to Mexico and what does she experience there: "She could feel the earth tilting beneath her feet, she looked up at the stars spread out like a jeweled fan, like diamonds on velvet, fluttering."
Is this a book about murders? Is it about what it means to be crazy? Is it about the demons that might cause one to kill and kill and kill? There is so much here and so much depth.
November 25, 2012
A fine psycological noir. Dan is convicted of mass murder but his psychiatrist, Liz, is not sure of his guilt. We get into the psychedelic drug culture as Liz looks for answers. Strong characters and exciting plot. I guessed the end early on, but was pulled into reading to see how Liz would find the truth: is Dan a killer or not?
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews