Author Mazarine Pingeot’s fifth novel, Le Cimetiere des poupees (The Doll Cemetery), is under recent fire since a French family has accused her of exploitation, citing the similarities between the novel’s plot and their real-life infanticide case. The story, about a woman who murders her baby and puts the corpse in the freezer, is quite similar to the real crime of Veronique Courjault, who was arrested last year after her husband turned her in upon finding two infant corpses in the family’s freezer. Known in France as the “frozen babies” case, the couple are set to go on trial later this year. Courjault’s mother is accusing Pingeot of “publicity-seeking and disrespectful exploitation.” Pingeot, herself pregnant with her second child, insists that the story simply chose to examine a universal theme of infanticide and mothers, and has written to the family to explain.