ONCE UPON A TIME LIKE YOU'VE NEVER READ IT BEFORE . . .
DI Lyla Rondell is on the case of a lifetime. Tasked with investigating a series of perplexing deaths, the only lead she has is that each appears to be based on a different classic fairy tale. Far from the stuff of bedtime stories, the press is having a field day with what they have named the Grimm Ripper Murders.
But as the bodies stack up, Lyla’s whole world is about to flip on its head. Because the killer’s bloody trail stretches deep into her own origin story, and when she discovers the truth, nothing will ever be the same again.
Faced with the fact that everything she knows is fiction, Lyla will have to take a little creative license of her own if she’s going to turn the final page on the killings . . .
Little Red Death is described as "A mind-bending murder mystery like nothing you've read before". Well consider my mind well and truly bent - I didn't know whether I was coming or going!
I love fairy tale retellings so I wanted to read this book as soon as I heard about it and it's a clever idea, although it sometimes felt a bit too clever for me. I didn't particularly like any of the characters, although there is a very good reason for that (no spoilers here through). One of the characters is an author who is forced to write dark fairy tales for the Grimm Ripper to bring to life and I rather enjoyed the book within a book part of the story.
There are some dark and gory scenes to shock and delight the reader and they are very vividly described. I sometimes struggled a little with the descriptive writing as I just didn't get some of the analogies but they were quite entertaining.
Little Red Death is an entertaining read that is imaginative and very dark. I think it might appeal more to fantasy readers than crime thriller fans but give it a read and make your own mind up.
I received to read an ARC and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.
My rating:
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About the author:
A. K. (ALEXANDRA) BENEDICT is a best-selling, award-winning writer of short stories, novels and scripts. Educated at Cambridge, Sussex and Clown School, she has been an indie-rock singer, an actor, RLF Fellow, and a composer for film and TV, as well as teaching and running the prestigious MA in Crime Thrillers at City University. She is now a full-time writer and creative coach.
As A. K. Benedict, she writes acclaimed short stories, high-concept novels and award-winning audio drama for Big Finish, Audible UK, Audible US and BBC Sounds, among others. She won the Scribe Award for her Doctor Who radio drama, The Calendar Man, and was shortlisted for the eDunnit Novel Award for The Beauty of Murder and the BBC Audio Drama Podcast Award for Children of the Stones. As Alexandra Benedict she writes puzzle-filled Christmas mysteries, of which The Christmas Murder Game and Murder on the Christmas Express were both bestsellers and The Christmas Murder Game was longlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger. Her most recent festive thriller, The Christmas Jigsaw Murders, was published in 2023.
She lives on the south coast of England with writer Guy Adams, their daughter, Verity, and dog, Dame Margaret Rutherford.
Follow her on X @ak_benedict and Instagram @a.k.benedict.
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