*I received a free copy of this book, with thanks to the author, Simon & Schuster and Anne Cater of Random Things Blog Tours. The decision to review and my opinions are my own.*
Blurb: 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 . . .
Imagine a James Patterson thriller, crossed with the film Inception, crossed with a battered and dog-eared old copy of Grimm’s fairy tales, and you will still be surprised by the twists and turns this novel takes!
The plot starts off as a fairly straightforward thriller mystery with a fantastic hook – the killer has kidnapped a writer and is forcing her to write fairy tale templates for his murders, while the detective in charge of the investigation is an expert in fairy tale lore and is searching for her own lost Snow White love. I was absolutely entranced.
There are hints throughout that all isn’t quite what it seems, but it still came as a sudden shock when the story turned metaphysical (or meta-literary) and all of the characters had to be seen from an entirely different perspective – fiction within fiction, within fiction! I suspect that this wouldn’t be for everyone, but I have always been a fan of fourth-wall breaking and genre-bending, so I was fully on board with this speculative direction and happy to follow the author deep into the dark woods of her imagination, even when I lost sight of the guiding breadcrumbs and mushroom connections at times.
Deliciously dark and delightfully surreal, this is a twisty thrill of a story for fairy tale fans, book worms and lovers of the strange and unusual. Mixed in is everything from Cinderella and Rumpelstiltskin to Red Riding Hood and Hansel and Gretel, with a large side-helping of modern police-detective murder mystery to bring the big bad wolf bang up-to-date.
I don’t want to give anything away, so I will just say that the ending takes things to an even more surreal extreme but in a narratively satisfying way that could be considered a nod to both the Disneyfied Happy Ever After and the old tales of poetic vengeance, red in tooth and briar-thorn.
Don’t expect to be able to solve this one before the reveal. Don’t assume you are the protagonist in your own story. And if you must head into the woods alone, don’t stray from the path… there are wolves and writers out there.
Once upon a time, right about now, someone was going to die. Deep in the forest, a human was set to meet their unhappy end. But you knew that, didn’t you? ‘Death’ in on the cover of this book, and you (hopefully) paid for it. Face it: you’re a literary hitman. You’re to blame, in part, for what’s to come.
But not as much as the writer.– A.K. Benedict, Little Red Death
Purchase Link: Little Red Death on Amazon
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.
X/Twitter: https://x.com/ak_benedict
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/a.k.benedict/
Don’t forget to check out the other blog stops on the tour for more great reviews and content (see the poster below for details)!
