{"id":114893,"date":"2025-02-28T08:26:07","date_gmt":"2025-02-28T08:26:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/entertainment\/books\/little-red-death-a-k-benedict-bookshine-and-readbows\/"},"modified":"2025-02-28T08:26:07","modified_gmt":"2025-02-28T08:26:07","slug":"little-red-death-a-k-benedict-bookshine-and-readbows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=114893","title":{"rendered":"Little Red Death \u2013 A.K. Benedict \u2013 Bookshine And Readbows"},"content":{"rendered":"


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*I received a free copy of this book, with thanks to the author, Simon & Schuster<\/a>\u00a0and Anne Cater of\u00a0Random Things Blog Tours<\/strong><\/a>. The decision to review and my opinions are my own.*<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

Blurb: ONCE UPON A TIME LIKE YOU\u2019VE NEVER READ IT BEFORE . . .<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

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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.<\/em><\/p>\n

But as the bodies stack up, Lyla\u2019s whole world is about to flip on its head. Because the killer\u2019s bloody trail stretches deep into her own origin story, and when she discovers the truth, nothing will ever be the same again.<\/em><\/p>\n

Faced with the fact that everything she knows is fiction, Lyla will have to take a little creative license of her own if she\u2019s going to turn the final page on the killings . . .\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Imagine a James Patterson thriller, crossed with the film Inception, crossed with a battered and dog-eared old copy of Grimm\u2019s fairy tales, and you will still be surprised by the twists and turns this novel takes!<\/p>\n

The plot starts off as a fairly straightforward thriller mystery with a fantastic hook \u2013 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.<\/p>\n

There are hints throughout that all isn\u2019t 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 \u2013 fiction within fiction, within fiction! I suspect that this wouldn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t expect to be able to solve this one before the reveal. Don\u2019t assume you are the protagonist in your own story. And if you must head into the woods alone, don\u2019t stray from the path\u2026 there are wolves and writers<\/em> out there.<\/p>\n

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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\u2019t you? \u2018Death\u2019 in on the cover of this book, and you (hopefully) paid for it. Face it: you\u2019re a literary hitman. You\u2019re to blame, in part, for what\u2019s to come.
But not as much as the writer.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2013 A.K. Benedict, Little Red Death<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Purchase Link: Little Red Death<\/em> on Amazon<\/a><\/h3>\n

About the author<\/strong><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

She lives on the south coast of England with writer Guy Adams, their daughter, Verity, and dog, Dame Margaret Rutherford.<\/p>\n

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X\/Twitter: <\/strong>https:\/\/x.com\/ak_benedict<\/a><\/p>\n

Instagram: <\/strong>https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/a.k.benedict\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Don\u2019t forget to check out the other blog stops on the tour for more great reviews and content (see the poster below for details)!<\/strong><\/p>\n

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