A teenage girl is murdered and the police are investigating all of her known associates. Police Constable Cate Corbin notices an eerie resemblance to a fairy tale in the way the body is displayed. Soon, another murder follows and expert Alice Hyland is called in to consult on the case. Will Cate and her associates solve the case before more bodies accumulate in gory displays of fairy tales?
PATH OF NEEDLES alternates viewpoints between Cate and Alice. While I enjoy seeing multiple viewpoints in a story, the reliability of the narrators is constantly in question. This made it a bit difficult to thoroughly warm to either character, even as I wanted to cheer them for their continued efforts to resolve the case.
Alison Littlewood delves into the gruesome, somewhat lesser known versions of the fairy tales in PATH OF NEEDLES. I love the concept of PATH OF NEEDLES and the inclusion of the mysterious blue bird adds just the right supernatural touch to the storyline. It is intriguing to see the darker side of fairytales although some of the details (ie, the severed toe used as stopper for a vial of blood) are a tad nauseating.
PATH OF NEEDLES takes readers into the darkest hearts of the fairytales, casting new meaning on beloved old classics. Alison Littlewood knows her subject well, as even lesser known fairytales, such as The Blue Bird, are frequently alluded to throughout the storyline. Readers who like their mysteries tinged with just a bit of horror and the supernatural will appreciate Alison Littlewood's creative murder mystery.
When an expert on fairy tales is called in to consult on
the investigation of bizarre murders, her premonition and
insight causes suspicion; she must solve the case--and
fast--to prove her innocence.
Alice Hyland is an expert on fairy tales--lecturing on the
well-known stories and their lesser-known variants--and
the natural choice for Police Constable Cate Corbin to
consult when a dead girl is found in the woods dressed up
as Snow White. Especially when the girl's grieving mother
receives a parcel containing a glass bottle of blood
stoppered with the dead girl's toe. Cate's boss, Detective
Superintendent Heath, isn't convinced of the connection to
folklore until a second girl is found, this time dressed
as Red Riding Hood and with claw marks gouged into her
flesh, like a wolf had been at her.
As she dives deeper into the case, Alice beings to sense a
supernatural pull connecting her to the murders. A series
of uncanny events seem to be pointing her in the right
direction, but she's not the only one noticing; By the
time a third girl is found in the local castle, Heath
begins to wonder if their fairy tale expert knows too
much, and Alice finds herself no longer an asset, but a
suspect. But she can't stop following the clues, and her
determination to solve the mystery herself and prove her
innocence may lead her somewhere she can't return from.
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