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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