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Little Red Death

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Little Red Death

By: A. K. Benedict
Narrated by: Jane Collingwood
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About this listen

 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 . . .

PRAISE FOR LITTLE RED DEATH:

'A mysterious serial killer is obsessed with fairy tales - and not the happy-ever-after kind. Can DI Lyla Rondell put aside her personal trauma to discover the identity of this most creative of murderers? Little Red Death is a horrifying ride into the deepest corners of folklore. An exquisite puzzle of a crime thriller, it revels in the shadows, as reality is savagely entwined with the very roots of storytelling itself . . . Prepare to be spellbound because A. K. Benedict is a master of this darkest art’ Janice Hallett

‘A clever, clever, thoroughly meta, extraordinarily enjoyable modern fairy-tale with layer after layer of intrigue and a breathless pace, I loved it, especially the delicious happy ever after’ Andrea Mara

‘Hugely inventive and mind-bendingly clever’ Claire McGowan

‘A fairytale trickster of a book, witty, sly and wickedly clever; it gripped me from first page to last. This is the thriller you'd get if Angela Carter kidnapped Stephen King and made him write with toadstool ink’ Kit Whitfield

‘Some passages read like Agatha Christie, some like Angela Carter - but all of it is written with the smoothness and intelligence that is AK Benedict’s signature style. With charm and chills often on the same page, this is a serpentine novel that refuses to give up its secrets until it’s good and ready’ Charlotte Bond

'It's mad, bad and dangerous to read' Gareth Rubin©2025 A. K. Benedict (P)2025 Simon & Schuster UK Cosy Crime Thrillers Mystery Thriller & Suspense Women Sleuths Fiction Bedtime Story

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All stars
Most relevant  
It’s a maze of stories and fairytales combined that pulls you in! I was intrigued, confused at times but overall enjoyed the book. Only thing I wanted more fairy tales perhaps in a sequel!!!

Stories with Stories

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Read and enjoyed AK's other books greatly and was excited for this one. It started really positively, a great setup and I was invested in the characters and their plight. Then half way there was such an out of nowhere left turn that changed what the book was completely. I always feel like a story should live by its own rules and for half the story the rules seemed clear, and then it broke them. As it went on it just descended into a nonsense that broke its own logic and explained almost nothing about how it was happening. I finished the book, but was ready for it to be over by the end.

Lost the plot

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I was so excited to listen to this book when I read the premise. It started out strong, and then halfway through completely lost the plot. What was left was something completely different to what I'd been sold, and not in a good way. I so wanted this to be 5 stars, but the strange change of plot lost me. I persevered, but in the end I'm left with disappointment

Lost the plot - literally

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