Path of Needles: A spine-tingling thriller of gripping suspense

When the body of a young girl is discovered in local woods, the peculiar way the corpse has been arranged reminds PC Cate Corbin of a fairytale. Quickly being drafted onto the investigation team, she contacts Alice Hyland, a lecturer in folk tales at a nearby university, to see if she can shed any light on her suspicions. Then another body turns up, similarly adhering to the imagery of a fairy tale and it becomes clear that there is a serial killer operating in the small Yorkshire town. I loved Alison's previous novel "A Cold Season", a spooky, ghostly tale set in a snowbound Yorkshire and was keen to read this follow-up, trying to get to it knowing as little as possible beforehand. I'm glad I did. Branching off into a whole new direction - vaguely supernatural in a couple of key elements but mainly a police procedural/crime thriller - but highlighting her innate grasp of suspense and beautiful writing, "Path Of Needles" works very well indeed. The story works because of the unusual concept (with Sarah Pinborough's earlier `Poison', I haven't had as much contact with fairy tales since I was a kid) and Alison's research serves the plot and characters well, keeping the reader guessing and throwing in plenty of red herrings (and some clever uses of nature) before the climax slots into place and we fear for the leads. The pace is brisk (it's a quick read), the writing is fluid and elegant, even in the brutal sequences and she never shys away from the grim reality of this kind of thing, as a result making them all the more powerful. Interestingly, the characterisation is very broadbrush - we know virtually nothing of Cate out of uniform and although you get the sense that Alice is more flightly, the only thing we really know is that she has a dementia-riddled mother, a situation that is perhaps pushing her further into her beloved fairy stories - but it works perfectly in context. A great crime-thriller, "Path Of Needles" shows Alison Littlewood as a first class writer who - if she continues the level of quality and skill she's so far shown - will go a long, long way and I, for one, couldn't be happier to see that. Beautifully written, this is an excellent read and highly recommended.

Alison Littlewood is clearly very versatile. Her last book, A Cold Season, was out-and-out supernatural horror. "Path of Needles" is more ambiguous.The book centres on two women, Cate, an ambituous police constable and Alice, a university lecturer specialising in fairy tales. When a serial killer begins to leave victims posed like fairy tale characters, Cate, temporarily attached to the enquiry and desperate for a chance to move on, goes out on a limb to involve Alice in the investigation. Soon, though, she begins to have doubts. Alice, meanwhile, is conscious of danger as the stories she loves, but which have always been safely trapped in books, become real. And what does the mysterious blue bird signify? All Alice's stories exist in multiple, variant texts, and once you start to interpret them - or to interpret real events in light of them - it seems as though there are no rules, as though anything goes.I enjoyed the way that Littlewood captures both main characters, including the rivalries and undercurrents among the police, Cate's desire to get on in her career and her relationship with her old mentor. There's a strong thread in the book, playing, of course, into the overt fairytale them, of parent-child relationships (good and bad) especially mothers and daughters. The book walks a narrow line between becoming merely a police procedural and tipping over into the outright weird. We always suspect there may be more here than a serial killer, yet at the same time the crimes are explored as crimes and aren't inexplicable.Littlewood is also good at evoking landscape - a particular patch of Yorkshire - using real places yet managing to give them an unearthly aspect (this reminded me of Graham Joyce's Some Kind of Fairy Tale).Overall, a gripping read, something a little different, definitely a writer to watch.

Although I know the author, please don't think this has given me a biased opinion, Path of Needles is a fantastic book and exactly the kind of story I love to read. It has been well researched, I had no idea that there were so many variations of the popular stories and fairy tales that we all know and love and it was interesting to discover their roots. This book had me hooked from the start with ever increasing gruesome, cleverly engineered murders with some great, colourful characters, well imagined scenes (half real / half fiction) and a fast paced exciting plot that flows wonderfully from beginning to end. I loved Ali's first book, A Cold Season and Path of Needles is in a league of it's own. I would recommend this book to anyone - please read it!

if you like Grimm, then this is a similar vein of story - classic fairtale background with a modern twist. I found it took a while to get into (about 6 chapters) but then it was good. wouldnt say riveting but easy reading. bought is because of Alison Littlwood's debut novel, Cold Season, which was gripping from start to finish, couldnt put it down and a real twist at the end. have read it three times so far and still love it

Having been recommended by Amazon thought I would give it a go as I had previously read Alison's 'Cold Season' which was very good, and I was not disappointed with this. This was a very novel idea and way of committing murders and the outcome was not a disappointment. Looking forward to Alison's next book.

The best book i have read for a while. I only chose this because i had read alisons first book "a cold season" which again was a book i couldn't put down. I am not much of a reader but for me to read a book in 24 hours means that its one worth buying.Time now to download alison littlewood s 3rd book.

At some points I thought I might give up but I did stick with and I am glad I did ..it gives some interesting insight to fairy tales which we all assume we know about ...

I will be honest and say this is my first contact with the author, having never jumped on the ‘Cold Season’ bandwagon.

Easy read with an interesting concept and the variants on well know fairy stories were fascinating. But I just didn't get along with this at all.

Where do I begin. This is the first book from Alison Littlewood I've read since the fairytale element grabbed me immediately.

dissappointed

Read this within a day, a real page turner. Would definitely recommend this as it is different from your average serial killer novel

A Cold SeasonA Cold SeasonSacrifice (Detective Mark Heckenburg)Sacrifice (Detective Mark Heckenburg)

Enjoyed this very much even though it's not my usual kind of stuff. Will keep her in mind now when I'm looking for a good read.

The writing style was clumsy and there were errors which should have been picked up during the editing process.Read this for my book group.I won't be recommending it.

There is a bit of a 'thing' about the re-telling of fairy tales at the moment, and this book sits nicely in that realm - but with a twist...

I absolutely could not put Path of Needles down. It was a complete joy of a read.Crime fiction isn't usually my cup of tea, but Littlewood's novel is so original and...