In this eerie crime thriller from USA Today bestselling author Alexandra Benedict, one woman is tasked with investigating a series of disturbing deaths that resemble classic fairytales, only to find out that the killings have much more to do with the facts of her own past than with fiction. This is once upon a time, like you've never read it before DI Lyla Rondell is on the case of a lifetime. Charged with investigating a series of perplexing deaths, each seemingly based on a different classic fairytale, Lyla knows these killings could only be the work of a serial killer. And this is far from the stuff of bedtime stories. Unbeknownst to her, there is an author locked in a Tower, forced to write the twisted inspiration for these murders by a terrifying masked man, and who is desperately trying to leave a trail of clues for Lyla through her stories. But as the body count rises, Lyla's whole world flips on its head. Because the killer's bloody trail stretches deep into her own past, and when she discovers the truth, nothing will ever be the same. 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.