A Dangerous Path

A Dangerous Path is a fantasy novel for young readers written under the name Erin Hunter and first published as a hardcover in the United States in 2004 by HarperCollins. It is the fifth book of the Warriors series, and this volume was written by Cherith Baldry.

The Warriors books follow wild cats who live in clans with territories, borders, patrols and ranks, and who hold to rules about honour, prey and the treatment of the dead. Fireheart is the deputy of ThunderClan, which means the clan's decisions fall to him while its leader is ill, and he is contending with a neighbouring leader whose ambitions have not stopped at his own boundary. At the same time dogs have entered the forest, killing indiscriminately and forcing the clans to work out where the danger is coming from before it reaches their own camps.

The series has been written by a team publishing under a single name, with the cats' naming customs and clan ceremonies kept consistent across the many volumes that followed this one.