Time To Die – Caroline Mitchell
He will predict your life… and your death.
Don’t ever cross his palm with silver. He will reveal your most shameful secrets. He will predict your death. He is hiding a secret. He is hiding a monster. And all his predictions come true.
Investigating a series of chilling murders, Detective Jennifer Knight finds herself tracking a mysterious tarot card reader known only as The Raven.
As the death toll rises, Jennifer and her team build a picture of a serial killer on the edge of sanity, driven by dark forces. But these are not random killings. And the method behind the madness could be the most terrifying thing of all …
Especially when it seems the death of one of their own is on the cards.
My thanks to Bookouture for my review copy.
After enjoying the debut appearance of Jennifer Knight in Don’t Turn Around I was keen to find what lay in store for Jennifer in Caroline Mitchell’s new thriller Time To Die. Fortunately for returning fans there is another cracking thriller to enjoy.
What I find particularly appealing about these books is the fact that Knight and her colleagues are police officers but are also tasked with investigating issues which have a supernatural element. This opens up so much more potential for Caroline Mitchell to take her stories to the darker side of human (and inhuman) nature and she uses this freedom to great effect.
In Time To Die we encounter Raven, he has the ability to read your life in his tarot cards. He can see your darkest secrets and can also see your death. But sometimes Raven may need to give these premonitions of death a little helping hand…just to make sure the cards are correct.
Tarot has always held a dark fascination and the startling accuracy of the readings that Raven offers to his victims causes them (and the reader) a deeply unsettling feeling. I find that a chiller which is closely grounded in a believable situation is more unsettling than a ‘zombie apocalypse’ horror tale. Caroline Mitchell has delivered the chill factor I love – Raven is a disturbing character, his motives are unsettling and his need to satisfy the tarot cards and ensure his predictions remain true made for compelling reading.
The investigation into Raven’s suspicious behaviour ensures there is a strong police procedural element to Time To Die which appealed to my love of crime fiction. There is a real feel of a criminal investigation being conducted into the violent deaths depicted in the book. We follow the investigation and (as we know the Raven is a murderer) we get to see the police closing in on their suspect. However, the Raven knows they are coming and is taking his own steps to avoid capture.
On a final thought, I also enjoyed the further development of Jennifer Knight’s character: her obsession with cleanliness, the fractious relationship she has with her family and we learn more about her colleagues. All these elements help build a more complete story and give the depth to the book that not all authors accomplish. I look forward to another return to Haven and to see more investigations for Knight and her colleagues. My kind of book – thoroughly recommended.