Review: Time to Die by Caroline Mitchell

Time to Die is a real thriller of a book and the supernatural aspects of it will have you on the edge of your seat throughout! This is the second book in the series about psychic detective Jennifer Knight, but it’s the first one I’ve read and it works perfectly well as a standalone. Jennifer is working as part of Operation Moonlight, a group of officers who deal with cases that have a paranormal angle to them. They are currently working on infiltrating a particularly disrtubing cult known as The Reborners.

Whilst in the midst of that case Jennifer is called out to a suspected suicide but it soon becomes apparent that all is not quite as it seemed. Operation Moonlight begin to wonder if there could be a connection to The Reborners. The officers’ abilities are tested to the limit when they realise they have a serial killer on their hands, he is known as The Raven; he has psychic abilities of his own and can seemingly use his tarot cards to predict the deaths of everyone he reads the cards for. The more we learn about The Raven the more creepy and sinister the novel gets.

There is definitely a nod to Hitchcock throughout this novel, there are elements of Psycho and The Birds. The scene in the woods with the ravens and Jennifer is the stuff of nightmares, but even the way ravens seem to be following Jennifer or waiting for her when she comes home is incredibly creepy; it really is sinister.

I liked Jennifer, she was an interesting character and I’d like to know more about her. I found the way she and The Raven had little quirks in common made the novel fascinating, like they almost mirrored each other at times, with her on the good side and he on the evil. The Raven was always scratching at his skin and Jennifer has OCD when it comes to keeping her hands clean, they both had visions that at times seemed to be connected. I also liked that Jennifer’s past was delved into a little bit and also that we begin to see her form a relationship, it was great to see a well-rounded detective; it wasn’t just about her psychic abilities and her desire to solve the case.

The reason I haven’t read Caroline’s first novel yet, and why I put off reading this one is because I’m a total wimp, and the thought of anything supernatural or paranormal just absolutely terrifies me. I’m so glad that I was encouraged to pick this book up though because while it was the stuff of nightmares for me, I found I couldn’t put it down. It’s such a well-written novel that even though there were times I was quite literally on the edge of my seat, holding my breath with fear, I just had to keep reading. It is so good!

I rate this book 8 out of 10. This was the first book I’ve read by Caroline Mitchell but I’m definitely going to go back and read the first book in this series, and I absolutely can’t wait for the next book!

I received this book from Bookouture via Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

Time to Die is out now and available from Amazon.

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I’ve read and reviewed this as part of #BookoutureThriller week, which is running on twitter from 31 October to 6 November. See the pic below for more details and please feel free to join in.