Time to Die by Caroline Mitchel

Time to Die by Caroline Mitchell
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

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.

**********

I had hoped this book would be better than the first one, and in the beginning, it actually looked like it would with a tarot reading man called the Raven whose predictions about deaths seem to come true. But after a while, I just felt that the story started to drag.

The chapters shift between Jennifer Knight and Bert, the tarot man and it worked OK in the beginning but somewhere along the way I just got tired of the alternation. Could be because I found the story just dull and I wanted it to wrap up so that I could move on.

There is a side story with a sect that I found uninteresting, I just never saw the point of it. But I should have known that there would be some connection to the tarot murder case. I mean why else add a side story to a crime book without having something to do with the main case. But I guess the biggest problem I had with the story not that interesting to read about, and that I'm sick and tired of main characters being chosen by a killer as his nemesis or something. Sending letters with a raven feather in them to Jennifer just made me mentally sigh because I have read so many books lately with the main character being the target of the killer they are chasing that it's lost its appeal.

Jennifer Knight also has some personal problem with her father returning to town and wants to have contact with Jennifer and her sister. But Jennifer just doesn't want to forgive him, and I can understand that. I just wish she could understand that her sister is a grown-up woman with two kids and that she can't tell her what to do. And, perhaps she should tell her the truth about the fire on the boat. Secrets tend to come out sooner or later.

Anyway, I was a bit surprised towards the end when something was revealed about one of the characters in the book, I didn't expect that I must admit. I expected a must less surprising end, but it makes sense that there is something more to the tarot killings.

Would I continue with this series? No, I don't think so. I just can't seem to warm up to Jennifer Knight or the rest of characters and neither this book or the previous was really that interesting. At least the first book had a grand finale, this book lacked that and also lacked a really interesting story.

Update: I'm glad I read the next book in the series because unlike this one I quite liked that one!

Thanks to Bookouture and NetGalley for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!