{Review} Love You to Death by Caroline Mitchell

Love You To Death

by Caroline Mitchell
Detective Ruby Preston – Book #1
Published March 2017
Goodreads: See here
Mystery/Crime Procedural/Thriller

Plot at a Glance:

Women in the town of Shoreditch are turning up dead, and they all have one strange thing in common: having gave up a child for adoption many years ago. A knock at their front door begins a nightmare they will never wake up from. Detective Ruby Preston has seen all sorts of things during her time on the force, but this case’s strange connection to her past pushes her to her limits. It’s a race against time to stop the killer before they can strike again, and as secrets unfold Ruby must face the very real possibility that she may be next. 

Reviewed: 

Those of you who have followed me here, or on my blog for awhile probably notice that I tend to hop around from genre to genre quite a bit. I find that it keeps things fresh, and keeps me from feeling like I’m sliding into a reading slump. I’ve become more and more interested in the suspense/thriller genre, especially over the last few months blogging and when I found out about this series I knew I had to give it a go.

There was a lot to love about this, but the thing I probably enjoyed most were the various characters, each of which were unique and memorable. I’ve spoken before in my reviews that nothing kills a book faster for me than when the characters all speak in the same voice, or feel flat. Have no fear of that here, because Mitchell’s characters are full of personality and life.

Ruby in particular is something special. I enjoyed how layered she was. A lot of books I’ve read have tended to shroud their main characters in protective bubble wrap, to keep them shiny and new, but that wasn’t the case here. Ruby is flawed, and haunted by choices made in her past.

But she’s also strong, smart and driven – and these are all characteristics I can totally get behind in a lead character. That’s not to say that the surrounding characters aren’t great as well though. Many of them have totally unique voices and roles to play in this diabolic game of cat and mouse they find themselves in as they hunt for a killer.

I don’t want to speak too much on the killer themselves, because I don’t want to give anything away. However, I will say that there are a number of sequences told from their perspective too, which added a fun layer of tension to the mix and helped flesh out their reasons for what they do – even if they are totally twisted.

I had a lot of fun reading this. To explain why I’m bringing it down one star without spoiling anything is difficult. I will say that I took slight issue with some of the ways characters came by information. For the most part, this is expertly plotted and really fast-paced. There was one instance in particular though that felt a bit cheap to me, as though there must have been a more subtle way of introducing this crucial bit of information into the story.

Otherwise, this was great fun and I’m sure fans of the crime procedurals and thrillers would enjoy this. I’m really looking forward to seeing what kind of trouble Ruby finds herself in for book 2!

🌟🌟🌟🌟✩= 4/5 stars!

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Have you read this book, or its sequel? Are there any fiction crime thrillers you loved? Lets chat about it below! 

xoxo