Long Time Dead
The dead do not stay buried for long when an old murder begins opening newer wounds.
Long Time Dead
About the book
A cold case that’s no longer cold. A suspect who’s been murdered. A silenced witness.
"A brilliant debut." —Steve Cavanagh
"True fans of Val McDermid will love Payne's writing.” —A. J. West
"One of the most exciting new voices in crime fiction." —Kia Abdullah
DI Sheridan Holler is used to solving crimes on Liverpool’s streets, but after a decayed corpse turns up in a cemetery, she finds herself reopening not one but two cold cases. Seven years earlier, two women were gunned down and the only suspect, small-time drug dealer John Lively, was never seen again. Case closed. Until the body in the cemetery is identified as his.
Holler needs to work out if Lively was killed out of revenge, or was just a victim of the criminal world he inhabited. When shocking evidence is revealed about the murder weapon, Holler’s cold case starts to look hopeless once more.
But defeat is not an option. Driven by the unsolved and traumatic murder of her brother when they were children, DI Holler’s pursuit of justice is relentless. As old wounds are reopened, the police close in on the killer, but the threat of them striking again is all too real. Can DI Holler put the pieces of the puzzle together before anyone else winds up dead?
Our take
The dead do not stay buried for long when an old murder begins opening newer wounds. In Long Time Dead, DI Sheridan Holler reopens two linked cold cases after a corpse in a cemetery is identified as a long-missing suspect. As the investigation tightens, her own history sharpens the stakes, making this a gritty police procedural driven by buried evidence, personal loss, and relentless pursuit.
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