Long Time Dead

I think a lot of people will like this book and follow the series but it's not for me.

'A Long Time Dead' has a good plot populated by lots of interesting and believable women.

The exposition was smooth, with information being disclosed not just by following DI Holler and her team but through what I learned following other characters. I liked the way this invited me to put the pieces together for myself and sometimes gave me the feeling that I was ahead of Holler and her team. I also liked that the police are shown as competent and collaborative, avoiding the cliché of the lone Detective working hard and still getting grief from their less-than-competent boss. The police procedures and the atmosphere in the team felt real to me.

I liked show more that most of the people who move the plot forward are women and that the women are very different from one another.

The story is set in Liverpool but I didn't feel any strong connection to the place or its people. The place names were right but other than that, this could have been in Manchester.

The writing is light and confident.The individual scenes, like the first killing and the one with the grave digger, are vivid, dramatic and memorable.

So why have I set it aside at 20%?

My problem was that I felt I was getting a camera-eye view of the events and the characters that never took me beneath the surface to deal with things a camera wouldn't catch. I know that this style works well for many people. It reminds me of some of Ann Cleeves' novels and, like those novels, I'd be happy to watch this as a TV programme but I wasn't getting enough traction to keep me engaged with it as a novel. show less

It sounds like the start of a bad joke when Detective Sheridan Holler is told there was a dead body found in a grave in the cemetery. But her team aren't joking and there is a body that is definitely not supposed to be where it is. The more strings they pull though, the knottier the problem gets with evidence stacking up that not all is what it seems.

Detective Sheridan Holler was a surprising breath of fresh air. I really liked her and her investigative style. It wasn't a perfect book and Holler was a bit lacklustre in parts but I think more than anything I wanted to like her. Something about this book just grabbed me and it kept me going through some of the boring parts.

There were some great parts - I loved Carly getting her own back show more with the diamonds. Pure perfection. and some terrible ones Max!? Was it really necessary to kill him off? I liked him. They could've just made it Tom's funeral. Also Sheridan getting shot was stupid. He was literally going to blow his own brains out - why the hell didn't she let him? Instead she intervenes and ends up shot. That bit was just dumb. I liked most of the characters - Joni in particular was just a good person. I liked her caring nature. I felt sorry for Tom though. He was a genuine friend to a guy who ups and shoots him in the face. Rough. So there was good and bad.

The wry humour worked hard to keep the plot from being dragged down into misery and the ending was particularly well plotted with everything tied up both neatly and cleverly. It does take a while to get there but it's worth the wait.

Overall a refreshing new voice in crime fiction. Not necessarily a perfect one but definitely one to watch out for. 3.5 stars, rounded to 4 stars. show less

Convoluted plot twists as Inspector Sheridan Holler and her team investigate a murder cold case which is suddenly warmed up by the discovery of the body of the supposed perpetrator.