T. M. Payne

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 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.… (más)

This story revolves around the lives of 3 childhood friends from vastly different family backgrounds. One is treasured by his parents, one is smothered by her single mother, and one is secretly abused by her mother unbeknownst to her father.

The families are aware of each other but only the children are close friends until a tragedy occurs which places one child in danger, shattering their innocent friendship apart. As the years past, family dynamics change and a shocking secret is revealed.

An artist rents a house, is adopted by a stray cat, befriends a neighbor and has an obsession with a nearby cemetery. But what is she waiting for?

As more twists are introduced, what appeared to be a simple story is transformed into one where our perception of events and characters change.… (más)