Long Time Dead

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?

T M Payne was born in Lee-on-Solent, Hampshire and now lives on the Wirral with her wonderful partner. Having worked in the criminal justice system for eighteen years, the last fourteen of which as a police case investigator within the Domestic Violence Unit, she has now taken a break to concentrate on her passion for writing crime novels. She is crazy about animals and if you walk past her with your dog, she will probably ask if she can pat it on the head. Or take it home with her. Or both. She loves laughing, Christmas, playing golf (badly), walking along New Brighton beach (not walking her dog because she hasn’t got one), snow, sunshine, sunsets, family and friends. She dislikes beetroot.