The novel “Long Time Dead” by Sarah Pinborough was published for the first time in 2011.
The Department has assigned a military unit to explore the remains of Cardiff’s Torchwood Hub to see what was left in the rubble after its destruction. When one of the scientists is found dead, the incident is kept quiet but this becomes increasingly difficult after the start of a strange series of deaths that include suicides of people who leave notes with the words “I remember”.
Suzie Costello has woken up. She has no idea how she came back to life although she senses a presence inside her that seems very hungry. She can move freely thanks to false paper and money that she had hidden but she must be careful with her actions because Tom Cutler is leading the investigation into the victims that Suzie is leaving behind.
“Long Time Dead” is part of a series of novels connected to the TV show “Torchwood“, a “Doctor Who” spinoff. The size is the same as “Doctor Who” books starting from the Eleventh Doctor. In the first books, the font was smaller while in the following ones the font is the same size as in “Doctor Who” books.
“Long Time Dead” tells Suzie Costello’s story, also through various flashbacks regarding moments of her job with Torchwood. Sarah Pinborough had already written a previous novel linked to this show, “Into the Silence“, in which Tom Cutler appeared, and he returns as the protagonist of an investigation that immediately turns out to be complex. Andy Davidson, Gwen Cooper’s cop friend, also returns and was promoted to sergeant.
In the two television episodes in which she appeared, Suzie Costello showed a mix of a psychotic mind and a desire to survive in a situation in which the alien glove had led her to look death in the face. Long dead, she’s brought back to life years later when the destruction of the Hub and subsequent excavations by a military unit causes the opening of various safety boxes that contained her corpse and various alien objects.
Suzie Costello’s new situation seems to bring her previous one to the extreme. The consequence is that she feels she’s Death incarnate but is determined to embrace life again. She was already a tragic character and in “Long Time Dead” even this is brought to the extreme. Between flashbacks and attempts to avoid being discovered, her actions show how life and death are inextricably linked to her.
Most of the plot shows various consequences of the interventions of Cardiff’s Torchwood team through the actions of Suzie Costello and Tom Cutler’s investigation. It’s not essential to have read “Into the Silence” to understand the Detective Inspector’s story because Sarah Pinborough includes the information necessary to understand that his life was also made complicated by his encounters with Torchwood. The two protagonists are antagonists and yet they have some things in common.
Some readers might not be interested in a Torchwood story in which the members of Captain Jack Harkness’ team barely appear in flashbacks. However, if you’re okay with a story in which the absolute protagonist is a character who only appeared in two episodes of the TV show, I recommend reading “Long Time Dead” because it’s a novel that in my opinion, perfectly embodies Torchwood’s style and reprises Suzie Costello’s personal story in a way I found excellent. It’s available on Amazon USA, UK, and Canada.
If listening to music while reading a book isn’t a problem, while reading “Long Time Dead” you could listen to “Gorecki” by Lamb, the song that accompanied the final part of the television episode “They Keep Killing Suzie” before what was supposed to be Suzie’s final death.
