When the brother of Jason Lynx's girlfriend, Grace, declares that he is coming to stay with her, Jason knows that this is no ordinary familial visit. So when Ron suddenly announces that he has AIDS this would seem to answer most of Jason's questions.

In order to support the woman he hopes to marry, Jason tries to help Ron cope with his situation and gets him interested in renovating antique furniture. Everything seems to be going OK, but when Ron is killed in an explosion both Grace and Jason know that this was no accident, and Grace asks Jason to discover the identity of her brother's killer.

As Jason looks deeper into the mysterious circumstances surrounding Ron's death he uncovers evidence of a crime committed many years earlier – but is Ron's murder linked to this ancient crime? It is up to Jason to discover the truth.

A Long Time Dead is a Jason Lynx mystery from the pen of A.J. Orde (also known as B.J. Oliphant or Sheri S. Tepper) and follows the experiences of Jason Lynx, an antiques dealer, as he investigates the murder of his girlfriend's brother. Jason is one of those characters who, in the real world, would have been warned off by the police and asked not to interfere in police investigations. Yet, as with many such stories, our hero shows that he has greater investigative abilities than the police.

Saying that, I really love the A.J. Orde stories. I am a long time fan of the writing of Sheri S. Tepper and I also thoroughly enjoy murder mysteries so the A.J. Orde books appeal to both aspects of my reading taste.

I have an aim to own every book written by Sheri S. Tepper and any of her nom de plumes and I have to admit I am getting very close to my target. I am just looking out for the last couple to complete the collection – maybe one day! [I found one the day before Lesley wrote this, the third Marianne book - Steve]

If I had to declare a single author as my favourite then my personal choice would be Sheri Tepper. There are many others that I find incredibly talented but in the case of Tepper / Orde / Oliphant you find an author who is equally skilled at writing hard SF, Fantasy and crime and this is not a claim that many other authors could make.