Sleeping Partner Book

In the positive avalanche of debut crime novels, it's a formidable task sorting the wheat from the chaff. James Humphreys' Sleeping Partner instantly announces itself as one of the more provocative and intelligent first novels in some time, even without the enthusiastic imprimatur of Colin Dexter (creator of Morse) on the jacket. Clarissa Morland is a shy and attractive 27-year-old who is on trial for the murder of a man with whom she once had a relationship. John Grant was murdered at his lonely farmhouse--but Clarissa can only remember being extracted from the wreckage of a car crash that morning. Did she kill Grant? And why does the car crash bear all the signs of a frenzied getaway? As Humphreys' lucidly detailed narrative unfolds, the reader is led into the darker corners of the human soul. While skilfully utilising the standard apparatus of the courtroom thriller, Humphreys delivers a tale that both grips with its elegant plotting and offers insights into character rarely found in the genre. Humphreys works at 10 Downing Street as an advisor in the Prime Minister's office, but there is none of the studied artificiality of most thrillers written by politicians. One is tempted to say that Humphreys should give up the day job forthwith and continue to turn out novels with this degree of authoritative storytelling nous, especially with this for an opening paragraph: The mirror cuts my face into a dozen pieces. As I move my head, fragments of nose, cheek and dark brown hair slide over each other. At the centre, the glass has turned to diamond, a disk of tiny glittering fragments. I wonder if it was a fist that smashed it, or perhaps someone's head. Even in pieces, I look pale and ill, which is just how I feel--I haven't slept for months--not since the accident. And the last few days have been worse, waiting for today --Barry ForshawRead More