Waking Partners

By: Gerald Hammond

Narrated by: Ric Jerrom

Everyone has a motive.... When Aubrey Merryhill has a car accident and ends up in a coma, the running of his company passes into the capable hands of his trusted assistant. But when the routine police investigation suggests an attempted murder, there are several potential suspects: an ambitious assistant, a disgruntled wife, a greedy landlord or perhaps a revenge-fuelled employee....

©2007 Gerald Hammond (P)2014 Audible Ltd

An extremely unusual mystery.

This book is a complete stand-alone novel. It is also one of the more unusual mysteries I've ever read. Much of it hops from inside the heads of different characters as they deal with the aftermath of Aubrey Merryhill's terrible head injury.

Mr. Merryhill owns a small leathergoods business, has a wife, and lives a (mostly) conservative life. His one wreckless indulgence is driving his little sportscar in the countryside with the windscreen down and his dog in the seat next to him. After he has a wreck, his car is oddly undamaged but his head has been bashed. This leads them to suspect foul play.

Because the NHS wants to just write him off, an operation would be risky, expensive, and is his only hope for recovery. So the workers start pouring on the effort and ideas to make more money to pay for his care and a surgery. Their lives change and an investigation continues. Everyone wonders who could dislike Mr Merryhill enough to do something so extreme.

As the reader, we get to experience things from inside the heads of several characters, one after another.
I found it thoroughly enjoyable and a very interesting story. I also found it to be more intellectually interesting and it gave me a few chuckles--it's a book to relax with.
The narration is skilled and enjoyable.