P.J. Murphy's Writer Site

I’m not one for New Year’s eve. It always seems to be trying too hard. And it makes you stay at a party until midnight, rather than slipping off early to bed.

So I’m going to keep this post short and share with you an extract from my 2007 novel, Yesterday’s Shadow. As I’ve been working to publish Troubleshot and Dead Letters and start work on Troubleshot International (more on all of this in my next blog post), I decided it would be a good opportunity to see if another novel can be salvaged from my back catalogue.

The short answer is ‘no’.

I remember being very proud of Yesterday’s Shadow at time. It was definitely a key stepping stone to me finding my voice, but the idea of publishing it now and owning it in 2022/3 makes me cringe.

So isn’t it completely contradictory for me to publish an extract here? Erm… yes. But here goes, anyway! Happy New Year! If you’re feeling bored and blue and wish your New Year’s Eve was more exciting, here’s something to reassure you that you’re not missing anything.

(And please don’t let this put you off reading my stuff in future. I wrote this over 15 years ago, and I have improved. Honest!)

Just as a short introduction, Yesterday’s Shadow is narrated by a twenty-something called Nick looking back at a pivotal moment of his teenage years, at the turn of the century. His parents split, he meets a girl, oh, and he befriends a homeless evangelist named Peter. The novel builds off the contrast between Nick’s squarely middle-class upbringing and the completely different world that Peter lives in. But enough of that pretentious nonsense, it’s new year 2000 and Nick has been invited to a party by a GIRL!!!