Sane or Insane?

Maybe someday I'll look back and answer my own question.

The bidding goes:

West	North	East	South
		p	1♥
p	1♠	2♣	2♥
2♠	p	3♥	p
3♠	p	3NT	p
p	p

I held:
A4
AQ8543
Q97
85

What to lead?

Well, here was my reasoning. First of all, there are a lot of points around the table. Partner rates to be a bare minimum, with possibly as few as 4 spades, and 0-1 heart. Opponents seem to have a nice club fit, and thus a decent source of tricks.

As for the defense, well, it's hard to imagine partner having a useful 5-7 card holding. If his strength is in the minors, then maybe there's not much I can do to help him.

Certainly, a heart lead can't help. Declarer (east) rates to have the king. It's also very hard to tell if leading partner's spades will bear fruit.

What I chose was to play partner for KQxx in spades, and to lead the ace. Alas, dummy came down with QJxx in spades, so that dream was dead, and with it likely our chances of defeating the contract.

(In reality, maybe an immediate diamond or a diamond switch after the first trick would have worked. Partner was 4171, with 4HCP, including the king of spades and JT of diamonds.)

I'm not sure if my reasoning was sound or overly optimistic, but I think I was asking the right sort of questions, at least, on this problem.