Happy publication day to Chris Whitaker for All The Colours Of The Dark! Before I give you my thoughts, here’s the blurb.

 

The Blurb

A missing persons mystery, a serial killer thriller, and an epic love story – with a unique twist on each…

Late one summer, the town of Monta Clare is shattered by the abduction of teenager Joseph ‘Patch’ Macauley. Nobody more so than Saint Brown, who will risk everything to find her best friend.

But when she does: it will break her heart.

Patch lies alone in a pitch-black room – until he feels a hand in his. Her name is Grace and, though they cannot see each other, she lights their world with her words.

But when he escapes: there is no sign she ever even existed.

Left with only her voice and her name, he paints her from broken memories – and charts an epic search to find her.

As years turn to decades, and hope becomes obsession, Saint will shadow his journey – on a darker path to hunt down the man who took them – and set free the only boy she ever loved.

Even if finding the truth means losing each other forever…

 

My Review

I think it’s fair to say that there are some ‘tried and tested ingredients’ in all of Chris Whitaker’s books – small town America, the police chief, parents who fail their children, the teens who don’t fit in the regular high school box. These may be the bare bones but the layering of the story, characterisation, sense of place and the incredibly beautiful language, turn it into something unique and magical. I’ve not found anyone else who writes teenagers the way Chris Whitaker does. But this time, he goes further than he has done with his other novels and the teenagers grow up. Yet they don’t lose their identity. The Saint Brown we have at the end of the book is still the determined teenager she was at the beginning, refusing to give up on Patch. And Patch will forever be a pirate.

Having read all of Whitaker’s books, I’ve seen his writing style develop. The American voice has always been there but it now flows with even more fluidity, the literary language rich and dense in detail. As I read it, I heard Matthew McConaughey’s voice in my head. This is a big book but I read it slowly, taking in the words, absorbing the story. And the twists are less of a ‘surprise’ moment and more a slow meandering, like a river, set up early but only truly visible as you go round the bend.

I haven’t told you anything about the story because this is something you need to read and experience yourself. You only get one first reading of this and I have no intention of spoiling it.

I wondered how Chris Whitaker was going to top We Begin At The End and this is how he’s done it. Destined to be one of the greatest American storytellers without actually being American. Extraordinary.

 

You can buy a copy here and if you can afford the hardback, get it. It’s beautiful.

 

The Author