There’s only one word to describe award winner crime writer Chris Whitaker’s new novel All the Colours of the Dark: epic. It is an intimate epic, focussing on two characters from a small town in the United States. But the narrative ranges over forty years of their lives and the investigation into a series of horrific, ongoing crimes that will consume them.
The novel opens in 1975. Teenager Joseph Macauley, known as Patch as he only has one eye, saves the life of classmate Misty Meyers by freeing her from a would-be abductor but is taken himself. His best friend Saint is determined to find him and over the months that follow is the only one not to give up until she leads the police to the place where Patch has been held. Patch is found but the perpetrator escapes. Patch has been held in the dark all that time, but he has had a companion, a girl called Grace. While many believe that Grace is a figment of Patch’s imagination he is determined to find her, an obsession that will impact on his relationships with all around him, particularly on Saint.
On the surface, this a book about trauma and how it shapes us. Patch is driven, but through the mentorship of local art dealer Sammy, finds he can channel that drive into art. Saint also becomes obsessed with the man who took Patch and the string of murders in his wake, pushing her to join the local police force and later the FBI. While these two take centre stage there is an array of well drawn characters, impacted in their own ways by events. But there is so much more here. While the whole narrative springs from a traumatic event, Whitaker draws out so many other themes of loyalty, selflessness, belief and parenthood.
The story holds its secrets close and slowly reveals them over its forty-year time frame. As it does so, Whitaker also charts developments in the wider world – news, politics, fashion – as they impinge on the characters. And in doing so, hones in on one broad social change in particular which snakes its way through the narrative.
All the Colours of the Dark is a crime novel – but it’s so much more. It is a deep character piece in which there should be few surprises as many of the twists flow naturally from what readers know of the characters. The reveals, when they come, are often heartbreaking but can also be cathartic. Whitaker has delivered a big hearted, sometimes violent, strangely romantic, almost mythic tale which is likely to see him in contention for major awards again.
Robert Goodman
For more of Robert’s reviews, visit his blog Pile By the Bed
Other reviews you might enjoy:
- The Ghost of Gracie Flynn (Joanna Morrison) – book review
- I Know What I Saw (Imran Mahmood) – book review
- Clarke (Holly Throsby) – book review
Robert Goodman is a book reviewer, former Ned Kelly Awards judge and institutionalised public servant based in Sydney. This and over 450 more book reviews can be found on his website Pile By the Bed.
