All the Colours of the Dark is a thriller, a romance, and a crime novel. Wondering how Chris Whitaker manages to pack all three in? Well, the book is long, clocking in almost 600 pages, but the narrative zips along in pacy, filmic beats, flowing seamlessly between genres.
Joseph ‘Patch’ Mcauley was born with one eye. His mother Ivy, “pedalled the romance of a cutlass and eye patch because often for kids like him the flair of fiction dulled a reality too severe”. Patch sometimes observes heavy-drinking Ivy looking at him “like he was the sum of her failings”.
Patch has a single friend, Saint Brown. Saint is wise beyond her years, realising young that “some people mistook money for class, anger for strength”.
Patch is abducted from their small town in Missouri, held captive with a girl called Grace for 307 days. When he finally escapes thanks to Saint, Grace has disappeared and there is no sign she ever existed. Patch is haunted by Grace, telling Saint: “I’ll burn everything in my path till I find her. I won’t hesitate. I won’t even look back at the ashes.”
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This alone would be a creditable novel in itself, but we’re only getting started. From the opening in 1975, Whitaker traces Patch’s epic cross-country hunt until 2001. And while Patch is following Grace, Saint – redoubtable, stubborn and smart as ever – is tracking him.
As with Whitaker’s earlier novels (including his 2020 award-winning bestseller We Begin at the End), childhood trauma lays the groundwork for adult decision-making.
This is true too of Whitaker’s own backstory, which has enough trauma for several novels: he was physically abused by his mother’s partner as a child; stabbed by a mugger at nineteen; and in his twenties lost a million pounds while working as a stockbroker (rather than prosecute, his bosses let him work to repay the money). He began writing as therapy, only for it to evolve into a successful new career.
With a propulsive plot, vivid settings and memorable characters, this is plenty of book for everyone, but I think All the Colours of the Dark will have extra appeal for fans of Jason Moon’s Bear Brook podcast and Barbara Kingsolver’s Demon Copperhead.
