I was very interested by the premise of this book, a boy suffering from synaesthesia and prosopagnosia who describes every encounter in colours, along with a murder that the boy may or may not be involved with, had me very interested.
Unfortunately, my interest soon waned as, what started as a fascinating read, soon became lacklustre, repetitive and boring and I struggled to finish it.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the opportunity to preview this book in exchange for this honest review.

This was a little slow at first but I was soon hooked and really enjoyed this beautiful and unusual story. The author had clearly researched before writing and so it came across as very real and sympathetic.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC in return for an honest and unbiased opinion.

Written from the viewpoint of autistic teenager Jasper, who is also face-blind and experiences synaesthesia, this book is vividly written and was a real page turner. With an unreliable narrator, largely unlikeable heroine and touching father/son relationship, this book had a lot to offer and I’ll definitely look forward to reading more from this author. Thanks NetGalley!

3.5* Started out tickled pink then started to see red

I was a huge fan of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, to which this book will inevitably be compared, due to the narrators both being young boys on the autistic spectrum solving mysteries in their lives. This book’s narrator additionally has synasthaesia, meaning he sees other sensory things in colour, so he Hesse’s people’s voices in colour, for example.

As much as I loved the concept of this book, I found it incredibly repetitive and found Jasper’s style of narration difficult: it got in the way of telling the story. For example, we need to know that Jasper likes parakeets and their sounds but my device tells me that in this book of 448 pages, there are 407 mentions of parakeets.

A great concept and I did read to find out what had happened to Bee, but I just couldn’t stay engaged throughout.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Harper Collins UK, Borough Press and Sarah J Harris for a copy of this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks to NetGalley for a free copy of this book. I had initially thought that this was a YA title - and still think it would have YA appeal - but having read it, it's clearly intended for an adult audience.

Jasper is the only witness to Bee Larkham's murder. There are just a few problems. Jasper has prosopagnosia, or face-blindness, so he cannot recognise the face of the murderer. He's also autistic, and has synaesthesia, experiencing voices, sounds and words as shapes and colours.

The story follows Bee Larkham's arrival in Vincent street, and the chaos she brings with her. Jasper's drawn in - she's almost the same shade of blue as his mother's voice - and the best view of the parakeets that he loves is from her bedroom window. But Bee Larkham is not as straightforward as she first appears, and has dangerous secrets from both her past and the present. Jasper's paintings hold the answers - if he can interpret them.

It's a great mystery with an unusual protagonist, vividly written. Perfect for older fans of books like 'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime' and 'Elizabeth is Missing'.

I nearly gave up this book quite a few times but each time the intrigue of the story kept me going. By halfway I was fully invested and was determined to see what had actually happened to Bee Larkham. By the end of the book I was glad I had persevered. The story that unfolded was shocking and my heart broke for 13 year old Jasper. Like nothing I have read before.

This was an interesting book, the style wasn’t what I expected from the blurb but it instantly drew me into the story. Jasper is a 13 year old boy with autism, synesthesia that means he sees colours in sounds and an inability to recognise people’s faces. he is also our narrator for this tale.

Jasper’s narrative is touching, confusing, sweet and sad. He lives with his father Ed who doesn’t understand his relationship with colours he sees, his obsession with parakeets or his desire to stick to the rules (to the point of calling 999 when he feels his birds are in danger).

I found the father son relationship heartbreaking. Jasper desperately needed someone to understand him after the death of his mum who understood him so much better as she also had synesthesia, the description of the day Jasper and mum spent together when she realised he could see sounds as well was so touching and magical. Ed however struggles with his son’s ticks and can’t enter into his world in the same way. the result being father and son don’t talk to each other enough leading to confusion and upset. I did feel for Ed, he was trying and by the end of the book I felt they had a better understanding of each other.

This book moved me to tears several times, Jasper’s narrative means you feel just and confused and disturbed as he does by some of the events, a clever piece of writing by the author which gave the book a ‘heavier’ feel than I was initially expecting from it. I’d recommend this but be prepared for an emotional read.

It's always good to have a new idea for characters in a book,but for me ,this one didn't work.
I became easily irritated by the repetativeness of Jasper and the mentioning of parakeets.
I also think I was too lazy to figure out who was who based on colour of voices.
Clever idea,but I didnt much enjoy.

This is an intriguing book and very different.. The voice of the child was strong and funny, and Jasper’s condition was fascinating and very believability written. I absolutely loved Jasper.
It wasn’t all fun, there were sinister and upsetting undertones, and moments that shocked and disturbed me.
There were some great characters and I could totally picture the street and much of Jasper’s world.
I would definitely recommend this book. I think #TheColourofBeeLarkham’sMurder will stay with me and I will be recommending it to friends.
Thank you to the publisher, to the author Sarah J Harris and to #NetgGalley

The Colour of Bee Larkham’s Murder by Sarah J Harris takes a look at life through the eyes of someone quite unusual indeed. Jasper Wishart is a young autistic boy who sees things a bit different from even most autistics. Jasper has a rare gift called synesthesia, where sensory inputs are dual-wired. Jasper sees sound, each a unique combination of shape and colour. He also suffers from prosopagnosia, or 'face-blindness’. He cannot recognise faces, not even his da’s, but he uses a variety of tricks to attempt to keep things straight. Jasper has witnessed a murder, but the only way he can describe it is through colour, which no one else can understand.

Bee Larkham moves in nearby, staying to clear out her deceased mother's house. She loves music, and sets up to teach to earn income while she preps the house for sale. She also loves birds, and puts out feeders that draw parakeets, much to Jasper's pleasure. He adores birds. Soon Bee has Jasper running errands in exchange for being allowed to watch nesting parakeets from her house. But what Jasper doesn't know is the truth behind the errands he's running, until one day when he accidentally walks in on Bee 'getting busy’ with one of her students. When Jasper refuses to keep playing messenger, Bee retaliates with a horrible trick, one that may or may not have contributed to her death. Jasper then begins to hunt for clues, bringing to light not just the truth of Bee’s death, but of her past as well, bringing more than one criminal to justice. And from it all, Jasper finds a friend in a most unlikely person.

Jasper is portrayed well. The unique mix of autism, prosopagnosia, and synesthesia made him quite the interesting character. I can't even imagine his levels of frustration. Autism alone can make communication difficult, but add in a completely foreign way of viewing the world, and the frustration quadruples. I have a friend with synesthesia, and he said those descriptions were accurate. Since the story is told first person from Jasper's POV, we get a unique perspective. I love that Jasper uses his gift to create beautiful abstract paintings that actually do tell stories that he can read.

I can only imagine his da’s frustrations too. Jasper's ma was a synesthete, though not autistic. When she passed from illness, Jasper's soldier father was recalled. His father tries to understand his son, but he doesn't, not fully, and gets aggravated with Jasper's quirks and proclivities at times. One of these quirks includes calling 999 often, and for things the police wouldn't normally handle. Yet, despite the frustrations, his father never once seems to think Jasper needs to be placed in a facility. He does the best he can, and clearly loves his son. He even always dresses the same so Jasper can easily recognise him.

Highly recommended if you enjoy books such as The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time.

***Many thanks to Netgalley and HarperCollins UK for providing an egalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

An absolutely brilliant story, nothing like I’ve ever read. The story delves into the mind of thirteen year old jasper who suffers from synaethsia. A loved the relationship between jasper and his new neighbor and it was told beautifully. A completely original and captivating story.

I gave this a 4/5 stars or 8/10. This is a great debut novel and I look forward to seeing what the Author writes next.

Well written this story tells us about the lead up to and the repercussions following the murder of Bee Larkham. Jasper is an unreliable narrator as he has several problems, that mean that he doesn't interpret things in the way many people do. Suffering from a form of Autism, some of his social skills are lacking, he also finds it difficult to recognise people as he struggles with face recognition and often sees faces as colours instead.

Can Jasper's evidence be trusted, when at times he thinks that he himself is the murderer?

Grab a copy of this and immerse yourself in Jasper's world and follow the leads to see if you can work out who the murderer actually is. This story in some ways can be compared to The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon, which is another great read.

My thanks to the Publishers for the opportunity to read this in exchange for an honest review. However, as I'd already read it I didn't download a copy, but did say that I was happy to give a review.

Sarah J. Harris’ The Colour of Bee Larkham’s Murder centres around Jasper Wishart, who faces more obstacles than your average amateur sleuth as he attempts to crack the mystery at the heart of this book. But then, Jasper’s no ordinary thirteen-year-old boy, thanks to the way in which he sees the world.

One of the beauties of a good book is how it can put you inside the head of someone who experiences the world differently to you and this is exactly what Sarah J. Harris achieves here. I’d heard of synaesthesia, a condition in which senses intermingle, but struggled to picture how it manifests itself. In Jasper’s case, he sees words, numbers and even voices in colour and experiencing this alongside him in the book was a revelation. (Although I also think there is a danger of becoming too fixated on trying to remember all the colours he sees. I had to remind myself there was no test at the end of the book before I stopped doing so.)

Together with his synaesthesia, Jasper also experiences prosopagnosia (or face blindness), which admittedly is a huge obstacle for anyone trying to piece together people’s movements in the days leading up to the disappearance of their neighbour, and immediately afterwards. I had to admire Jasper’s tenacity, the coping mechanisms he puts in place to navigate life as he sees it, and raged on his behalf when someone set out to trick Jasper by using his own system against him.

As Jasper investigates his neighbourhood, people’s foibles and flaws are under scrutiny, and the solution when it’s revealed comes from a surprisingly dark place. Jasper and the colours he sees provide a perfect foil to these more shadowy elements. They shine through in the way he refuses to accept Bee’s disappearance and insists that the parakeets in her garden continue to be fed. They’re ever present in the challenges he faces both at home and at school, from the comfort he takes in his notebook arrangement to how fraught it is for him to be the messenger. Jasper’s an extraordinary character and I loved having the opportunity to see the world through his eyes and begin to understand what life is like for him.

This was an original, touching and gripping read. A brilliant blend of genres and clearly incredibly well researched. It’s about Jasper, a child with learning difficulties, who lives with his widowed father. He keeps his distance from his peers and spends his spare time watching all the comings and goings on his street, so when enigmatic, young and attractive music teacher Bee moves in next door, his interest is piqued. And he’s not alone.

This book has received some hype, but I’ve also seen some pretty mixed reviews. It seems to me, the main character Jasper is getting a pretty hard time; his distinct voice seems to have rubbed some readers up the wrong way. But the kid has autism, synthesia, facial blindness and he’s lost his mother – the one person who understood his condition – far too young. Yes, he’s obsessive, repetitive and he doesn’t see things the way we do – that’s what makes him special, and this book so unique.

“My life is a thrilling kaleidoscope of colours only I can see.”

I loved his voice which narrates the story throughout, and I truly felt for both him and his dad, a widower struggling to cope alone with a child with severe learning disabilities. It was both heart warming and heart wrenching reading about their fragile relationship; the microwave meals and failed camping trips. Really, really well done.

But to the main part of the story – the murder of Bee Larkham. I wasn’t sure how a genuine murder mystery would work combines with themes of family, childhood and Jasper’s conditions, but it does work so well. There’s some serious dark and sinister topics, but Jasper’s view of the world lightens things and allows for some beautiful writing which really brings his colours to life. It also forces the reader to piece the mystery together for themselves; Jasper is at times very observant of his surroundings and neighbours but also an unreliable narrator due to his difficulty understanding social interactions and situations. It’s really cleverly done, without ever feeling like Jasper’s situation is used as a plot device. On the contrary, he makes this story – he’s one of my favourite characters I’ve read in a long time.

But Jasper isn’t the only excellent character in this book; I also felt for his Dad enormously and the titular character, their neighbour Bee Larkham. She was intriguing, difficult to interpret; at times I felt empathy towards her and at others horror at her actions. The way the story unfolds kept me gripped throughout, and I think this story stands as a murder mystery in its own right, as well as a family drama and exploration of childhood learning difficulties. A unique, multilayered story – one I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend.

Soon after downloading 'The Colour of Bee Larkham's Murder' i was pleased to have come across a paperback version. An interesting story and one that i enjoyed very much. I had never heard of Synaesthesia prior to reading this book. Recommended.

My thanks to Netgalley and the Publishers for my copy.

Awaiting Amazon to accept my review.

This is a very unusual book, and at first I found that it was difficult to tread. However, once I was used to the unusual style and the way that the main protagonist Jasper thinks, I was completely absorbed. Jasper is severely autistic and has synaesthesia, so that he hears in colours, He becomes very close to his neighbour, who is then murdered, and Jasper has information about the killer that he doesn't realise he knows. The resolution of the crime thread of the novel is very clever and definitely was very effective at building suspense. An unusual and thought provoking crime novel, excellent.

A very unusual book but a little slow for me.
Many thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC.

I really, really wanted to like this book, but I found it so hard to read, it just wasn't a particularly enjoyable experience.
The main narrator of the book is a boy called Jasper, who has synaesthesia - this is a condition which means he sees sounds as colour. I was aware of the condition before I started reading the book and it was one of the reasons I was so interested in the topic. Jasper also suffers with face blindness, which makes him pretty extraordinary. After a little while, we realise that Jasper is a rather unreliable narrator.
There is a lot of description in the book, which is obviously necessary bearing in mind Jasper's conditions, but it makes reading the book quite distracting. Aside from the description, it also takes a while to get used to Jasper's style of dialogue - it's quite complicated and there's a lot going on.
There's a lot of good things going on in this book - the actual plot is really interesting, and the use of the protagonist's conditions really added to the surreal nature of what was going on. However, the execution wasn't quite there for me, and I found it a difficult read.

An interesting take on a murder mystery seen from the eyes of a boy who doesn't see things as most people do. Jasper has synaesthesia, an autism spectrum disorder where he doesn't identify things by the way they look, but by the way they sound...each noise or voice is associated with a colour...clever prose here, along with the story itself, as we gain an insight into Jasper's World, and the frustrations it brings him and people he is in contact with.

Jasper is a teenage boy being brought up by his Dad after the death of his Mum some years ago. He’s autistic and also has face blindness (literally doesn’t recognise anyone’s face, only their clothing/jewellery etc.) and synaesthesia (sees colours and patterns when he hears sounds i.e. a barking dog looks like it’s surrounded by yellow french fries). When free spirited Bee Larkham moves into Jasper’s street and starts playing loud “alien” music, disrupting the peace and causing Jasper to see shiny silver shapes, he’s intrigued. When he meets her and finds out that her “colour” is a rare shade of blue (just like his Mum’s) he’s excited. And when he talks to her about his beloved wild parakeets that nest in her tree and she actively encourages them, Jasper thinks he’s made a new best friend. So why is Bee Larkham missing, and why does Jasper think that he’s killed her?

As you can probably already tell, this is a highly original book. Jasper is a great, multi-dimensional character – an unreliable narrator whose innocent view of the world puts a very different spin on the main narrative. On the other hand, Bee Larkham is a horrible, manipulative individual. She had a terrible childhood and I’d guess that she was mentally ill but she’s literally a paedophile. A lot of people seem to have glossed over this (perhaps because a woman having sex with an underage boy is somehow seen as not as bad as a man having sex with an underage girl?) but as far as I’m concerned abuse is abuse – and there’s a lot of it in the book. However, because of Jasper’s narration, it’s all wrapped up in a kind of cozy, childlike innocence that takes away from some of the horror – but works brilliantly to amplify it when something bad happens to him.

The main plot of the book is fairly straightforward, but with Jasper narrating the action you have to very carefully read between the lines to see what’s really going on. His inability to recognise faces (even those of his parent’s) adds another layer of complexity, although this makes the story somewhat hard to follow in places and the repetition of endless descriptions of colours did get a bit tedious. I also thought that the plot could have been a bit tighter – to me, the book felt overly long and there were some slack parts during the middle chapters where nothing really happened.

I enjoyed the juxtaposition of the light and shade within the novel – the overall tone was lighthearted and amusing despite the dark subject matter. Jasper was totally naive to the situation going on around him but there was just enough information for the reader to be able to guess at what was really happening. There were a few red herrings thrown in for good measure too, which kept me on my toes and meant that I didn’t even begin to guess at what the final conclusion might be.

Overall, I liked The Colour of Bee Larkham’s Murder for it’s charm, complexity and uniqueness but there were times when the writing got a bit tedious and I disengaged from the storyline. I liked the neurodiverse representation and felt that this really added to the intrigue but the novel felt overly long and I sometimes found it hard to follow who was who. It’s a shame because this could have been an absolutely brilliant read – it’s certainly a great idea – but unfortunately the author didn’t quite pull it off.