This is about Jasper, an autistic thirteen-year-old who sees colours where we would hear sounds. He also is unable to distinguish betwen faces which causes difficulties - he does not even recognise his own father out of context. When a woman neighbour disappears he interprets events in his own unique way which confuses everyone, but eventually the puzzle is solved. There are obvious parallels with The Curious Incident.. but I found this was not quite so successful. The repetitive descriptions of Jasper's colours got tedious and the hints of what was happening took too long to resolve. The explanation of what happened to Lucas felt like an afterthought. However, I read it with interest and enjoyed the quirky characters.

I loved the voice of Jasper in this book and the way he sees the world is both beautiful and scary. This tells the story of his friendship with his neighbour, Bee Larkham and the way in which he must piece together the events leading to her death, made difficult as he has face blindness and recognises people through the colour of their voice. Jasper is a wonderful character - funny and kind, but also brutally honest and often rude. His voice is what carries this book for me as the plot itself was quite predictable as crime narratives go, but to some extent I don't really think that was a bad thing. What Harris has done really well is create a snapshot into the world of a boy who sees things just a little bit differently and has given us all a brief glimpse of that experience. The prose was accessible and the narrative pacing was good here too. All in all, I thought this was a very accomplished book and I would recommend it to anyone who enjoyed The Curious Incident.
I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

This is a really interesting read. Jaspers ability to see everything as colours and not recognise faces causes him a lot of problems. The police are trying to work out what happened to Jaspers neighbour Bee. Jasper uses his knowledge of colour to try and help them. I was really interested in how Jasper saw the world and how his dad tried to help him cope. Jaspers ability to work out what had happened was a fascinating read.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

I loved this book. Jasper is such an unreliable witness to the proceedings, you have to keep all his colourful threads in your mind and look for the anomalies, just as he does. I felt that I understood his neurological difference well, and appreciated how hard it must be for anyone who is different in this way. The ending was full of hope for his future, and for his father's too. Excellent read.

This is a unique murder story featuring a boy,Jasper, who is autistic. The author's ability to understand the issues he faces and communicate them so well makes this book special. The importance of colour in his life is a major feature and it is well portrayed. Other characters are well chosen too to complement the main character. This should be an important book for autistic people as well as a hotel d read for us all.

‘The Colour of Bee Larkham’s Murder’ might not be a book that’s going to leap off the shelves as a must buy for crime fans, but it’s definitely one that I’d recommend to anyone who likes a good mystery. First and foremost it’s a moving and fascinating novel about autism and synaesthesia (the neurological condition that results in a joining or merging of senses that aren't normally connected), but the whodunnit element is ever present and very skilfully handled.
It tells the story of Jasper, a thirteen year old boy who sees sounds as colours and is unable to distinguish human faces. When one of his neighbours and friends, Bee Larkham, is murdered, Jasper is pulled into the investigation. What follows is a gradual unveiling of what has led up to the crime, as well as a sensitive examination autism and synaesthesia.
Jasper is a great protagonist: sympathetic, fascinating and a convincingly and engagingly unreliable narrator. His unique take on the world means that past events take on different meanings as he replays them, a trait that works perfectly in a mystery novel. On paper his age and condition might make him sound like a victim, but in reality he is anything but. In fact he shares many of the characteristics of great detectives like Sherlock Holmes or Hercule Poirot - an obsession with the collection of evidence, a rigidly logical mind and a relentless drive to uncover the truth. There is even a wonderfully Poirot-like “assembling of the evidence” scene towards the end of the book which I thought worked brilliantly.
The tick tock approach of interspersing chapters of present day narrative with flashbacks is a very common one nowadays, but author Sarah J Harris uses it to good effect here. Jasper’s replaying of past events in the light of Bee’s death works on two levels - it progresses the plot and our understanding of the mystery in an engaging way, and it brings the boy hero’s character to life. As the events of recent weeks are laid out, the tension builds brilliantly as the relationship between Bee, Jasper and another boy at his school, Lucas, comes into focus.
This is a book as much about people as it is about plot. Jasper is definitely its heart, but around him are a cast of other characters who are just as believable. His father, Bee, Lucas, the neighbours on the street and the police investigating the case. All come together to create a convincing community that we meet through Jasper’s eyes. Like many great crime novels, in the end the events of the distant past have as much bearing on things as more recent ones. As the plot develops so does our understanding of the characters and their motivations, making for a rich, mature and satisfying mystery.
This is Sarah J Harris’ debut novel for adults and there is a great deal to like about it. It’s readable without always being easy reading, gripping and complex without being overly complicated, and funny and moving in equal measure. Whilst it isn’t a traditional crime novel, ‘The Colour of Bee Larkham’s Murder’ is a novel with enough mystery to delight crime fans and enough of everything else to please readers who don’t normally enjoy the genre. I enjoyed every page and am keen to see what Harris does next.

This is a very clever book and a compelling read.
Jasper is autistic and lives in a world of colour. He doesn't recognise faces - everyone has their own colour.. Everything has a colour which makes it very difficult when he is the only witness to a murder.
You will need to get into Jaspers mind to see how he sees the world and to solve the murder.

I was drawn to this book due to the synopsis. It’s an interesting premise and it was certainly unique to me. Jasper is a 13-year-old boy with autism and synesthesia, which also causes face blindness. The story is told through Jasper’s colourful world as the mystery surrounding his neighbour Bee Larkham slowly unfolds.

Unfortunately, it didn’t resonate with me as much as it has with everyone else. The descriptions of colours were enjoyable at first, but soon became tedious, as did the way the narrative unfolded. As the story is told through the POV of someone with autism, there’s an added layer on top of the constant confusing narrative — repetitions, obsessions, taking things literally — and the story unfolding slowly due to this.

And that’s what irked me the most: the way the story is told. Parts were annoying, irritating and confusing. It also took me a while to gather that One Person’s Colour was in fact A Dog’s Colour and not their owner’s. During other parts I wasn’t sure who was speaking, and sometimes this seemed to be done intentionally so we truly see the world from Jasper’s POV, but other times it seemed like I’d missed something.

I feel bad for saying it, but it does seem like I didn’t enjoy the book because of Jasper’s conditions and how that affects the narrative. I quite like an unreliable narrator, but I found Jasper to be an unlikable character. Although I can’t say there were many other likeable characters in the book either. I suppose this could be because every other character wasn’t too fleshed out, likely a result of Jasper’s face blindness.

I understand why the author chose to have a main character with autism and synesthesia but I’m unsure about why she chose to tell the story she told. It was a weird one, but I did want to keep reading even though I wasn’t sure I liked it.

The pace picked up towards the end, but I feel like the book could’ve been shortened. I don’t think this is a badly written book or a poorly constructed story, but more so that it just wasn’t for me.

Thank you for allowing me to read this book!

This book is about the life of a thirteen year old autistic boy, Jasper Wishart, who sees the world in his own unique way. He has face blindness and synaesthesia and sees the world in colours. In all honesty the murder mystery, while intriguing in itself and touching on dark themes, is a story used by author Harris to shine a light on autism and how both different and extraordinary and life affirming an understanding of autism can be. One of the reasons I read it was because I love books that are a bit different and I have an understanding of autism myself. I believe author Sarah Harris conducted extensive research and this shows in the writing. It takes a bit of time to get onto Jasper's wavelength and how he sees the world but it's well worth persevering with. One for my favourites list. Highly recommended.

Thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins for review copy.

A murder mystery with a difference. Indeed such a difference, I'm sure I've never read a book with such an original take on a story.
Anyone with some knowledge of autism will recognise the fascinations and attention to detail that typify Jasper's everyday life. This could put some readers off initially but stick with it, once you get into the flow you don't want to stop.
The reader is in a unique position, seeing the world from Jasper's eyes via his autism, synaesthesia and face blindness but also able to read the nuances in conversations that Jasper misses.
This is more than a murder story and should not just be classified in that genre. It is a descriptive, quirky, contemporary novel that gives the reader a different view to the norm.
An entertaining read that is definitely not run of the mill.

I’m afraid I didn’t think that The Colour Of Bee Larkham’s Murder was all that good. I feel churlish saying it because it’s written with good intentions, but it just didn’t work for me.

The book is narrated by Jasper, a 13-year-old who has autism and synesthesia, so that he cannot recognise faces and experiences sounds and some other senses as colours. He has a very patchy memory and is convinced that he killed his neighbour, the eponymous Bee Larkham. The plot, which moves extremely slowly, is the emergence of the events leading up to Bee’s possible murder (we don’t know the truth for a long time) intercut with Jasper’s day-to-day perception of the events in his life.

Plenty of people have loved the book, and fair enough. It’s certainly not exploitative, it’s an original viewpoint and it is well-intentioned – although I did feel that there was some over-sentimental emotional manipulation at times. The main problem for me, though, is that Jasper’s voice just didn’t ring true as that of a 13-year-old. Just as an example, at one point he says,
“...I walked into his bedroom. He put his real book behind the cover of Lee Child’s.

Understanding Your Child’s Autism And Other Learning Difficulties.

I expect he’s studying it right now. Trying to get a grip on why I’m difficult. Why I’m different from other teenage boys.

Why I’m so hard to love.”
The use of paragraphs especially is a technique of an adult author trying to make a punchy point and to me it really isn’t the voice of a bemused young teenager. I found this throughout the book and that, combined with a rather stodgily paced story prevented me from becoming involved.

There have been some superb books written from the point of view of narrators with various mental health problems – Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident..., of course, and Nathan Filer’s The Shock of the Fall, Holly Bourne’s Am I Normal Yet?, Gavin Extence’s The Mirror World Of Melody Black and others spring to mind. This isn’t in their league, I’m afraid, and I can only give it a very qualified recommendation.

(My thanks to HarperCollins for an ARC via NetGalley.)

I haven’t read a book like this before, and I found myself having to really commit to power through to the end. The main character comes across as younger than his 13 years, and although I appreciated reading a story through the eyes of someone not typically a protagonist, I felt that the repetitive fixation on the paraquees and colours a little bit rammed home. I found the facial blindness fascinating and felt this subject could have been expanded on to truly get a sense of what living with this condition is like. The last 1/4 of the book was enjoyable and overall I would recommend this book. I think the author should be commended for a very research and unusual approach, I am looking forwards to listening to the accompanying podcast.

Thanks Netgalley and the Publisher. I actually got probably half way through this book and decided I had other books I would rather have been reading, Sorry

Unfortunately, I could not get through much of this book. I was very interested to learn about synesthesia but the constant description of colour was very tedious. I found myself skipping through the pages but in the end had to give up as I lost interest.

Really interesting, unique novel. It caught me by surprise. I liked the writing and the fact that I couldn't see where it was going. Very good experience.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this copy.

Jasper at 13 probably should be playing games, bantering with mates and starting to notice girls in a new way for the first time. But Jasper isn't your average 13 years old. He has a condition called Synaesthesia which essentially means his senses don't translate in the traditional way. He sees sounds as colour and that is how he identifies people. By the colour their voice produces. He is completely face blind so doesn't even know the faces of his own family....but as soon as they speak they become recognizable. He doesn't see it as necessarily a bad thing, after all, he lives in a unique and beautiful world. But when his neighbour Bee Larkham goes missing he knows that something bad happened to her but he can't make sense of his memories....all he knows is he sure has to blame in some way for her fate. It took me a few chapters to get into this but once I did I was hooked. Jasper Wishart is an endearing character, his view of the world is alien and yet somehow familiar as well. Because we view the world through his eyes we share his confusion at the events occurring on his road but like him can see it's not right at all. He's surrounded by adults whose motives and actions are questionable and often criminal. The journey to his unravelling and understanding is emotional, humorous and absolutely fabulous. I would definitely recommend.

Some reviews have said that, while accounting for Jasper’s special needs, he sounds a lot younger than he actually is, and I have to agree but I was very surprised when I read that he is already 13 years old. He does behave a lot younger than he is. I also find it very strange that Jasper, being not only autistic, but having “several developmental problems “ besides his synaesthesia and his prosopagnosia, goes to a standard public school.

I feel like the book could’ve been shorter. At the beginning it was very interesting, but then I felt it dragged on a bit until about the middle of the book. I did find it a bit strange that Jasper couldn’t understand things, such as someone “going nuts “, taking words very literal, on the other hand he did describe that people “manage to cheat the lucky dip" and he himself said it’s a "dead cert" which is vernacular.

I found the idea of the book very interesting and it drew me in right away. No doubt many comparisons are going to be made to Mark Haddon’s the curious incident of the dog in the nighttime, and while this book is in some ways similar, the narrator being an autistic boy, this book is also very distinct. I liked that characters are not always as they first seem in Jasper’s description. It becomes clear that almost every character in the book tries to manipulate Jasper for their own personal gain in some way or other.

A unique tale but one I’m afraid I just didn’t “get” I tried but honestly struggled, sorry 😞

Jasper is not a normal boy. He likes order and routine and he hears noises in terms of colours. When a new neighbour appears in his street Jasper is fascinated by her colours, so similar to his dead mother's. When she encourages parakeets to nest in the trees outside her house then Jasper is even more entranced. However Bee is making enemies amongst the neighbours with her eccentricity and noise and Jasper finds himself being manipulated.
This book has a lot of terrific reviews but when I first started reading I found it slow and a little frustrating. However I'm glad that I persevered as the story is like an onion and only as the layers get peeled away does the true complexity of the story get revealed. Jasper is an interesting narrator, Harris has really got inside the mind of troubled boy and his memory gaps. By the end I was avidly reading to find out who actually was the killer and why, even this gave an extra twist. What seems a very safe book is actually very dark.

A fantastic read. Thoroughly enjoyed this and it is not something I would usually pick up. Will look for more from this author in future.