It took me a while to warm to this book, but once I did, I was gripped. Jasper was such a fascinating character and I felt like Harris showed the reader his world so well, and really highlighted the disadvantages he faced through not being able to recognise faces. The book was reminiscent, for me, of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, and similarly moving. I loved the mystery at the heart of the story and it really kept me guessing to the end.

This is a really good crime story but told in completely different way to the usual style of crime books. Its has a really refreshing unique perspective on story telling and gives an insight into autism. This book kept me guessing all the way through. It is a light hearted read that you will not be able to put down. This book has everything, happy, sad, emotional moment and you will not regret reading this. I honestly cannot recommend it enough

As someone with synaesthesia who lives in an autistic household, I was really looking forward to reading this. Unfortunately, while the author has clearly done lots of research, it's also clear that she doesn't really understand the workings of her protagonist's mind, which meant lots of heavy handed talking about colours, colours, and more colours, just so that you get the point that Jasper sees sound as well as hears it.

The thing is that Harris might as well have just written a book about what Jasper hears or tastes or any other sense, because to a synaesthete, this is simply how we experience the world. It's no more or less remarkable than any other sense and until someone tells you that this isn't how everyone else experiences things, you have no idea that it's not ordinary. To be fair, Harris did cover how Jasper realises that his senses are wired differently, but the constant talking about colour to establish character gets very jarring and boring and takes you out of the world.

I also have issue with people writing from the POV of an autistic character and making them sound like they're young children. Just because you're autistic doesn't mean you're immature or stupid and I found Jasper's voice as irritating as the constant banging on about colour to the point that I very nearly ditched the book.

If Harris had simply focused on Jasper's face blindness, the character would have been less annoying, the prose less boring and the mystery still equally compelling. Then again, I don't suffer from face blindness, so maybe for someone with this condition, that aspect would also be annoying.

However, I'm glad I didn't give up, because it's the ending that really redeems this. As we discover what happened to Bee and why, the pace really picks up, to the point that a book that I would have rated two stars becomes a fantastic four purely through the plot and execution of the conclusion.

So if you're bored by the beginning, stick with it. It's worth it.

Yes the storytelling is great.
Yes the mystery story is OK.
Yes it is well and beautiful written.
BUT: The main character Jasper annoys me! And then there's also parakeets... (just read the book and you'll understand).

You either love him or hate him and to it's the latter. Yes I understand he translates things and occasions into colors and then the parakeets... 

Try it out: there's a fast majority out there which adores this book, you might like it. Don't trust me on my blue eyes.

A very original mystery about a 13 year old boy who has a rare medical condition, Synaesthesia (he is most likely Autistic too). Jasper doesn't experience sounds and words in the same way as other people. He sees different colours and coloured shapes. He recognises people by the colour of their voice as he cannot remember faces. Jasper is often misunderstood because he cannot explain what he sees and feels and he regularly misunderstands the words and actions of others, taking people's words literally. This leads to some comical situations, and some that are rather more serious.

Jasper loves the parakeets that visit his street and he loves to paint the colours he sees. He also may have murdered his neighbour, Bee Larkham.

A wonderful, touching book with the most charming narrator I have read for a long time. Highly recommended.

This is a charming, unique story about Jasper, a boy with synesthesia - so he can can 'see' colours from sounds. It's not a condition that I have any prior knowledge of so this made for interesting reading.

Jasper is a frustrating character in many ways, especially as the novel is narrated by him throughout - there are many points where you know you're not getting the full picture but it's just because Jasper doesn't understand himself. You want to reach into the novel and ask the 'grown ups' what's really happened, because they see things not necessarily in a more 'truthful' way, but in a way that most of us, as readers, can better understand.

I love the crime element to the novel - that kept me reading on when I might have got a little bored otherwise. I did really enjoy the story, but I felt it was a little long at some points. Wanting to find out what had really happened to Bee Larkham, and how they'd all got to the point they were at, was what kept me interested.

Most other reviews have raved about this book and, though I did enjoy it, I wasn't blown away - however I can really appreciate the amazing writing of Sarah J Harris; it's a beautifully written novel and definitely a unique premise too.

I was looking forward to reading this book but I don't know whether it was the writing style, the subject or just the way I was feeling but it didn't grab me the way I thought it would. As I persevered with it I enjoyed it a bit more and by the final few chapters I raced through it to find out what happened to Bee.
The narrative is told by Jasper a young teenager who has autism and synaesthesia, as well as lack of facial recognition. This means that he only recognises people by their voices and 'colours' making him rather an unreliable witness to the goings on around him..
Bee Larkham has returned to the place where she grew up to clear out her late mother's house. An egmatic and somewhat exotic person, her return coincides with the arrival of some parakeets to her garden. Jasper, who watches them from his room through his binoculars soon becomes obsessed with the birds and with Bee herself.
Seeing what unravels through Jasper's lack of understanding and naivety is, I think, what prevented me from really enjoying the read. It was difficult to enjoy the read because of this but I don't think that it could have been written any other way. If it had all been as good as the final third of the book I think I would have enjoyed it a lot more.

I am currently buying books for the library at school and I greatly enjoyed this title. I like to buy a good spread of books from YA to non-fiction so that the young people read as diverse a group of books as possible. I feel like this book would be a challenging, interesting and unusual pick, that would certainly give the young people at my school a great deal to talk about at our next Book Speed Dating events. I will certainly be recommending it to our school librarian and can't wait to hear what the kids think of it too!

I immediately feel in love with this concept and the voice with which this book was written. You immediately can;t help thinking about the world around you and the colours they represent. Like a fantastic puzzle the novel unveils itself and was truly reminiscent of books like The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time


Full review to follow on Blog

The Colour of Bee Larkham's murder is an unusual crime mystery about a young boy who has synaesthesia and mild Asperger's syndrome. It is a novel about grief as well as a rite of passage and a crime mystery with compelling protagonist. It will absorb the reader into the colours of the boys world..

Wow! So interesting, and totally unique to anything I have read previously. Jasper has synaesthesia and sees his world in colours, he doesn’t see faces but colours instead. A child narrator is a tricky thing but jasper leapt off the page for me, without being annoying or overly descriptive like other child narrators have been.

May 5, 2018 Written by DeathBecomesHer Published in iBook, Kindle, Print, Reviews 0 Permalink
Written by Sarah J Harris — A debut novel with originality Is something to shout about from the rooftops. I’m thinking Emma Healey’s Elizabeth is Missing, Fiona Cummins’ Rattle and Amanda Jennings’ In Her Wake. Time to add another to that list: Sarah J Harris and The Colour of Bee Larkham’s Murder.

How to describe this one in a sentence? Think The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time crossed with Joseph and his Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and perhaps we’ll get somewhere close.

Meet Jasper Wishart. He is 13 years old and lives with his father, a former Royal Marine, since his mother died of cancer. Jasper adored his mother, not least because she shared with him a most unusual talent. Where you and I hear sounds, Jasper sees colours ­– vivid, crazy combinations that wouldn’t look out of place on an artist’s palette. He is also face blind so doesn’t recognise people, not even his father, unless they speak to him and he identifies the colour of their voices. Jasper’s synaesthesia is both a gift and a burden. It isolates him from his schoolmates but also helps him to create dazzling, beautiful, unique artworks in which he paints the sounds he hears. It could be birdsong, an argument, wild music… or murder.

Jasper remembers his mother’s cobalt blue tones and he adores the myriad sounds of the parakeets which have come to nest in next door’s garden. He watches them often with his binoculars, noting the colours they make and also taking an interest in the comings and goings of the quiet London suburban street. So when an unknown lady moves in next door, he duly adds the information into his notebook. Little does he realise that Bee Larkham is about to change his life for ever.

Quiet, serious Jasper sees many things but his perceptions are both naively innocent and surprisingly sharp focused. He is a complete contrast to the wildly demonstrative, rebellious Bee, who loves to dance alone late at night to what Jasper terms ‘Martian music’ and whose off-the-wall antics set the whole of Vincent Gardens aflutter. Jasper adopts her as a friend, and an ally in looking after the parakeets. To him she appears refreshing, but we adults perhaps see Bee a little differently, and Jasper’s dad seems particularly interested in the new arrival.

Bee, her loud music and parakeets cause all sorts of ructions in quiet suburbia. She begins to teach music and the additional ‘tuition’ she offers to one teenage pupil is about to get her into all sorts of trouble. As the book begins she is dead, and Jasper and his father are with the police. They have something to hide, but they can get away with it if only Jasper can stick to the script his father has given him. Thus begins a highly individual murder mystery seen through Jasper’s eyes – and believe me, it’s a world unlike anything you’ve experienced before.

This is a book that had me laughing and also wiping away a tear or two. Jasper is a wonderfully engaging protagonist whose colourful take on life hides something of the hurt he still feels over the loss of his mother. His dad is doing his best and loves him dearly, but he doesn’t relate well to his son – the scene where they go camping is a particular highlight.

This book would make a fantastic TV series, it has so much vivid description, coupled with first-class characterisation and hear-it-in-your-head dialogue. Climb aboard and enjoy the roller coaster ride of emotions at play in a murder mystery that delights in keeping you guessing all the way. It could be the book of the year.

Synaesthesia also features powerfully in Carnivore by Jonathan Lyon, a darker and more erratic story.

HarperCollins
Print/Kindle/iBook
£7.99

CFL Rating: 5 Stars

This is an unusual book - its from the viewpoint of Jasper who is 13 years old and has Synaesthesia which is seeing colours as sounds and prosopagnosia, the inability to recognise faces. Jasper paints colours of everything around him - a new neighbour moves in next door called Bee Larkham and he is drawn to her and the parakeets that come to her garden. This is a murder mystery told from Jaspers view point. It's a moving and interesting read I really enjoyed it. Its a book that will make you see the world in a different colour.

When it boils down to it, The Color of Bee Larkham’s Murder is a thrilling mystery to read, full of twists and unseen surprises. Of course, with complex, realistic protagonist Jasper and the complications that makes him an unreliable narrator, things become all the more unclear and misleading, keeping the reader firmly on the edge of their seat. Unfortunately, it also means that a considerable portion of the book is designated to describing what he considers to be the crucial events in the weeks leading up to the murder. Whilst they are important to know, another character or author may have only dedicated a chapter or two to exploring them, because from a reader’s perspective they prove rather mundane and dull to read (certainly no lovesick screaming matches or stalker-left death notes – at least, not how Jasper tells it). With such drab, energy-less plotpoints, it becomes easy to put the book down and not pick it up for a considerable while, even if you do want to know who killed Bee Larkham. Written differently, or even just structured to put extracts from the police interview between chapters, may have helped keep momentum and interest going.

As a whole, however, the story is something fresh with great characterisation, unforeseeable plot points and grappling with really interesting and well-researched themes and ideas. Working on similar ideas, this could easily be the next 'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time'!

Thirteen-year-old Jasper lives with his ex-Royal Marine father. His mother died several years ago and he misses her. Jasper has synaesthesia. Rather than hearing sounds, Jasper sees them as colour. Every sound has its own colour, every voice its own colour palette. His mother understood this – she had synaesthesia too.

Jasper also experiences prosopagnosia, meaning that he can’t recognise faces, even his father’s. He has developed techniques to help him, the colour of people’s voices, the clothes they wear, accessories they have etc. His Dad helps him by wearing his “uniform” – certain colours that Jasper recognises, as well as calling him “son” and speaking in his ochre tone.

Jasper loves art and records the colours of the world in his paintings. Most people can’t appreciate them, but for Jasper they tell the stories of his life.

When a new neighbour, Bee Larkham, comes to the street he befriends her (her voice is sky blue, not quite the cobalt blue of his mother’s) and becomes obsessed with the parakeets in her garden, and the colours they make in his world.

When Jasper becomes convinced that Bee Larkham has been murdered, he becomes increasingly frustrated that people aren’t taking him seriously.

Told from Jasper’s perspective, we get a fascinating look into how he perceives the world. He doesn’t like change, sticks to routine, takes things literally and, consequently, misunderstands those around him. While not actually saying that Jasper is autistic, it is implied in the pages of this book.

We are taken along with Jasper as he tries to piece together what happened to Bee Larkham, all the while being desperate to protect his new friends, the parakeets.

This is an interesting read, that I certainly found educational. Personally, I wasn’t overly familiar with the conditions in this book prior to reading, so it opened my eyes.

I enjoyed the writing and the description of colours that define Jasper’s world. Also, the way we see the truth behind much of Jasper’s naive observations.

I did find it somewhat repetitive at times, but I guess that’s the point – to capture Jasper’s character.

Although this book is told from the eyes of a teenager, and is being likened by many to The Curious Incident of the Dog In The Night-Time, I feel it’s important to note that this isn’t a book for children. There are some issues in it that aren’t suitable for a younger audience.

All in all, I enjoyed this novel. I really liked Jasper and enjoyed seeing the world from his perspective, all the while trying to uncover some mysteries for myself.

I really loved this novel. It is unique, a murder story whose protagonist is a young boy who sees the world in a different way from the rest of the world.

“I am glad I am not like most other teenage boys because I get to see the world in its full multi-coloured glory.”

Jasper is 13 years old. He lives with his father in a quiet street in Richmond. Jasper has synaesthesia, which means he sees sounds as colours. Also, he has prosopagnosia so he can’t recognise people’s faces. He spends his days painting, observing parakeets from his bedroom window, and keeping note of everything that happens in his neighbourhood.

“Bee Larkham’s murder was ice blue crystals with glittery edges and jagged, silver icicles.”

Bee Larkham is a young woman who just moved across the street. She is soon causing trouble in the neighbourhood with her loud music (which Jasper also loves) and the parakeets in her garden. Now the police wants to question her about her relationship with a 15-year-old boy, but she’s disappeared. Jasper knows what happened to her, but his memories are unclear so he goes through his notebooks to remember what really happened the night Bee disappeared.

I really felt for Jasper. The adults around Jasper don’t understand him. They think that because of his learning disabilities he doesn’t understand what is going on. But Jasper is a special boy, highly intelligent, and I did love this character. Since the story is told in first person from Jasper’s point of view, we can see Jasper struggling to express himself and, at times, it was actually painful to read (especially when he was bullied).

There are many emotional moments, I was especially moved by Jasper’s memories of his mother, who died when he was young, and he still remembers the cobalt blue of her voice and rubs one of her buttons every time he feels anxious or nervous. There is also some humour and irony, created by Jasper’s lack of sarcasm, that made me laugh.

The novel is brilliantly written and very well-researched. Jasper’s personality really drew me into the story and I found the entire novel intense and unforgettable.

This seemed very very similar to 'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime', and although I loved that book, this one seemed like a direct copy of the premise, albeit with autism and synesthesia as a combination. The premise was promising and the writing very descriptive, however the colour references were a little too 'inyourface' and it distracted from the action.

I think comparisons to the Curious Incident of the Dog... are inevitable, but I have to admit that I found the book a bit of a slog to read. The colours confused me and since our protagonist has issues keeping people apart, so did I. I know that a lot of people will love this though, but sadly it was not for me.

Once I got used to the way that Jasper sees the world, which is rather different to say the least, I simple whizzed through this book, drinking in every colour as he tells the story is his own rather special way.
Jasper is thirteen but he is not your average teenager. He has both prosopagnosia, the inability to recognise faces, as well as synaesthesia, which means that he sees sound as colours. He has learned to distinguish between people using certain key characteristics including the clothes they wear, as well as the colours they emit when they speak, but it is not an exact science. Sometimes emotions cloud the colours, as does illness, but overall he manages quite well. This does mean however that sometimes he gets it wrong. He lives with his dad who has quit his military career to look after him since the passing of his mother. One day, a new neighbour, one Bee Larkham, moves in across the way from his house and they form a bond due to her egregious behaviour which emits a whole host of exciting colours for him to experience. But it is behaviour that others in the neighbourhood don't find quite so appealing. Some of Jasper's other personality traits could also indicate him being somewhere on the autism spectrum but he and his new neighbour start to bond over the fact that a family of parakeets move into one of her trees. But there is so much more to Bee that meets the eye as, at the start of the book, we find out that she is missing and that Jasper and his dad may know more about the situation than they are saying. Told in the present with flashbacks to the past both through Jasper's journals and paintings, we learn what brought Bee home as well as the events leading up to that Friday night when she disappeared. Will Jasper be able to go back and interpret what he saw that night and find the truth of what really happened?
I am not usually a fan of too much description in a book; I prefer the story to get on with itself, but here the pace is slowed down by the way Jasper tells the story in colours. And it works, it really does. I loved some of the description in the book and was easily able to imagine all the colours being given off by the characters as he met them, or watched them. It really was a breath of fresh air compared with all the bulk standard crime genre books I usually devour. It was also nice to have to slow down and savour every word rather than whizz through a book like I so often do.
Characterisation was also quite special in the book. Instead of the usual methods of definition, the characters are described mostly in terms of their colours and clothing, the former changing slightly due to circumstances, the latter open to abuse, which often made it quite hard to work out who was who at times.
It also helped that, after only a short amount of getting to know him, I really took to Jasper. I do love characters that are more outside the box than most, especially children. One of my favourite authors, Matthew Quick, writes a lot of this kind of character and in my opinion, Jasper is right up there with the best of those Mr Quick creates. I especially loved Jasper's relationship with his dad who really is doing the best he can in often quite trying circumstances.
The mystery surrounding what happened to Bee is a bit of a strange one. Her lifestyle didn't quite lend itself well to forming cordial relationships with her neighbours but, as we also saw, she put quite a few more backs up than just those she lived near. Some of the themes being quite shocking in nature which did make me change my mind about what I thought of her as the book went on. We learn more and more about her through Jasper's journals and paintings, which I though were a very interesting way of illustrating what was happening in the present. Obviously due to the way Jasper sees the world, sometimes the accuracy of that information leaves a lot to be desired; a quirky spin on the unreliable narrator.
All in all, a brilliant and often heartwarming book containing quite adult themes at times. One that gripped me from the off and held me close throughout my time with it. My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

I found Sarah J. Harris's unconventional mystery a little hard-work to begin with. I didn't slip in Jasper's mindset as much as I would have liked, however this could just be because his point of view is so unique and unusual. However as the story moved on, I found myself really absorbing the colours of Jasper's world, and trying to view things through his eyes. It's certainly an interesting perspective to write a book from, and I really appreciate the innovation.

I enjoyed the mystery unfolding from Jasper's perspective, where he is unable to recognise faces or follow expected social cues - it made me view the story in different ways to how I usually read fiction. I also really enjoyed the little moments where the reader could take the cues, or implied meanings but Jasper missed them.

However I found the last portion of the book a little bit hard to digest, I felt that Harris was trying to turn Bee Larkham into a tragic character that we should sympathise with and feel sorry for. But I don't think that her previous actions should be justified by her past. It felt like the book had spent a long period of time establishing Bee's character, only to try and change it drastically at the end, and it felt forced and rushed to me. Perhaps if there had been more of Bee's history interspersed throughout the rest of the book, it may feel more natural.

However on the whole, the character building was strong, and the addition of colours to characters really added a strong insight. On the whole The Colour of Bee Larkham’s Murder was a unique and enjoyable read, with a few flaws.