Thirteen-year-old Jasper Wishart is on the autism spectrum, and has synesthesia - what other people hear, he sees in colour. He also cannot see faces and is only able to recognize people by the colour of their voices. When a neighbour dies and her estranged daughter, Bee Larkham, arrives to settle the estate, she feeds the parakeets that have settled in the trees by her house ensuring that they stay. Jasper loves watching the parakeets, the colours of their feathers but especially of their songs and he spends much of his time watching them and the neighbourhood out his window. He also loves the colours of the music that Bee plays loudly. Unfortunately, not everybody in the neighbourhood shares his appreciation of what, to them, is just constant noise. Jasper also keeps detailed notebooks of everything. At first, Jasper wants to befriend Bee because of the parakeets and because of the colour of her voice. But their relationship is not what he had first believed and eventually they have a falling out. Then Bee disappears.

It took me a while to get into The Color of Bee Larkham's Murder by Sarah J. Harris. It seemed slow and, when I put it down, I had trouble picking it up again and eventually gave up altogether and moved on to other books. However, after reading a whole lot of positive reviews by people I trust, I decided to give it another go and I am so glad I did. This time I became fully immersed in the story. I was tied to the pages trying to guess what really happened to Bee and what role Jasper played in it. The story is told by Jasper and he a very unreliable narrator for many reasons - his condition, his faulty memory, his inability to decipher speech idiosyncracies like metaphors or common cliches or to recognize people unless they speak, as well as his father's constant admonitions to keep what happened a secret. As a result, he tends to wind back and forth through the story, giving us only little snippets of what really happened revealing only enough at a time to keep the reader guessing and trying to piece it all together. This book may be about a boy who sees vibrant colours all around him but this is a very dark story. However, at least for me, once you get into it, it is a very well-written and compelling one.

<i>Thanks to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster Canada for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review</i>

The Color of Bee Larkham’s Murder has been compared to The Curious Incident of The Dog in the Nighttime, one of my most favourite books, ever. I can see why, as this novel is also a mystery with a boy with autism, although instead of Asperger’s, the main character has synesthesia, a condition where he sees colours when he hears sounds. I found this book to have some heavy themes, and at some points it was a little difficult to get through, although I was incredibly busy while reading it so I was easily distracted. I did really enjoy reading the story, and the mystery remained one until the very end, and was fairly satisfying. I loved the character of Jasper and I think the author did a great job of making the right characters likeable.
It’s a fairly quick read and although not necessarily a beach read, it has humour and heart.
4 stars, this book took me almost 5 hours to read. I received an advance reader’s copy from @netgalley and this review is my own.

Jasper is a 13-year old who sees the world differently for a variety of reasons. He has synaesthesia and sees colour in response to sound. He also has prosopagnosia, so that he can't recognize people by their faces. Finally, he is on the autism spectrum and struggles with various social interactions. These exceptionalities come together to create a very creative murder mystery in The Colour of Bee Larkham's Murder.

Through his paintings, Jasper begins to attempt to reconstruct what happened on the night of Bee's murder. There are many interesting pieces to the story, including Jasper's interactions with his dad, the neighbours, and Bee, in particular. I enjoyed seeing the world through Jasper's eyes, but the story didn't totally work for me. The first half felt a bit slow and the synaesthesia and prosopagnosia references were a bit overdone, but then it all came together so nicely during the second half of the book!

Overall, it was an interesting read and a smart new take on a murder mystery. It would be especially interesting for those who'd like to explore the perspective of a synaesthete or a prosopagnosic. This is what drew me to this book-I regularly teach about these topics in psychology courses, so I am always thrilled to consider the different perceptual experiences that we have of the world around us.

<i>The Color of Bee Larkham's Murder</i> is, in theory, a book with an interesting concept. Jasper, 13, has autism, synesthesia, and face-blindness. His neighbour Bee has been murdered - and he knows he's the murderer. The story takes us through the aftermath of Bee's death and timejumps to the events leading up to it. This is a plot that is reminiscent of <i>The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time</i>. I didn't love that and I didn't love this.

The first half of the novel dragged - it took me 19 days to even get to the halfway point - but the second race I raced through in one night. If the entire novel had been paced like the second half I might have enjoyed it more. Unfortunately, I just couldn't connect with a single person in the novel. I disliked everyone and it made reading somewhat a drag.

The Color of Bee Larkham's Murder is an original and fascinating murder mystery.

The narrator is 13 year old Jasper. The story is set in the UK.

Jasper is an intriguing and unusual narrator. First off he is only 13 years old. Usually that would mean that this was a Young Adult novel. However, the book does not feel like YA and it's not marketed that way.

Jasper has a bunch of things that make him very different. First he has synesthesia a condition that lets him see colors when he hears sounds. He also suffers from face blindness, which means that he can't tell people's faces apart. And he seemed to be autistic (his dad was reading a book about dealing with autistic children).

The main story has to do with a new neighbor, Bee Larkham, who has moved across the street from Jasper and his dad.

Bee is in her early twenties and has recently returned to her childhood home after her mom died. She has a tree filled with parakeets. And Jasper is completely obsessed with these birds.

Even though Jasper was 13 he read as someone much younger. His autism and other abilities added to this. He often did not understand what was happening around him. And he took everything literally.

The mystery aspect was enjoyable. Although I definitely preferred the last part of the book. There was a back and forth in time. The story was mostly set in the present. But then we also got to see from the time when Jasper first met Bee.

At first I could not decide how much I liked this book. The way Jasper sees colors for everything is described a lot. It definitely made the story completely unique. However at times it was a bit trying.

The last part of the book was the strongest. I was completely riveted. I was fascinated by by Jasper's inability to recognize faces. Especially how it impacted the story. Overall, this was such a different mystery.

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

Jasper Wishart has Synaesthesia. He sees the world in colours that other people cannot see. He sees the murder of his neighbour, Bee Larkham, as an icy blue and the voice of the detective in charge of the case as a rusty chrome orange. Jasper also seems to have Asperger’s or Autism-like tendencies, though that is never stated concretely. That is why this debut novel by Sarah J. Harris reminded me a lot of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime. Jasper does not like any deviations from his usual routine, he does not understand sarcasm or metaphors, he cannot read or even see faces (prosopagnosia), and he often becomes fixated on certain things. Jasper also speaks with brutal honesty, which I loved.

“I’m glad I’m not like most other teenage boys because I get to see the world in its full multicolored glory. I can’t tell people’s faces apart, but I see the color of sounds and that is so much better.”

Jasper became friends with Bee Larkham because her voice was the closest to the colour of his mother’s voice: a cobalt blue. She befriended him because she saw his true love of art, music, and the parakeets that lived in her yard. However, she tried to control and manipulate him because she sensed his vulnerabilities. When Bee disappears, only Jasper knows the truth about what happened to her. The police are interested in her and the nature of her relationship with a fifteen-year-old boy. They do not know that a murder has occurred.

“He means he doesn’t want to talk about my colors again. He wants me to pretend I see the world like he does, monochrome and muted. Normal.”

I immediately loved the title of this book, and knew I had to read it, before I knew anything about the actual plot of the book. I also loved the cover. The first one I saw was the one with the blue background and paint brush strokes of colour but the one with the orange background and the boy’s face obscured by blue is also pretty genius.

“I can’t stop seeing the color of murder”

Despite the fact that this book is told by the thirteen-year-old Jasper, it is decidedly not a book for children. In fact, some of the content is quite graphic. The last half of this book is extremely gripping as the truth is revealed.

“Her exact shade of cobalt blue doesn’t come ready-mixed in a tube. It has to be created. I’ve tried to change the tint by adding white and mixed in black to alter the shade, but everything I attempt is wrong.”

This story is told both in the present, after the murder of Bee Larkham, and in the past, when she had just moved onto Jasper’s street. Jasper is an unreliable first person narrator but it is not because he is lying. He just sees the world differently than other people do. Jasper is an observant and intelligent child so I cannot think of a better person to tell the story. The gaps in his memory keep the mystery alive until the very end of the book.

“I can’t ever tell him that while he broke a grown-up woman’s heart into millions of tiny, sharp silver pieces, I did something far, far worse to her on Friday night.”

There are so many emotional passages in this book, especially when it comes to Jasper’s mother, who died when he was nine, but there is also some humour. I thought the book was beautifully written and well-researched. Sarah J. Harris shows true sensitivity and compassion for Jasper. I loved how he views the world through colours. It makes this book a very visceral and sensory experience.

Up until chapter forty you might think you know the ending but the author manages to throw in an unexpected twist at the end. I cannot wait to read her next novel. If this book is any indication, it will be phenomenal.

I think you will enjoy this unique and deeply original novel. Please tell me what you think in the comment section.

Thank you to Net Galley and HarperCollins for providing me with an Advanced Reader Copy of this book.

Grade: A+