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

What a brilliant book. I love something that challenges me to think from others’ points of view and this does that and more.

I enjoyed how the story unfolded through telling it through Jasper’s colours.

There is so much to like about this book - my only criticism is that I’d like to have quickened the pace.

An excellent debut novel Sarah.

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.

I find myself somewhat frustrated by this book. I like the premise of seeing the possible crime through the eyes of a child with multiple problems. I love the use of language. I was keen to find out the denouement.
However, I felt the synaesthesia became over emphasized and intrusive, almost to the detriment of the smooth flow of the story.
Nevertheless, well worth a read if you like something a little different.
Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC

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 😞

Struggled at bit with the unusual style but ended up thoroughly enjoying it! Recommended it to a friend who I thought would enjoy it, and she has also started reading it!

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.

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.