The Colour of Bee Larkham’s Murder by Sarah J Harris

Having recommended this to my book club I have just read it for the second time, and despite knowing what happens I really enjoyed revisiting it.  It is a very unusual murder mystery novel told from the perspective of Jasper, a 13 year old boy who has autism, synaesthesia and prosopagnosia, or face blindness.  Not the ideal witness to a murder, you can hear the police thinking!  It has been likened to The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, a book I also really enjoyed, and I can see why, but I still regard The Colour of Bee Larkham’s Murder as a very unique novel.

At the start of the book Harris defines synaesthesia for readers not familiar with it.  Synaesthesia is a relatively rare condition, where the stimulation of one sense affects another sense.  In Jasper’s case, when he hears sounds he sees colours.  I had actually come across synaesthesia before, as my husband has it, albeit in a much milder form than Jasper, but I imagine this would be a first for most readers.

Jasper’s synaesthesia means that his world is full of vibrant colour, and therefore this book is filled with very colourful descriptions.  The synaesthesia paired with the autism severely impacts how Jasper sees and interacts with the world, but it also adds beauty, wonder and inspiration for his art.  His enjoyment of music and birdsong goes beyond the usual music fan or ornithologist, as he experiences sound in a completely absorbing visual dimension.  Harris works hard to help the reader comprehend and visualise this, and throughout the novel we are positioned squarely beside, or inside, Jasper.

We are uniquely privileged in being the only person to fully understand him.  We know his thoughts, we view all his interactions with people from his perspective, and we see how he perceives and misreads the world.  We can completely understand his naive misunderstandings and can also appreciate why other characters don't understand Jasper.  The other characters often fail to recognise Jasper’s confusion.  One area that occasionally trips Jasper up is that, due to his autism, he takes words literally.  This leads to some amusing misinterpretations, but also ponderings on certain phrases, which highlight oddities in the English language.

I find Jasper a very endearing character and I am never bored or frustrated with his telling of the story.  Unlike some other stories told from a child's perspective, Harris consistently portrays things naively and through the lens of his autism, cleverly allowing the adult reader to interpret descriptions and meanings.  We therefore sometimes know more than Jasper, perceiving a character’s intentions, but we are also waiting for Jasper to reveal more of the past in order for us to make sense of the present.

The story isn’t told chronologically, it flips between before and after Bee’s murder, and both timeframes are equally captivating.  The structure is very clever, maintaining the mystery and building tension and suspicion throughout.  It is a puzzle for the reader to piece together, then take apart and re-configure, as the “facts” gradually emerge.  I found it completely addictive and un-put-downable - you have to keep reading to find out what happened and untangle it all.

**SPOILER ALERT**

One of the cleverest things about this book is that Jasper is an unreliable narrator.  Harris leads the reader to this conclusion, and then Jasper becomes aware of it too and tries to correct himself whilst re-telling the story.  However, we are still reliant on his memory and interpretation, which has been coloured by subsequent events and misunderstandings.  His naivety and inability to recognise people, adds to the complications.  Voices and appearances can change and fool him and we are unable to identify the characters ourselves, as we are reliant on Jasper’s ears and eyes.  Jasper is also easily manipulated and is frequently persuaded, misled, used and tricked by the other characters.  This all adds to the mystery and Harris keeps you guessing until the end.