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    The Colour of Bee Larkham’s Murder
    Unavailable
    The Colour of Bee Larkham’s Murder
    Unavailable
    The Colour of Bee Larkham’s Murder
    Audiobook11 hours

    The Colour of Bee Larkham’s Murder

    Written by Sarah J. Harris

    Narrated by Huw Parmenter

    4/5

    ()

    Unavailable in your country

    Unavailable in your country

    About this audiobook

    How do you solve a mystery when you can’t understand the clues?

    ’A rich tapestry… distinctive and compelling’ Observer

    ‘A beautiful, original novel, at once funny and tragic and brave’ Sarah Pinborough

    There are three things you need to know about Jasper.

    1. He sees the world completely differently.
    2. He can’t recognise faces – not even his own.
    3. He is the only witness to the murder of his neighbour, Bee Larkham.

    But uncovering the truth about that night will change his world forever…

    An extraordinary and compelling debut which will make you see the world in a way you’ve never seen it before

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateMay 3, 2018
    ISBN9780008256401
    Unavailable
    The Colour of Bee Larkham’s Murder
    Author

    Sarah J. Harris

    Sarah J. Harris is an author and freelance education journalist who regularly writes for national newspapers. Her debut novel, THE COLOUR OF BEE LARKHAM’S MURDER was a Richard & Judy Book Club pick and winner of the 2018 Books Are My Bag Breakthrough Author Award. Her most recent novel, ONE ORDINARY DAY AT A TIME, published in summer 2021. She lives in London with her husband and two young children.

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    Reviews for The Colour of Bee Larkham’s Murder

    4/5

    67 ratings7 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Engaging and well written book. It is really worth listening.
    • 4/5
      I’ve long been fascinated by synesthesia, a condition where the brains perceptions of sensory input are blended. Synesthetes may taste sounds, smell colors or see scents.In The Colour of Bee Larkham’s Murder, thirteen year old Jasper Wishart hears sounds as colours.“Lawn mower: shiny silverCar revving: orangeAeroplane: light, almost see-through greenRadio: pink....Dogs barking: yellow or redCats meowing: soft violet blueDad laughing: a muddy, yellowish brownKettle boiling: silver and yellow bubbles”Unusually, Jasper also suffers from prosopagnosia, known as face blindness, and is probably also somewhere on the autism spectrum, given his literal manner and self soothing behaviours. His father doesn’t understand, and is perpetually frustrated by his son’s ‘weird’ ways.When Bee Larkham moves into the Wishart’s Street, Jasper is enchanted by the colour of her voice-sky blue, the explosions of colour from the music she plays loudly in her living room, and most particularly, the flock of parakeets that takes up residence in her garden. However not everyone is happy with the disruption Bee causes in the neighbourhood.“Bee Larkham’s murder was ice blue crystals with glittery edges and jagged silver icicles.”The Colour of Bee Larkham’s Murder is essentially a murder mystery, the story of which unfolds through Jasper’s unique perspective. It is not a straightforward narrative, skewed by Jasper’s limited, and sometimes unreliable view, partially reconstructed by his ornithological log, and the paintings he creates to help him order events. I did feel the pace dragged sometimes but I was engrossed by Jasper’s distinctive voice.A colourful and Interesting novel, Harris paints a vivid picture of an exceptional boy caught up in extraordinary circumstances.
    • 4/5
      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.Thanks to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster Canada for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review
    • 3/5
      This was a very difficult book to read, it slow and the descriptions were painstakingly exact. The main character is not only on the Autism Spectrum but he has synesthesia; what most people hear, he sees the colorized version and describes everything with color & combinations of colors. So after 3 days my patience wore very thin & finally wore out.This being said, I was only able to read 2/3 of the book before finally reading the last chapters.... The book went back and forth between Jasper's diary & meeting Bee and the events after her death, which he believes he is guilty of. Jasper has synesthesia, as did his mother. Jasper's mother died and two weeks later so too did his Nan, leaving his father, who had no clue, to be the sole caretaker of Jasper.Beatrice (Bee) Larkham has moved back to her mother's home in order to clean it out, however Bee's return causes problems in the neighborhood: not only is her music loud, she plays it well into the night; she feeds the hoard of parakeets & allows them to nest in her eaves; she attempts to protect a young pair of brothers from an abusive father; and she befriends Jasper, who sits in his street facing bedroom window with binoculars at all hours watching the parakeets.Bee has a secret, it is in her diary and it is about one of the neighbors she knew as a child, but we don't learn about this until much later in the book... In that manner the author was able to set up many Red Herrings & divert the suspicion of Bee's murder onto several other characters.The book was well written and it must have been a huge effort explaining all the colors and keeping them straight (no pun), because sometimes Jasper could not keep people straight when their normal colors would waver due to illness or other circumstances.I'd like to give it another star, but the difficulty I had reading it, keeps me from doing that!
    • 4/5
      Very interesting premise, but it reminded me of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (which is not a bad thing, mind you).
    • 4/5
      The Color of Bee Larkham's Murder is Sarah J. Harris's debut adult novel."Synesthesia: the subjective sensation of a sense other than the one being stimulated. For example, a sound may evoke sensations of color."Jasper Wishart hears colors. For everything - words, sounds, people's voices. He also cannot recognize faces and is on the autism spectrum."I'm glad I'm not like most other teenage boys because I get to see the world in its full multicolored glory."The Color of Bee Larkham's Murder opens with Jasper being interviewed about a neighbour's disappearance - although Jasper is sure it is murder. He needs to "untangle the long, snaky ticker tape in my head." Because he thinks he's the one who killed Bee......Harris has created a wonderful lead character in Jasper. My heart ached for him as he is bullied at school, subjected to angry neighbours and at times disparaged by his father. (Who, to be fair, is struggling himself) Jasper desperately misses his deceased mother, who could also see the colors. (she alone is cobalt blue) But Harris also transmits the joy Jasper feels when painting and when observing and journaling the lives of his beloved wild parakeets. His desire and determination to find the truth will have the reader firmly in his corner. I loved his voice and thoughts.Jasper's color descriptions of people, things, sounds and words make perfect sense. An angry dog - 'red triangles stretch into pointed deep orange darts." "Estranged was a gray gravel-chip word and not pleasant to look at for long."As the book is told through Jasper's narrative, the reader has only his memories and flawed observations to go on. We can slowly put together the pieces that are laid out, but there is no way to guess the final whodunit before the final pages.An really good read - if you enjoyed The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, you'll love the Color of Bee Larkham's Murder.
    • 4/5
      The Colour of Bee Larkham’s Murder by Sarah J Harris takes a look at life through the eyes of someone quite unusual indeed. Jasper Wishart is a young autistic boy who sees things a bit different from even most autistics. Jasper has a rare gift called synesthesia, where sensory inputs are dual-wired. Jasper sees sound, each a unique combination of shape and colour. He also suffers from prosopagnosia, or 'face-blindness’. He cannot recognise faces, not even his da’s, but he uses a variety of tricks to attempt to keep things straight. Jasper has witnessed a murder, but the only way he can describe it is through colour, which no one else can understand. Bee Larkham moves in nearby, staying to clear out her deceased mother's house. She loves music, and sets up to teach to earn income while she preps the house for sale. She also loves birds, and puts out feeders that draw parakeets, much to Jasper's pleasure. He adores birds. Soon Bee has Jasper running errands in exchange for being allowed to watch nesting parakeets from her house. But what Jasper doesn't know is the truth behind the errands he's running, until one day when he accidentally walks in on Bee 'getting busy’ with one of her students. When Jasper refuses to keep playing messenger, Bee retaliates with a horrible trick, one that may or may not have contributed to her death. Jasper then begins to hunt for clues, bringing to light not just the truth of Bee’s death, but of her past as well, bringing more than one criminal to justice. And from it all, Jasper finds a friend in a most unlikely person.Jasper is portrayed well. The unique mix of autism, prosopagnosia, and synesthesia made him quite the interesting character. I can't even imagine his levels of frustration. Autism alone can make communication difficult, but add in a completely foreign way of viewing the world, and the frustration quadruples. I have a friend with synesthesia, and he said those descriptions were accurate. Since the story is told first person from Jasper's POV, we get a unique perspective. I love that Jasper uses his gift to create beautiful abstract paintings that actually do tell stories that he can read. I can only imagine his da’s frustrations too. Jasper's ma was a synesthete, though not autistic. When she passed from illness, Jasper's soldier father was recalled. His father tries to understand his son, but he doesn't, not fully, and gets aggravated with Jasper's quirks and proclivities at times. One of these quirks includes calling 999 often, and for things the police wouldn't normally handle. Yet, despite the frustrations, his father never once seems to think Jasper needs to be placed in a facility. He does the best he can, and clearly loves his son. He even always dresses the same so Jasper can easily recognise him. Highly recommended if you enjoy books such as The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time.***Many thanks to Netgalley and Touchstone for providing an egalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.