BookLife Review by Carol O'Day: All the Colors of the Dark (Chris Whitaker, author)
Mystery, crime, missing teen, serial killer, Missouri, poverty, sexual assault, coming-of-age, painter, trauma, captivity, obsession, healing, abiding love, criminal investigator.
Set in the fictional small town of Monta Clare, Missouri in 1975, Chris Whitaker’s All the Colors of the Dark is a missing teen thriller and mystery. Its lyrical language often sings from the page, peppered with vivid descriptions of forests and fine art, and aching with poignant explorations of coming of age and trauma. The reader meets Joseph, known as Patch (due to his missing eye and his penchant for wearing eye patches and dressing like a pirate), on page one, on the day he will become a hero and then go missing. Patch is a young teen and his best friend is a girl called Saint. Patch and Saint live in poverty and near-poverty, respectively. Patch is raised by an unemployed single mother with substance abuse issues, and Saint by her grandmother, a widow who drives a bus. The two are in the decidedly unpopular crowd at school.
One the fateful day of his disappearance, Patch is confronted by school bullies on his way to school and escapes to the woods he knows well. There he witnesses a crime in progress. Beautiful, wealthy and popular Misty Meyer, long the object of Patch’s unrequited affection, is being accosted by a stranger. Patch fends off Misty’s attacker and directs her to run away. Patch is stabbed and abducted. Though a police investigation and search ensues, the trail eventually runs cold. Days and weeks pass, and the public begins to fear the worst, that Patch has been killed. Saint refuses to let the investigation fizzle. She conducts searches of her own, and parks herself at the police station to keep Patch front-of-mind for law enforcement. She holds every manner of vigil for Patch. Suspects abound–itinerant strangers, a local single doctor, and eccentric townspeople.
Patch re-appears; he is held captive in an dark room by his abductor. There with him is another captive named Grace. Back in Monta Clare, the search for Patch flows and ebbs. It is Saint’s sole preoccupation. Her love for Patch is deep and profound. In the course of the search for Patch, Saint and the local police learn of a large number of other missing young women, and tragically, discover several bodies of young women, all bearing a striking similar talisman–a set of unusual rosary beads.
Patch is held captive for months on end. The central mysteries of the book are not only who and where the abductor is, but also whether the companion Patch encounters in the dark is real or imagined. During a fire triggered by Saint, Patch escapes his captor, but, in the process loses track of Grace. Patch becomes obsessed with finding and rescuing her. However, since he never saw Grace in the light of day and cannot describe her, he can only recount the stories she told him and attempt to find her based on these stories and clues. While Patch struggles to acclimate to “normal” life, he is befriended by a local gallery owner. He begins to sketch and paint countless versions of Grace, and unearths an artistic talent he did not know he possessed. His obsession does not permit him to form lasting relationships, or deep ones, even with Saint, and he regularly disappears on journeys to meet with families of missing girls in the hope that one of them might be Grace.
Patch’s obsession spans decades. Saint struggles to reconnect with her dramatically altered friend. Her sleuthing skills are now embedded deep within her being, and she eschews the Ivy League for a career in law enforcement, and specifically missing persons. She is mentored by the local police officer who oversaw the search for Patch and remains steadfast when others lost interest. Patch remains fixated on Grace; Saint is lost in her unrequited love for Patch.
All the Colors of the Dark is nearly 600 delightful pages, despite its dark subjects. The bruised humanity of Saint and Patch are wrapped in mantles of healing that clothe and animate them. The power of love and family in its many forms imbue this tragic multi-level crime trauma drama with waves of hope that sustain one’s faith in humanity. The reader cares about Saint and Patch, and empathizes with their families and their advocates. We root for Saint and Patch to heal and for justice for the many victims of the crimes they uncover. As the underlying mysteries at long last unravel, justice, though delayed and perhaps diluted, is served.
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