April 26: All the Colours of the Dark

Two childhood best friends torn apart by tragedy and reunited by their search for the truth, even if finding it means losing each other forever …

Introduction to the author and book

Chris Whitaker was born in London in 1981. Before he started writing, Chris spent ten years working as a financial trader in the city. He now lives in Hertfordshire with his wife and three young children.

Chris’s debut novel, Tall Oaks, won the CWA John Creasey New Blood Dagger Award in 2017. His third novel, We Begin at the End, became a New York Times bestseller and received multiple awards, including Book of the Month at Waterstones.

All the Colours of the Dark is Chris’s fifth book (published in 2024).

Waterstones Thriller Book of the Month for April 2025

Shortlisted for the Theakston Crime Novel of the Year 2025

Starting in 1975, this haunting story spans decades. Focusing on a host of unforgettable characters, this expansive novel is a master class in defying genre boundaries. This is a missing persons mystery, a serial killer thriller, and an epic love story (more than one love story) – with a unique twist on each of those identities.

Late one summer, the town of Monta Clare is shattered by the abduction of local teenager Joseph ‘Patch’ Macauley. Saint Brown, who is broken by her best friend’s disappearance. Soon, she will eat, sleep, breathe, only to find him. But when she does: it will break her heart.

Patch lies in a pitch-black room – all alone – for days or maybe weeks. Until he feels a hand in his. Her name is Grace and, though they cannot see each other, she takes him from the darkness and paints their world with her words. In this hopeless place, they fall in love. But when he escapes, there is no sign she ever even existed.

To find her again, Patch charts an epic search across the country. And, to set him free, Saint will shadow his journey: on a darker path to hunt down the man who took them. Even if finding the truth means losing each other forever.

Media Reviews:

Impeccably crafted, deeply emotional, entirely shattering. I was captivated from page one. – Bonnie Garmus

Wonderful – Richard Osman

All the Colours of the Dark is mesmerizing and intoxicating, Chris Whitaker is a poet who will leave you in breathless awe and suspense. Amazing. Haunting. Unforgettable. – Patricia Cornwell

A stunning, bewitching novel with unforgettable characters. Achingly beautiful writing and a compelling, page-turning story; All The Colours of the Dark is a masterpiece. One of my favourite books of the year. – Andrea Mara

Chris (in interview):

I had a really strange way into writing. I messed up my A-levels, I did English, Economics and Sociology, and then I got really drunk the night before my Economics exam and didn’t go to it. I only went to one of the two exams so I got an ‘N’ which I think is that it’s not even good enough for a mark – my parents were thrilled about that.

I could have retaken it but I didn’t want to go to university, nothing appealed enough. I wasn’t one of those people that knew what they wanted to do. I just thought it would find me – stupidly, I thought you just fall into something that you like doing, but I just bounced from job to job. I did some bar work, I worked in a supermarket, and then I worked as an estate agent.

I was out dropping leaflets through people’s doors and someone mugged me and stabbed me for my phone, because I put up a fight. I was only nineteen at the time and I thought the guy wasn’t that big. I thought, ‘I can take him’ (stupidly), and he stabbed me three times.

I was okay though, I was just like, ‘let’s stitch me back together’ and I was okay. Then afterwards, I had a really difficult time. I couldn’t work out what was wrong with me. I was too young, and didn’t really look into things like depression or post-traumatic stress and things like that. I remember talking to friends and they’d just slap me on the back and say ‘get on with it, you’re fine’, or ‘you did the right thing, you fought him off’. It’s kind of a teenage thing to do, but then I really struggled afterwards and had trouble sleeping, and quit my job, and didn’t do an awful lot for a while.

Then I wrote down what happened and that was the first time I’d written anything since school. I changed the people involved to fictional characters, which sounds strange but it really worked and then I slept for the first time that night after I’d done it.

So I started writing a bit more. It wasn’t a book. It wasn’t even a diary. It was just the way I was feeling, but the people involved were changed. I had this person who was going through this difficult time. And that was probably the first time I wrote anything broadly fictional.

What do you think of this novel?

Share your comments – but please not until the month is at an end. We don’t want any spoilers! And please remember to follow the Site rules.

We aim to post a book of the month on here at the start of every month, so why not encourage others to read them and get some ‘book’ discussions going on within the community.

Once you’ve read this month’s book, and after the end of APRIL please, use the comments box below to say what you think about it; what you liked and didn’t like. What about the writing style, pace, mood, characterisation, use of description, the plot … ? Or get in touch with your comments and opinions by email to (rhossilihwb.cymru@gmail.com).

Vicki James & Helen Sinclair

The next book for May 2026 will be …

“The Land in Winter” by Andrew Miller, Published October 2024; 365 pages; Amazon 4* (Waterstones 5*)

The novel tells the story of two young married couples living in the British West Country during the Big Freeze of 1963 – one of the coldest winters on record.

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