Ask a Bookseller: ‘All the Colors of the Dark’ by Chris Whitaker

On The Thread’s Ask a Bookseller series, we talk to independent booksellers all over the country to find out what books they’re most excited about right now. 

Maris Herrington of McLean and Eakin Booksellers in Petoskey, Mich., says one of the best books she’s read so far this year is Chris Whitaker’s mystery/thriller, “All the Colors of the Dark.” It comes out on Tuesday, June 25.  

Maris has this preview: It is all about this young boy named Patch. He has one eye, and he kind of considers himself as a pirate.

It’s getting towards the end of that time, and he sees a young girl being taken by a man into his vehicle. He ends up intervening and gets taken instead. And everybody has written him off for dead. But his best friend, Scout, is still convinced that he is alive. She ends up finding him a year later.

Patch is convinced that during that year that he was down in the dark in the basement, there was another girl with him down there named Grace. He’s convinced that she’s still alive. So he dedicates his life to finding Grace.

And thats just how it gets started! It’s a book about friendship, love and obsession. It’s one of the better books I’ve read this year. And it’s sure to capture everyone’s heart. Wow. 

There’s a string of murders that are going on as well. There are so many layers to this book, it’s insane. He’s an incredible writer to add those twists and turns and make them all come together. Throughout the entire book, he keeps you guessing. It’s a book that you will not want to put down.

— Maris Herrington

Whitaker will be at the bookstore in Petoskey, Mich., on July 29 as part of a U.S. tour. He does not have a stop currently planned in Minnesota, according to the Penguin Random House website.