Kojima finished reading the advance proof of Chris Whitaker’s novel “All the Colors of the Dark.” He said Whitaker elevates mystery into literature and described the novel as a story that made him emotionally invested in its characters, kept him turning the pages despite not wanting it to end and feeling dread in its latter half, and ultimately bathes the reader in a “color of hope” beneath human darkness. He called it the best book he had read that year.
“Finished reading the advance proof of Chris Whitaker’s new novel, “All the Colors of the Dark.” He’s done it again. Whitaker is on another level. Just as Seicho Matsumoto elevated the mystery novel into what came to be known as “social mystery,” Whitaker elevates mystery into literature. There is no other mystery that shakes the soul like this. It’s rare to become this emotionally invested in fictional characters like Patch and Saint, who go beyond romance and friendship, along with every other character in this world. I turned the pages wishing I could “keep living in the same world as them” forever. That’s why I didn’t want the book to end. But I needed to know how it ends, so I had no choice but to keep turning the pages. In the latter half, a sense of dread settled in, and I found myself not wanting to turn the page. Yet I kept reading. Whitaker compels you forward. Then he shakes you to your very core, and in the end, the reader is bathed in the “color of hope” painted beneath “every shade of human darkness.” There are surprises, twists, and all the ingenious mechanisms you’d expect from a mystery. Without a doubt, this is the best book I’ve read this year.”