The Official Book Club Guide: The Colour of Bee Larkham’s Murder

Experienced by about four percent of the population, synaesthesia often runs in families. As the condition involves a heightened perception of the world, it is perhaps unsurprising that synaesthetes are eight times more likely to work in creative professions than the average person. The author of Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov, inherited grapheme-colour synaesthesia from his mother and described his experiences of it in his memoir, Speak, Memory. Famous synaesthete artists include Vincent van Gogh and David Hockney. Meanwhile, the list of successful musical synaesthetes goes on and on, from Franz Liszt and Leonard Bernstein to Duke Ellington, Stevie Wonder, Billy Joel, Tori Amos and Pharrell Williams. Most of the above have described their synaesthesia as an asset to the creative process (although sadly, in Van Gogh’s case, it was viewed by his contemporaries as just another symptom of his madness).

Face Blindness

Another factor in Jasper’s perception of the world is face blindness. Otherwise known as prosopagnosia or facial agnosia, face blindness is also a neurological condition. Unlike synaesthesia, however, it is considered to be a disorder caused by an abnormality in a particular part of the brain. The condition varies in severity but all sufferers have difficulty in recognising faces: some have trouble recognising friends and acquaintances while others are unable to identify their own face in a mirror. Many people who suffer from face blindness are diagnosed late in life, or not at all. This tends to be because sufferers feel embarrassed about their inability to identify their nearest and dearest and develop techniques to mask their condition. Masking often involves the pretence of recognition until other clues (mannerisms, voice, distinctive clothing etc.) help to establish a person’s identity. Many sufferers develop forms of social anxiety, as social encounters are a continual source of potential embarrassment. Face blindness is not connected to learning disabilities, memory problems or visual impairment. The condition does, however, often go hand-in-hand with autism and Asperger’s syndrome.

Autism

Autism is a neurological condition where the brain is wired differently – not defectively, just differently – from a neurotypical (or non-autistic) brain. The autistic spectrum covers a wide range of interrelated characteristics and behaviours. While some autistic people may be minimally verbal or have learning difficulties, others (within the Asperger’s Syndrome range) may have very high IQs. The common denominator of most forms of autism is that the condition generally impacts upon the way an individual experiences and relates to the world, often making social interactions difficult.

Although Jasper never specifically identifies himself as autistic, his father is revealed to be reading a self-help book on understanding children with autism. Even before this revelation, however, many readers will have spotted that Jasper displays a number of traits often associated with autism. These include certain physical tics (flapping, rocking); a dislike of eye contact and physical intimacy; difficulties in comprehending other people; problems with both expressing feelings and interpreting the emotions of others; a craving for order and routine, and a special (bordering upon obsessive) interest in a particular subject.

Plot Synopsis (#u9ff5f771-6384-5560-9a91-cdfe9ca9d5e3)

Tuesday, 12 April

Thirteen-year-old Jasper Wishart is no ordinary boy. Jasper experiences synaesthesia. This means that he sees colours on hearing sounds. He is also autistic and suffers from face blindness. Jasper is unable to recognise the face of his own father or even his own reflection. He uses other clues (distinctive clothing, the colour of voices etc.) to try to identify people.

Jasper is being interviewed by DC Richard Chamberlain at his local police station. The detective constable asks Jasper questions about his neighbour, Bee Larkham. Chamberlain explains that the father of one of Bee’s music students has made an allegation against her. He asks if Jasper has ever seen a boy called Lucas Drury visiting Bee’s house. Jasper believes that he has killed Bee Larkham and wants to confess. Jasper’s father, however, has instructed him not to tell the police what he did to Bee. It also appears from the line of questioning that the police are not yet aware that Bee is dead.

Jasper is in the habit of standing at his bedroom window with binoculars to watch parakeets feeding in Bee Larkham’s garden. He also records everything he sees in notebooks. Despite this, his father, Ed, explains to the police that Jasper is not a reliable witness as he cannot identify faces. Jasper shows Richard Chamberlain one of his notebook entries which records his neighbour, David Gilbert, threatening to kill the parakeets roosting in Bee Larkham’s garden. Further entries show that he is preoccupied with this incident and has called 999 to report the threat. Jasper tells Chamberlain that twelve parakeets have been killed. The interview comes to a close when he vomits on the sofa.

Back at their home in Vincent Gardens, Jasper worries about the welfare of the parakeets as Bee’s bird feeders are empty. Reluctantly, he promises his father that he will not feed them. Jasper assumes that his father has hidden the evidence from Bee’s murder: Jasper’s bloody clothes and the kitchen knife. He also surmises that Ed has disposed of Bee’s body. When he asks where he hid her, however, his father insists that there is no dead body. He urges Jasper to forget about what happened.

Jasper is a prolific and talented artist and paints the colours of sounds. He decides to try to paint the series of events that led up to Bee’s murder in order to get things straight in his head.

17 January

Jasper’s narrative goes back to the first time he saw a parakeet visiting Vincent Gardens. The sighting coincides with a new neighbour moving into Number 20 (directly across the road from Jasper’s house). That evening, Jasper watches his neighbour through binoculars as she dances to loud music with her windows wide open. Electrified by the music and his new neighbour’s wild dancing, Jasper feels sure that they will be good friends.

Ed joins his son in observing the new neighbour. He hypothesises that, as Number 20 previously belonged to elderly Pauline Larkham (who recently died), the newcomer might be her estranged daughter. As they watch, Ollie Watkins, from Number 18, knocks on the new neighbour’s door and clearly receives a hostile reception. Jasper’s father guesses that Ollie, who lives with his dying mother in the terraced house next door, was complaining about the loud music. After Ollie’s visit the music becomes even louder. The new neighbour then receives a second visit from the resident of 22 Vincent Gardens: David Gilbert.

Wednesday, 13 April

Jasper has a painful stomach wound which his father has dressed with a bandage. Only able to recall certain parts of the night of Bee’s death, he guesses he must have hurt himself accidentally when he stabbed Bee. Ed warns his son not to show the wound to anyone. On his way to school, Jasper throws a broken china ornament of a lady in a rubbish bin.

At school, Jasper is confronted by an older boy who turns out to be Lucas Drury. Lucas says that his father has reported Bee to the police, claiming that she is a paedophile. He demands to know what Jasper told the police about his relationship with Bee. Jasper assures Lucas that he didn’t tell the police anything. Lucas remains in a state of panic, however, and reveals that Bee claimed to be pregnant.

Jasper is physically sick after learning about Bee’s baby, now believing that he has killed two people. He visits the school nurse who refuses to let him go home as his father is at work. Nevertheless, Jasper sneaks out of school and goes back to Vincent Gardens. Here he sees police outside Bee’s house. Despite his father’s warnings, Jasper is overwhelmed by the urge to confess to the police. Before he can do so, however, he is stopped by a man with a ‘custard yellow’ voice who introduces himself as Ollie Watkins. Ollie tells Jasper that, as his mother, Lily Watkins, has now died, he is sorting through her possessions, preparing to sell the house. Jasper tells Ollie that he is worried about the welfare of the parakeets but his father has forbidden him to feed them. Ollie says he is also a bird lover and offers to continue feeding the parakeets on Jasper’s behalf.

Jasper watches from his window to ensure that Ollie keeps his promise. As Ollie approaches Bee’s bird feeders he is intercepted by David Gilbert who leads him into Number 22. Believing that David has kidnapped Ollie, Jasper calls the police. Later, police officers visit Jasper to assure him that he did not witness a kidnap. Jasper, however, starts screaming and blacks out. The police call an ambulance and contact Ed. In hospital, a doctor examines Jasper and sees the wound to his stomach. Jasper’s father is interviewed by a social worker when he arrives at the hospital.

18 January

Jasper sees his new neighbour come out of her house in a cobalt blue dressing gown and is reminded of his dead mother. Jasper misses his mother (who also experienced synaesthesia) and remembers her voice as being cobalt blue. After watching the woman throwing items from the house into a skip, Ed observes that passers-by will probably forage through it. Jasper calls 999 to report ‘A potential future theft’.

Jasper goes over the road to introduce himself to the new neighbour and discovers her name is Bee Larkham. She tells him that she has been living in Australia and has returned to attend a friend’s wedding and to sell her mother’s house. Bee says that she is a professional musician and is going to give piano and guitar lessons while she is living there.

Later, Jasper sees Bee and a man he is unable to identify arguing on her doorstep. After the man has gone Bee empties another box of belongings into the skip. Jasper wakes in the early hours of the morning and sees a man inside the skip searching for something. He knocks on the window to scare the man away.

Thursday, 14 April

During door to door enquiries by police officers, Jasper overhears his father tell the police that he last saw Bee on Friday evening. Later, when Ed comes to check on him, Jasper pretends to be asleep. Seizing the opportunity when Ed goes out for a run, Jasper searches the house for evidence. Despite looking everywhere he can think of, however, he fails to find the murder weapon or his bloody clothes.

Jasper wonders if his father remembered to replace Bee’s back door key in its hiding place after disposing of her body. He sneaks into Bee’s back garden and finds that the key, which is usually kept under a stone flamingo, is missing. Hearing someone else entering the garden, Jasper hides behind the recycling bins. From his hiding place, he sees a man wearing a dark blue baseball cap break the glass of Bee’s back door. As the mystery man steps inside, a second man arrives, catching the first red-handed. Jasper identifies the new arrival as David Gilbert by his distinctive ‘cherry cords’ just as David spots him hiding behind the bins. When the man in the baseball cap grabs Jasper, demanding to know if Bee was abusing twelve-year-old Lee as well as Lucas, Jasper comprehends that this must be Lucas Drury’s father. David steps in to protect Jasper and receives a punch in the face from Mr Drury. Terrified, Jasper blurts out that Bee and her baby are dead. Spotting something glittering on the ground, he picks it up and sees that it is one of Bee’s favourite swallow-shaped earrings.

Mr Drury is arrested by the police, while David Gilbert is taken to hospital. When Jasper’s father returns from his run, DC Richard Chamberlain is waiting to speak to him. The detective constable explains that, in his father’s absence, Jasper has claimed that Bee is dead and was pregnant. He also reveals that Jasper was hiding a blood-stained earring in his hand when the police arrived and became distressed when they tried to take it away from him.

The police are now treating Bee’s absence as suspicious, as she has been officially reported missing after failing to turn up for her friend’s hen do. Chamberlain asks to speak to Jasper but Ed refuses, saying that in future he must go through their solicitor. The detective constable says that he will have to inform social services that Jasper has again been placed in danger after being left home alone. When Chamberlain has gone, Jasper accuses his father of forgetting to return Bee’s key to its hiding place. Ed tells Jasper that he did not use the key, as he went to Bee’s front door.

19 January

Bee Larkham intercepts Jasper outside school and asks him to help her hand out flyers advertising her music lessons. She tells Jasper that she has bought some bird feeders to attract more parakeets to her garden.

22 January

Jasper and Bee Larkham are delighted when a flock (or pandemonium) of parakeets arrives in Vincent Gardens. David Gilbert is much less enthusiastic. He complains about the noise they make and says he would like to shoot them. Jasper begins to keep detailed notes on David Gilbert’s movements (as well as those of the other neighbours) in an attempt to keep the parakeets safe.

Jasper worries about the parakeets while he is at school and calls 999 again. Later that day, he accompanies his father when he goes over the road to introduce himself to Bee. Bee tells Jasper that he can watch the parakeets from her bedroom if he hands out some more flyers at school.

27 January

Jasper goes to Bee’s house to watch the parakeets from her bedroom while she gives a music lesson. In her room, he sees an assortment of china ladies sticking out of a cardboard box and places one of them on a chest of drawers near the window. Later, as Jasper is leaving, Bee introduces him to two boys from his school: Lee Drury, who has been having a guitar lesson, and his fifteen-year-old brother, Lucas. Jasper senses that Bee likes Lucas more than she likes him.

28 January

Bee asks Jasper to deliver a note to Lucas at school. Reluctant to admit to Bee that he cannot recognise faces, Jasper leaves the sealed letter on the teacher’s desk in Lucas’s form room.

6 February

Bee invites Jasper over to see the parakeets, which are nesting in her eaves. She then asks him to deliver a parcel to Lucas containing a mobile phone. Sensing Jasper’s reluctance, Bee promises that, in return, he can watch the parakeets from her window for an hour every day that week.

8 February

On Monday morning Jasper goes into Lucas’s form room and tells the teacher that he has a message for Lucas from Bee Larkham. Outside, Lucas grabs Jasper and tells him never to come to his classroom again. He instructs Jasper to leave any future notes in a drawer in the science lab.

12 February

When Bee throws a party for her friends and neighbours, Jasper and his father go along. While Ed socialises, Jasper keeps watch on the parakeets through night-vision binoculars from Bee’s bedroom. Jasper’s surveillance is briefly interrupted when someone with a ‘scratchy red’ voice opens the door claiming to be looking for the bathroom. Jasper notes that the mystery person goes straight back downstairs without visiting the facilities.

Later that evening, Jasper goes in search of his father. He finds him drunkenly chatting to a friendly man with a claret red voice. Only when the man makes a joke about shooting parakeets does Jasper realise that he is none other than David Gilbert. An argument breaks out between David and Jasper about the parakeets and Bee also becomes involved. David criticises Bee’s inconsiderate behaviour, pointing out that her loud music is torturing Ollie’s mother in her final days. Bee responds by asking David to leave. Jasper becomes hysterical, screaming and telling David that he hopes he dies of lung cancer.

Back at home, Ed tells Jasper that he will have to apologise to David in the morning. Later, Jasper thinks he hears the front door open. He believes he must be mistaken, however, as he is certain his father would never leave him alone at night.

Friday, 15 April

A police forensics team arrive to search for evidence in Bee’s house. Meanwhile, a social worker visits Jasper and asks questions about how he hurt his stomach. Jasper sticks to the story he has agreed with his father, claiming that his hand slipped when he was playing with a knife in the kitchen.

13 February