When ALL THE COLORS OF THE DARK was published in June of 2024, it was with great anticipation. Chris Whitaker’s fourth novel, he was already a CWA Gold Dagger winner, a Theakston Novel of the Year winner, a Ned Kelly Award winner and his work had received incredible praise…but ALL THE COLORS OF THE DARK felt like his real break-through moment—and that it was! Bonnie Garmus, Gillian Flynn, Kristin Hannah, Lucy Foley, Patricia Cornwell, Jodi Picoult, and Nita Prose all gave incredible blurbs and the novel was quickly selected as the July Read with Jenna Book Club pick, was named a Goodreads Most Anticipated Books of the Summer, an Indie Next List Pick, Amazon’s #1 Best of Month pick for June, and an Amazon Top 20 Books of the Year So Far Selection. Readers who had snagged an ARE immediately took to Goodreads, Instagram, and Tik Tok to share their unequivocal love for the story of the beekeeper and the pirate and would help ALL THE COLORS OF THE DARK debut at #3 on the New York Times hardcover fiction list where it would remain for over 20 weeks. The novel has now sold over a million copies globally; has over 280,000 reviews on Goodreads; has been named an Amazon Top 20 Books of the Year, a Barnes & Noble Best Mystery & Thrillers of 2024 Selection, an Audible Best of the Year, and accumulated countless other accolades. Now, on July 1, 2025, Crown will publish ALL THE COLORS OF THE DARK in paperback for a new readership.
It's the mid-70s and life in Monta Clare, Missouri is not easy for Patch and Saint. Patch is known around their small town as the pirate, a persona he’s adopted to cope both with the birth defect that gave him only one eye and the circumstances that have left him and his widowed, alcoholic mother struggling. For Saint who never knew her parents, solace is found in her beloved grandmother, Norma, and the bees she keeps in their yard. It’s the bees that bring Patch and Saint together and first love that seals their bond—but fate will soon intervene. In the small towns of Missouri, girls have been disappearing and when that danger visits Monta Clare, it will forever alter what Patch and Saint know about truth, devotion, and what we owe to those we love.
Both a soaring thriller and an epic love story spanning decades, ALL THE COLORS OF THE DARK takes readers on a journey full of unexpected twists, shattering turns, and moments of heart-wrenching beauty that will long stay with you.