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Darkness of Colours (The) by Martin Blasco

Title: Darkness of Colours (The)

Author: Martin Blasco

Translator: Claire Storey

Illustrator:

Publisher: HopeRoad Publishing

Date Published: 2024

Format: Paperback

Genre: Thriller

Book Category: Fiction

Age Range: 14+

Original Title: First published in Spanish as Oscuridad De Los Colours, Editorial Norma, Argentina, 2014

Country of Origin: Argentina

Darkness of Colours (The)

by Martin Blasco
Age Range: 14+

The Darkness of Colours is a historical thriller narrated from two different perspectives in two different eras. The story is set in Buenos Aires and centres around the kidnapping of five babies during the night of 5th April 1885. It is the start of a horrific and sinister scientific experiment to discover what happens to these children when they are given different upbringings. Each child is given the name of a colour: Blue, White, Green, Black and Brown. This is an experiment that tests nature versus nurture to the very extreme.

Twenty-five years later in 1910, a young journalist Alejandro is visited by the father of Blue, (real name Amira), who has suddenly reappeared but has no memory of what has happened to her in the intervening years. When some of the other children also reappear on the doorsteps of their biological parents Alejandro decides to investigate. Then the killing starts and what Alejandro discovers shocks him to the core.

The alternative narratives – the diary of the perpetrator of the experiment Dr J. F. Andrew and Alejandro help to create a complex, multi-layered novel full of mystery, twists and turns, suspense, crime and gore – definitely not for the faint-hearted.

Argentinian author Martín Blasco has written a dark, tense and gripping novel, excellently translated by Claire Storey. Blasco’s descriptive prose draws the reader into the seedy side of Buenos Aires. With the unimaginable cruelty together with gruesome graphic scenes following brutal crimes, it is, at times, unbearable to read and the revulsion that Alejandro feels as he uncovers what took place and the resulting consequences permeates the pages. At times you might want to put the book down but you can’t because it is so gripping and you need to reach the conclusion.

The Darkness of Colours is certainly a page-turner and it challenges the extremes to which humans will go – sadly, something that is all too familiar in recent history. As Alejandro discovers, the clear rights and wrongs of the experiment’s legacy remain blurred. However, despite this, the story ends on a more optimistic note.

A powerful short novel that challenges and takes hold of you from the first page.

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