All The Colors of The Dark by Chris Whitaker Book Guide

The story begins in the small town of Monta Clare, Missouri, in 1975. Thirteen-year-old Joseph “Patch” Macauley, known for the eye patch covering his missing eye, fashions himself a pirate, a fiction encouraged by his mother, Ivy, to cope with reality. One morning, Patch witnesses Misty Meyer, a girl from school, being attacked by a hooded man near an old railroad clearing. Driven by instinct, he intervenes, tackling the attacker and urging Misty to run. During the struggle, the man stabs Patch in the stomach before fleeing. Patch is left bleeding and is subsequently abducted, vanishing from Monta Clare.

Simultaneously, thirteen-year-old Saint Brown, Patch’s closest friend and a budding beekeeper, discovers her beloved bees have inexplicably disappeared from their hive. Her search for the bees is quickly overshadowed by the news of Patch’s heroic act and disappearance. Finding Patch’s bloodied T-shirt and distinctive eye patch in the clearing where he saved Misty confirms the town’s worst fears. Chief Nix begins an investigation, hampered by Misty’s shock and the attacker’s masked face. Saint, however, becomes singularly focused, her life now dedicated to finding her lost friend. Early suspicion falls on the local doctor, Martin Tooms, after Saint learns he was seen near the woods that morning, though his explanation of searching for a lost dog raises her doubts, particularly when she asserts he doesn’t own one.

The book then follows Patch’s harrowing experience in captivity (The Lovers, the Dreamers: 1975). He finds himself in total darkness, held in a basement bunker with another captive, a girl named Grace. She becomes his guide and confidante in their shared prison. They exchange stories, exercise relentlessly, and rely on scripture for strength, particularly when their captor, Eli Aaron, is near. Grace reveals fragments of her past and knowledge that seems beyond her years. Patch, protective and falling for her, attempts to attack Aaron with a loosened brick during one of Grace’s birthdays, resulting in a severe beating for himself and a deepened trauma.

Patch is eventually found near death by Saint (The Painter: 1976), though Grace is gone. He spends time recovering in the hospital, with Saint a constant presence. The investigation uncovers Eli Aaron’s identity and links him to other missing girls, some found buried on his remote property, often with rosary beads. Dr. Tooms is implicated but maintains his innocence regarding Patch, claiming he only treated the boy’s initial stab wound at Aaron’s behest. Patch, now profoundly changed, finds an unlikely mentor in Sammy, the town’s cynical art gallery owner, who recognizes the boy’s trauma and gives him supplies and a space to paint. Patch throws himself into art, obsessively painting Grace from memory, trying to capture the girl he knew only in darkness, his art becoming both therapy and a continuation of his search. Saint, meanwhile, pursues her own investigation, convinced of Tooms’s deeper involvement.

Years pass (The Broken Hearts: 1978). Patch works grueling shifts in the mines, dates Misty Meyer, their relationship strained by his unwavering focus on finding Grace. He travels the state, following leads on missing girls, collecting photos and stories. Misty, though loving him, struggles with the ghost of Grace and the darkness Patch carries. Saint, now a police officer (Cops and Robbers: 1982), officially investigates the cold cases, her path converging again with Patch’s. She uncovers evidence linking Tooms more concretely to Eli Aaron and the murder of Callie Montrose, another missing girl whose blood is found in Tooms’s farmhouse basement. Patch, frustrated by the lack of progress and Tooms’s silence (now imprisoned), begins robbing banks across several states using a distinctive one-shot flintlock pistol, donating the money to charities for missing persons.

This sets Saint on his trail (The Hunt: 1983). What follows is a tense chase across the country. Saint, torn between her duty and her deep bond with Patch, uses her knowledge of his methods and Grace’s fragmented stories from his interview tapes to predict his movements. Patch becomes increasingly reckless, his robberies escalating. The hunt culminates in a confrontation in Alabama, where Saint, finding Patch at the end of his rope but unwilling to surrender, is forced to shoot him.

Patch survives and serves time in prison (Fate: 1990). Upon his release after six years (likely due to Saint’s intervention and testimony), Saint is there to meet him. Their reunion is quiet, marked by the weight of years and unspoken truths. Patch learns he has a daughter, Charlotte, from his time with Misty, who tragically died of cancer while he was incarcerated. He attempts to build a life, taking custody of Charlotte (The Break: 1995). He renovates the old Macauley house, a project fueled by memory and a desire for roots, but his relationship with the sharp, perceptive Charlotte is complex, shadowed by his past and his continued, albeit quieter, search.

Patch visits Marty Tooms on death row (The Prisoner: 1998), seeking answers about Grace before the execution. Tooms, broken, eventually confesses he lied about Grace’s death, revealing she was alive when Patch was rescued but providing no location, only that she was Eli Aaron’s daughter and complicit in some ways, yet also a victim. He admits he killed Callie Montrose accidentally during a procedure. This revelation sends Patch spiraling.

The final section (Myths and Legends: 2001) sees Saint, now police chief, uncovering the last pieces. Eli Aaron, it turns out, had faked his death or escaped capture. Following clues related to rosary beads purchased recently and Aaron’s known religious fanaticism, Saint tracks him to Grace Falls, Alabama—the town Patch had painted from Grace’s descriptions. In a final confrontation at Grace’s family home (The Bleached House), Saint kills Eli Aaron, finding evidence that he ultimately killed his own daughter, Grace. Patch, arriving separately after deciphering clues left by Tooms and hearing Grace’s voice in his memory, finds the house, finds Grace’s grave, and achieves a painful closure. The story ends with Patch, Saint, and Charlotte on a sailboat, a fragile peace established, looking towards an uncertain future, forever bound by the dark colors of their shared past. How does one truly move forward when the past holds such a grip? Can hope finally win out against the longest odds?