Review: Colours of Death

Author: Robert New

Category: Novel

Publisher: Tale Publishing

Publication date: 1 July 2019

Blurb:  What colour death would you fear the most?

From the author of Movemind and Incite Insight, comes a collection of nine detective stories where colour plays a role in the mystery. Including:

Blue Bloods: A high school awards ceremony turns to tragedy when the audience turns blue as they die.

The 11th Killer: A serial killer’s hair colour could be the key to their capture.

The Storyteller: An arsonist is trapping people in burning buildings, just to write a story about the rescuers.

Black Death: After a body is dumped in public, working out how the victim died is harder than decoding the intended message.

Fear the Red Man: An incident with the Red Man haunts Detective Thomas, but may also be the key to solving a new case.

Review: I love a good ‘who done it’ book, and enjoy discovering new detectives. I have known the author, Robert New, for a number of years as we went to the same writer’s group, and this is the first of his books that I’ve read. No idea why it took me so long!

Colours of Death is a series of stories that vary in length that follow cases that land on the desk of Sargeant Brad Thomas and his team. The thing that ties all the cases together is that they each feature a colour of some sort.

I really enjoyed the different cases and the creative ways that both the murders were committed and how the team solved them. The only real issue I had with the stories was the suggestion that pain doctors would send someone for Calmare treatment early on, when often they either haven’t heard of it or use it as a last resort. My favourite story was the one featuring koalas (I won’t tell you any more than that, you will have to read the book for the full story).

Brad Thomas was an interesting character who used his mind and lateral thinking to solve crimes rather than just relying on modern technology, but he didn’t do things alone. He also has an equally interesting team that includes the forensic examiner, other detectives, his fiance, and his mentor. All of these characters I would like to get to know more. I really hope there is a follow up collection of stories.

A great book for anyone who loves detective stories.

Website: www.robertsnew.com