Kidnapped by Colour

I'm beginning to realise just how much I appreciate colour. I should have known this from my daft selection of a colour of the month to the time I spend drooling over colour names. This obsession should have been obvious to me for much longer: for years I never went anywhere without a cross-stitch project. I wasn’t that fussed about the finished product, but I loved working with the silky, beautifully coloured threads. Perhaps it’s genetic, given my mom was a photographic artist and spent her days – and often nights – working with oil paints.

I’ve loved Kinsey Millhone stories ever since I was introduced to them. Vivien recently loaned me the last three of the published alphabet series, with takes us to U is for Undertow. It’s good to know we can look forward to five more, but then it’s over, which is very sad.

What have these two paragraphs got in common? Just that S is for Silence was even more unputdown-able than most, which is saying something. I decided it was because the story not only bounced between 1987 and 1953, but involved characters named Violet and Daisy Sullivan. Daisy, the daughter, hired Kinsey to find her mother, Violet, who had disappeared in 1953 when Daisy was only seven years old. 

Violet had orange-red hair, clear green eyes, and a snappy personality to match. She was beautiful, voluptuous and only wore purple, lilac, lavender and mauve to coordinate with her name. She even drove a 1953 Chevy BelAir in a colour called violet slate:  the embodiment of a ‘colourful character’ if I ever met one. I won’t tell you any more so you can go enjoy the story for yourself.

Did you ever get swept away with the pictures a book painted in your head?