White is the Coldest Colour
By John Nicholl
Narrator: Jake Urry
Publisher: John Nicholl⎮May 26, 2016
Length: 9 hours 10 minutes
Series: Dr. David Galbraith (Book 1)
Genre: Psychological Thriller
Be
careful who you trust.
The
Mailer family are oblivious to the terrible danger that enters their lives when
seven-year-old Anthony is referred to the child guidance service by the family
GP following the breakdown of his parents' marriage.
Fifty-eight
year old Dr. David Galbraith, a sadistic, predatory pedophile employed as a
consultant child psychiatrist, has already murdered one child in the
soundproofed cellar below the South Wales Georgian townhouse he shares with his
wife and two young daughters.
Anthony
becomes Galbraith's latest obsession and he will stop at nothing to make his
grotesque fantasies reality.
The
novel is entirely fictional, but draws on John Nicholl's experiences as a
police officer, child protection social worker, manager and trainer. During
his career the author was faced with case after case that left him incredulous
as to the harm sexual predators chose to inflict on their victims. The book
reflects that reality.
The
story is set in 1992, a more naive time when many found it extremely difficult
to believe that a significant number of adults posed a serious risk to
children. The book contains material some may find upsetting from the start.
It is
dedicated to survivors everywhere.
Click here to listen to an Audible sample
White
is the Coldest Colour written by John Nicholl is a psychological
thriller that takes place in Wales and during the course of the book we get
inside the head of an extremely sick and perverted individual that preys on little
boys all in the disguise of being a well renown child psychiatrist who is supposed
to be helping his patients.
This is a dark story with some horrific scenes that
will make you cringe. Knowing that the
author draws from the knowledge and experiences he gained while on the job
makes this story even more cringe worthy.
That there are even beings such as Galbraith walking around this world
is a sick feeling that will leave you with a sense of pure disgust. Galbraith’s character is a disturbing one as not
only is he a pedophile who preys on young boys; he honestly thinks he is doing
nothing wrong. He obtains great pleasure
from his ‘work’ and thinks he is above the law and perhaps the greatest person
on Earth. He is manipulative and enjoys ‘breaking’
people down. Galbraith is a monster
through and through. There are
absolutely no redeeming qualities to be found in his character. You will be cheering at the end - because
spoiler alert – he dies. YAY for happy
endings!
The foul language was abundant for most of the book,
and I really feel as though most of it was not needed in order for the plot to
flow. There is a lot of ‘the little
bastard’, ‘piss’ this and ‘piss’ that, and ‘fu*k’ this and ‘fu*k’ that, with a
little bit of the C word that all women despise. If you can’t get past foul language, then
this book is not for you. I would
suggest though trying to get past the language because this story is an eye
opening experience.
Overall, despite the language, this was a decent read
that will take you to a dark place that will disturb you to the point that you
might want to stop reading, but I promise that you will not be able to put the
book down. I for one could not stop
until the very end.
The narration of this book was performed by Jake
Urry. This is the second book I have
listened to performed by Mr. Urry, and I must admit, although I enjoyed the
first book for the most part, I had a difficult time listening to this particular
story. There was little to no emotion portrayed
with each character, and I had a hard time figuring out which character was
actually doing the ‘talking’. For most
of the performance, I felt as though I was just being read to and was unable to
visualize the story and characters in my head.
Paragraph breaks were hard to distinguish as the narrator hardly seemed
to pause long enough – it just seemed rushed at times. I believe the performance could be improved
by giving each character a defining voice and more emotion.
For this particular book, I would have to say skip the
audible and just read the book for yourself and create your own voices for the
characters. This is a dark book with
events that unfortunately happen in today’s world and is definitely worth the
time reading.
Overall rating - 3.5 stars
Story - 4 stars
Performance - 3 stars
The audio book was provided by the author, narrator, or publisher at no cost in exchange for an unbiased review. Kindle edition purchased by the reader in order to read separately to gain more insight on the writing.
The audio book was provided by the author, narrator, or publisher at no cost in exchange for an unbiased review. Kindle edition purchased by the reader in order to read separately to gain more insight on the writing.
John
Nicholl, an ex police officer, child protection social worker, manager and
lecturer, has written three dark psychological suspense thrillers, each of
which are Amazon international bestsellers, reaching # 1 in various categories
in the United Kingdom, France, Spain, Austrailia, Canada and the USA. John is
always happy to hear from readers, bloggers or anyone interested in proposing a
joint creative project. He can be contacted via his author website at: http://www.johnnicholl.com
Jake Urry is a British actor
and audiobook narrator, and also co-founder of Just Some Theatre. Since graduating from an
Acting degree course in 2012 he’s toured with Just Some Theatre as an actor and
producer, worked on a number of commercial voice over projects and most
recently started producing Audiobooks. Jake has produced over 10 titles since
March 2016 and has rapidly found himself at home narrating Thriller, Horror,
Mystery and Suspense titles. His audiobook work includes dark psychological
thrillers White is the Coldest Colourand Portraits of the
Dead by John Nicholl, occult mystery seriesThe Ulrich Files by
Ambrose Ibsen, and gritty Sci-Fi novelShadows of Tomorrow by
Jessica Meats.