Book Talk: Whitaker, ‘All the Wicked Girls’

Chris Whitaker is not a recluse like J.D. Salinger was, although we know a great deal more about Salinger’s life than we know about Whitaker. Search the web and all you’ll find is this: Before becoming an author, Whitaker worked as a trader. He was born and raised in London and now lives in Hertfordshire with his wife and three children. That’s it. However, I did find a video interview with him and learned that he had his arm broken by a man who once lived with him and his mother. And, now, you might be asking yourself why I’ve spent time trying to find out details about this author’s life.

Chris Whitaker writes like no contemporary author I’ve read. During a lifetime of reading, I’ve enjoyed thousands of novels by authors, some of whom approached, and actually achieved, greatness over decades of writing. Chris Whitaker, in my opinion, has done just that in less than a decade. The first of his books that I read was his last, “All the Colors of the Dark,” and I knew that it was something special. Since then, I’ve read several of his books, all written since the publication of “Tall Oaks” in 2016, the only book of his that I haven’t read. But I’ll find it and read it.

Whitaker is British, but you’d never know that by reading “All the Wicked Girls” (2017, 438 pages in softcover). The entire book is written in Alabama dialect. Absolutely believable. The characters are real; you know them. And, for the most part, they are varying degrees of tragic. The novel would probably be called a crime novel, but it is much more than that. To begin with, it is set in the small southern town of Grace that seems almost claustrophobic because it is covered by a dark cloud that seems to defy meteorology, hanging over Grace day after day.