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Books That Explore the Senses (Including Synesthesia)
By: Angela & Melissa
Updated:
As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programs, we may earn a referral fee from qualifying purchases.If you love books that make the world around you disappear, you might enjoy these sensory-rich fiction novels. We’ve organized this list by the five senses, with each read highlighting a character who experiences a sense in a unique way. Some have amplified senses, while others have lost their sense of hearing, sight, taste, or smell. Expect some crossover between senses as well because a reduction in one sense often leads to enhancements in others. For example, we placed All the Light You Cannot See in the Sight section, as Marie-Laure is blind; however, she has also developed an extraordinary sense of touch and reads the world with her fingers.
We’ve also included a synesthesia section, featuring characters who perceive the world in layered, cross-sensory ways (think color-as-sound or words-as-flavor). Most importantly, every book on the list will help you understand the unique ways others can experience the world.
Novels That Explore Sight
The Correspondent
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
100% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
Sybil van Antwerp is a 72-year-old grandmother, wife, and distinguished lawyer. She is a witty, spunky, book-loving woman who has endured grief yet retains hope. Three days a week, she sits down to write letters. And she sends most of them – whether to her brother, her best friend, or authors like Joan Didion and Larry McMurtry. But to one frequent recipient, the letters are never sent.
Through her writing and the letters she receives in response, you’ll see the many kinds of relationships she has formed throughout her lifetime. Syb expects the rest of her life to continue as normal, until letters arrive from someone tied to one of the most painful chapters of her past. Is it finally time to share the unsent letters she’s been writing all these years?
Why We Picked This Book
Early in this novel, you’ll learn that Sybil is experiencing a degenerative eye disease that is slowly taking away her ability to see. This impacts both her independence and her beloved letter writing as the years pass throughout the book.
Both Book Girls have read The Correspondent, and we each rated it five stars! Angela enjoyed the audio version, which has been widely praised, and Melissa loved seeing the letters and emails in paper form, so you can’t go wrong with either choice! After reading, one reviewer said, “Sybil van Antwerp is my first choice for literary best friend.” We couldn’t agree more!
All the Light We Cannot See
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
93% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
The author spent ten years creating this book, and the final result is a beautifully written story of a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II.
Marie-Laure was twelve when the Nazis occupied Paris. She and her father flee to the walled citadel of Saint-Malo for their safety. Along with the other things they could carry, they have a valuable and dangerous jewel from the Museum of Natural History, where her father worked.
Meanwhile, Werner, a German orphan, becomes an expert at repairing radios, a skill that makes him a prime recruit for those hoping to track down Resistance members.
Why We Picked This Book
Marie-Laure is a beautiful example of someone whose other senses are enhanced when one is reduced. In this case, while she is blind, her sense of touch helps her perceive the world around her with her fingers, extending beyond reading Braille.
All the Light We Cannot See won the Pulitzer Prize and was a National Book Award finalist, both well-deserved honors, as Doerr captures the effects of war on two children with vivid detail. We also recommend the beautiful Netflix miniseries adaptation by the same name.
Hello Stranger
Book Summary
Sadie is a talented portrait artist, and she is finally getting the recognition she deserves as a finalist in the North American Portrait Society competition. Before her death, her mom was a finalist in the same competition, so Sadie is full of emotions about the new painting she must produce as part of the contest.
However, in one moment, everything changes for Sadie. The only constant is her beloved dog, Peanut. With both her work and her family in chaos, how will Sadie overcome the hardest period in her life?
Why We Picked This Book
If you’ve been a Book Girls’ Guide reader for long, you know that we enjoy Katherine Center books, and Hello Stranger was no exception! We kept our summary more vague than the publisher’s, so you can be as surprised as the main character by some of her experiences. You’ll have to trust us that this is an excellent selection for this list!
Like Center’s other books, you get a mix of a main character with internal struggles, family drama, and some romance. However, these common pieces do not make her books predictable; they each have their own unique characters and settings.
Don’t miss the author’s note at the end for her thoughts on romance novels and the reasons they are so delightful!
All the Colors of the Dark
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
92% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
All the Colors of the Dark blends literary fiction, mystery, and romance as it follows the characters from their teen years in 1975 into adulthood.
In Mont Clare, girls are disappearing. When the daughter of a wealthy family, Misty, is targeted, an unlikely hero emerges in Patch, a local boy with one eye. He saves her, but the rescue leaves heartache in its wake.
Once close-knit, Mont Clare is changed forever. The trauma experienced by Patch, his friend Saint, and Misty shadows them for decades, driving choices that you may not agree with and setting up twist after twist. The result is a sweeping, suspenseful story about love, loss, and the long reach of a single night.
Why We Picked This Book
Sight plays a pivotal role in this novel for Patch (and not just because he only has one eye). We can’t explain too much without spoilers, but let’s just say that he’s “in the dark” for much of the story, in one way or another. The novel explores the difference between what is physically seen and what is emotionally understood.
This novel is character-driven and is longer than your average mystery at 608 pages. However, most readers say that the short paragraphs and chapters make the book feel faster-paced than you may expect.
Book Summary
Sixteen-year-old Cheyenne is napping in the back of the car while her stepmom fills an antibiotic prescription to treat Cheyenne’s pneumonia. Before she realizes what’s happening, the car is stolen.
The thief, Griffin, only meant to take the car. He never intended to become a kidnapper, and he certainly had no idea that Cheyenne was blind. Now he doesn’t know what to do.
When Griffin’s dad finds out that Cheyenne’s father is the president of a powerful corporation, he intervenes. Now there’s a reason to keep her, and Cheyenne must rely on her wits and senses to survive.
Why We Picked This Book
The author was inspired to write this novel after hearing a real news story about a blind teenager in Oregon who was accidentally kidnapped when her mother’s car was hijacked in 2005. From this real-life inspiration, April Henry crafts a fictional plot in which the kidnapper is also a teenager whose father runs a criminal operation.
Readers praise Henry for writing the character of Cheyenne as a girl who happens to be blind, rather than as simply as “the blind girl.”
Novels That Explore Sound & Hearing
Book Summary
Lilah’s hearing loss makes her feel like she sometimes doesn’t fit in either the hearing world or the Deaf community.
When she takes a junior counselor job at Camp Gray Wolf, a Midwestern summer camp for Deaf and blind campers, she hopes to find a sense of belonging. It’s also the perfect opportunity to brush up on her American Sign Language (ASL) skills.
There’s never a dull moment at camp. The campers she’s in charge of keep her on her toes, and then there’s a YouTuber who’s desperate for clout.
As Lilah navigates camp life, she bonds with fellow counselors, including Isaac, a charming Deaf teen who helps her improve her signing. Their growing friendship blossoms into a tender romance, challenging Lilah to confront her insecurities and embrace her identity.
Another Book You May Enjoy
In the YA Novel Maybe, Someday by Colleen Hoover, the male lead, Ridge, is Deaf, but initially hides this by relying on written communication (largely text messages). This decision to hide part of himself causes communication issues that make up part of the storyline.
True Biz
Book Summary
Set at the River Valley School for the Deaf in Ohio, True Biz transports readers into the school and gives insight into a culture that hearing families rarely get a chance to understand, with compelling characters along the way.
New student Charlie, was raised in the hearing world and is navigating a recent cochlear implant. She’s never been around other Deaf people before and is trying to figure out what choices are right and wrong for her. Austin, a popular student born into a proud multigenerational Deaf family, faces upheaval that shakes his sense of identity.
Overseeing them is February, the school’s headmistress and a CODA (Child of Deaf Adults), who is juggling a funding crisis, campus unrest, and mounting pressures at home. As their lives intersect, the novel explores language, access, community, and the fight to keep a vital school open.
What to Watch After Reading
After reading this book, we also recommend watching the movie CODA. You’ll see similar struggles as a character struggles to find her place between the hearing world and her Deaf family. It would be a great discussion to compare the character choices and feelings between the book and the movie.
Death by Dissertation
Book Summary
Cassandra has traded her Hawaiian life for a dream position working for the president of Morton College…in rural Nebraska. While she expected the freezing winters to be her biggest challenge, it’s actually her new career that is the problem.
After she’s left in charge while her boss travels, a Deaf student is killed. There is a complicated trail of connections between campus food service, a local farmer’s beef, and the science lab’s cancer research. The unfolding scandal could cost Cassandra her job, and a stalker may be getting uncomfortably close.
The Book Girls Say…
This cozy campus mystery blends small-town intrigue with academic politics and Deaf representation. Readers say that Cassandra is a likable character and they love the incorporation of the Deaf community and ASL. There are currently five books in this series starring Cassandra and Morton College, all included with Kindle Unlimited as of the publication date of this post.
Book Summary
Nurse Amelia is in a tragic accident that causes her to lose her hearing. After that, depression takes even more from her as she loses her job, her husband, and her step-daughter. Two years later, she’s finally getting her life back together with the help of her hearing dog, Stitch.
Then, everything is at risk again when she finds the body of a fellow nurse in the woods by her cabin. As clues are uncovered, she’s brought deeper into the investigation, and Amelia must decide how much she is willing to risk.
About the Author
Author Heather Gudenkauf has unilateral hearing loss in her left ear, making it very difficult for her to tell where sounds are coming from and making it difficult to hear in crowded environments. As a student, she found refuge in books, inspiring her to become a writer. Her own experiences with hearing loss inspired her to write the character of Amelia.
Book Summary
Maya is a Deaf teenager going through two big changes. She’s moving across the country and will be attending a hearing school for the first time since losing her hearing. It’s like entering a different world, and she is initially frustrated that she has to adjust to the hearing culture.
Thankfully, she finds some classmates, including Beau, who take the time to learn ASL. But she’s still more focused on her future dreams than a distracting romance. However, when those around her, both Deaf and hearing, ask her to question part of her identity, she is steadfast in being proud versus accepting those who believe her Deafness is a disadvantage.
About the Author
As a child, author Alison Gervais experienced a permanent hearing loss, leaving her hard of hearing. One reviewer noted that she really appreciated that “When the characters spoke ASL, it was true ASL and not a hearing person thinking how Deaf people speak.”
Additionally, we learned that the book cover was designed by Deaf artist Nancy Rourke, giving us even more appreciation for the author and publisher’s commitment to creating a book that embraces Deaf culture.
NOTE: The topic of cochlear implants is a big one in this book and in the Deaf community. Some readers feel that at times, the book seemed written to educate readers, rather than to fully develop the characters and let readers understand their situations in the natural flow of life.
If you’re reading to learn more about what it’s like to be a deaf teen, you may enjoy it more than those who are picking it up only looking for cute romance.
Novels that Explore Smell
The Scent Keeper
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
100% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
This is a lyrical coming-of-age novel about how fragrances connect us to our memories and help us share our lives. Emmeline grows up on a remote island off the coast of British Columbia with her father, who teaches her about the world through her sense of smell. Lining their cabin are drawers of carefully captured fragrances and a mysterious machine that creates them. The origin of the machine is the one topic her father refuses to discuss.
As Emmeline gets older, her curiosity gets the better of her and she finds herself vaulted out into the real world, with all its ups and downs – love, betrayal, ambition, and revenge.
What to Expect in This Novel
This Reese’s Book Club (Feb 2020) selection is atmospheric, immersive, and uniquely focused on the sense of smell. Readers who enjoy character-driven stories with a touch of magical realism and a strong sense of place will love it.
The Strange Journey of Alice Pendelbury
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
92% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
Alice Pendelbury’s life in post-war London was comfortably settled before a carnival fortune teller told her that she must travel to Turkey to meet six people who would reveal secrets about her past. Her typically hostile neighbor, Mr. Daldry, encourages her to take the prophecy seriously and even agrees to finance her trip.
This is a witty and charming story of love and friendship mixed with just enough mystery.
Why We Picked This Book
Alice is a “nose” – the name for a professional perfume creator, and her passion for perfumes and scents is a key element of this novel. Throughout her journey, Alice experiences the world through smells, and the atmospheric writing will help you feel like you’re right there with her every step of the way from England to Istanbul, Turkey.
Some find it a bit slow to start, but Angela enjoyed it and recommends sticking with it for the lovely story that evolves. The book is primarily told in a 3rd person narrative, but the format changes to a series of letters late in the book, which is particularly enjoyable in audiobook format.
A Similar Book
Like Alice, Sophie Duval, one of the main characters in Meet Me in Monaco by Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb, is also a perfumer. In this historical fiction novel, Sophie is struggling to save her family business in the 1950s when she befriends Grace Kelly, who takes refuge from photographers in her shop. Although Grace doesn’t initially enter the shop for perfume, she ends up asking Sophie to create a signature scent for her wedding.
Scent of a Garden
Book Summary
Poppy’s parents are Napa Valley hoteliers, but she left home to become a perfumer in Paris. However, when her heightened sense of smell disappears, her career is in danger, and she retreats home to California. She hopes that tending to her grandmother’s aromatic garden will restore her gift.
Unfortunately, when she arrives, the garden has been uprooted and destroyed. It’s a visceral reminder of how much her ties to home have frayed. Now, to heal, she must juggle family drama, old friendships, and a former love.
The Perfume Collector
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
98% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
Grace Munroe doesn’t fit the picture of a London socialite in the 1950s, and her new marriage is already falling apart. When she receives an inheritance from a woman she’s never heard of before, Madame Eva d’Orsey, Grace is compelled to travel to France. She seeks to uncover the mystery of who this woman was and why she left her money to Grace.
The story weaves through both pre- and post-WWII, from New York to Monte Carlo and London to Paris. Grace learns about the extraordinary woman who was the muse of one of the greatest perfumers in Paris. Madame Eva d’Orsey is immortalized in three evocative perfumes. Discovering this history changes Grace’s life, forcing her to choose whether to conform to expectations or live the life she truly desires.
Reader Thoughts about The Perfume Collector
This novel was a Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Best Historical Fiction in 2013. Readers praise the lush olfactory imagery and culinary details woven through the narrative. Some note that Eva d’Orsey’s storyline feels more compelling than Grace’s, but many find the dual-timeline structure engrossing and the world of perfumery fascinating.
Novels that Explore Taste
In addition to the three novels below, which strongly focus on taste, we have additional book lists you can choose from that involve this sense.
Fiction Books for Foodies
Culinary Cozy Mysteries
Novels about Bakers
Sophie Valroux’s Paris Stars
Book Summary
Chef Sophie Valroux has come out on the other side of a bad situation even stronger than before. Her reputation once destroyed, she’s once again making her mark on the culinary world with everyone watching.
Sophie now runs the restaurants on the beautiful estate that her grandmother left to her in France, and her relationship with her fiancé, Rémi, is closer than ever. Nevertheless, Sophie still feels like a piece of the puzzle is missing.
She dreams of earning a Michelin star, and her chance might finally be on the horizon when she’s invited to cook for an exclusive event that will be attended by her culinary idol.
Her goal is within reach when she suffers a fall that strips her of her senses of taste and smell – an anosmia/ageusia nightmare for any chef. Afraid of what will become of her career if anyone finds out, she keeps the side effects a secret, even from Rémi. Sophie’s plan is to fake it until she makes it. Can she get through the event, and life, tasteless?
Why We Picked This Book
Like many readers, we didn’t think much about life without taste or smell until it hit the news during the pandemic. Imagine that as a chef!
Though this is the second book about chef Sophie Valroux, readers say that it reads very well as a standalone. We selected it for this list because of the unique premise as it ties to the sense of taste, but if you know that you’ll want to read both books, you can certainly start with The Secret French Recipes of Sophie Valroux. This first book begins when Sophie travels to France after having her reputation ruined by a fellow chef in order to care for the grandmother who taught her to cook.
Aftertaste
Book Summary
Ever since losing his father when he was just 10 years old, Konstantin (Kostya) has been haunted by ghosts. He can’t see them, but he knows they are present when he can suddenly taste the flavors of their favorite foods – even meals he’s never eaten himself.
After years of keeping this experience to himself, Kostya decides to act on what he’s tasting. He discovers that by preparing a dish for someone inspired by their lost loved one, he can reunite them for a brief moment in time while offering a bit of closure. But offering this gift to the world will require that Kostya up his kitchen skills, so he enters the cutthroat New York culinary scene, which some might describe as a fiery ring of Hell.
He’s playing a dangerous game, though, even if he doesn’t know it yet. As his kitchen skills catch up to his ambitions, a catastrophe looms in the Afterlife. To complicate matters further, the one person who sees the writing on the wall also happens to be falling in love with him.
Why We Picked This Book
Food has a way of connecting people across cultures and generations. Melissa certainly feels more connected to her Gram each time she makes a recipe that they often created together. In fact, the areas of the brain responsible for processing taste and smell are also linked to the formation of emotional and long-term memories, creating a connection through which flavor can trigger a flood of past experiences and emotions. This phenomenon is known as the Proust Effect, named after French writer Marcel Proust, who described it in his novel In Search of Lost Time.
While neither Book Girl is particularly drawn to fantasy books, we do enjoy novels with an element of magic that are otherwise rooted in the real world, and we love the concept of this foodie fiction set in the competitive New York culinary scene. One reviewer describes it as “a ghost story with food as the Ouija board,” and that definitely sounds like a feast for the senses.
At the Wolf’s Table
Book Summary
This international bestseller was translated from the original Italian. In 1943, a twenty-six-year-old named Rosa made a decision to leave war-torn Berlin to join her in-laws in the countryside. She hopes this will improve her daily life and give her much-needed refuge. However, something she never could have anticipated happens.
The SS arrive to tell her she has been conscripted to be one of Hitler’s tasters. Three times a day, ten women go to Hitler’s secret headquarters, the Wolf’s Lair, to eat his meals before he does to ensure it is safe. As the women are forced daily to eat what might kill them, they divide into those loyal to Hitler and those who insist they are not Nazis.
Additional Context About This Book
This historical fiction novel is based on the true story of Margot Wölk, one of Hitler’s tasters, who first shared her story in 2013 at the age of 95. Until then, the world was unaware of the group of around 15 young woman who risked their life with each bite.
Novels that Explore Touch
Close Enough to Touch
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
96% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
From the ages of 17 to 27, Jubilee has lived in a world of solitude because of a rare allergy to human touch. Her last experience in the world led to a major anaphylactic shock during her first kiss, so it feels safest at home. However, when she loses her mother, she decides to reenter the world.
She finds employment as a librarian, and there she meets Eric. He’s a divorced father with a brilliant but struggling 10-year-old adopted son, Aja. He also has a 14-year-old daughter who lives with her mom and won’t speak to him. Jubilee, Eric, and Aja bond over books at the library, and each begins to find their own healing.
What to Expect in This Book
This story is endearing and quirky, with some humor incorporated despite each character’s difficult circumstances. While there is a romance thread, the focus is more on each character’s personal growth.
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
94% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
Lillian and Madison were boarding school roommates and friends from very different backgrounds. However, they’ve barely spoken since a scandal forced Lillian to leave school.
A decade later, Lillian’s life is not on the track she’d imagined for herself, so when she receives a call from Madison asking her to help care for Madison’s twin stepchildren who are moving in, Lillian figures she has nothing to lose.
But there is a catch: both kids spontaneously burst into flames when they are agitated. Madison needs to keep this fact a secret while her husband runs for public office. Despite knowing nothing about raising kids, Lillian agrees to take on the role, and throughout one summer, she and the kids learn together how to keep their cool – literally. It may even prove to be the start of a whole new life for Lillian.
Our Thoughts on This Book
In real life, we rush to hug and console upset children to bring them comfort. However, Lillian has to be creative because she can’t touch the children when they are upset due to the flames.
We were skeptical about the premise, but this darkly comic, big-hearted short novel works beautifully. While the concept of children who catch fire makes it sound like this book is heavy on magical realism, it’s actually the only unusual element and serves as a great metaphor throughout the novel.
Some of our readers for the Lifetime Challenge did not enjoy that there is adult language in the book, so if you never enjoy books with curse words, skip this one.
Characters with Synesthesia
While reading books about characters seeing colors may sound like magical realism, it’s not. The brains of people with synesthisia have been shown on MRIs to have “cross-wiring,” meaning their sensory pathways are connected in unique ways, causing one input to spark another. Tests like the Synesthesia Battery, measure the consistency of a person’s sensory associations over time.
There have been are over 60 different variations identified, for example music shows as colors, words carry tastes, or calendar dates sit visible in specific spots. Sometimes this can be beneficial and help with memory, creativity, or noticing patterns, though it can also feel overwhelming at times. For more information on synesthesia, we found a helpful article by the Cleveland Clinic.
Hester
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
97% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
This novel reimagines the woman who may have inspired Hester Prynne from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter.
In the early 1800s, Scottish seamstress Isobel sails to the New World with her husband, Edward, who struggles with opium addiction. They hope to leave their debts and secrets behind, but soon after they arrive in Salem, Edward signs on as a ship’s medic, abandoning Isobel to fend for herself.
When Isobel meets Nathaniel Hawthorne, they grow close. One is a muse, and one is a dark storyteller, but which is which?
Our Thoughts About This Book
Isobel’s special relationship with color is a significant topic in the book, and she is not the first generation of her family to experience synesthesia.
Melissa hesitated to read this novel because the Gilded Age is usually the earliest time period she enjoys, but she was quickly fascinated by life in early-1800s Massachusetts. It became one of those books she was glad to read outside her comfort zone, and she felt like she learned quite a bit.
The Color of Bee Larkham’s Murder
Book Summary
Thirteen-year-old Jasper sees the world much differently than those around him. Every word he hears has a different shade of color associated with it. However, he’s recently been haunted by a new color, the color of murder.
Jasper is convinced that he did something terrible to his new neighbor, Bee Larkham. Because he also suffers from prosopagnosia (the medical term for face blindness), it’s challenging for him to tell people apart. As he struggles to untangle the knot of untrustworthy memories and colors that will lead him to the truth, someone else is trying to stop him from remembering what really happen.
Thoughts About This Book
This novel blends a coming-of-age story with an intriguing mystery. It also offers an immersive look at synesthesia (specifically sound/word-to-color experiences, sometimes called chromesthesia) and face blindness, all set against a quietly tense English neighborhood.
For more on the author’s research into synesthesia and prosopagnosia, see this article by the author.
Out of My Mind
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
100% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
Melody is almost eleven and different from other fifth graders. She has cerebral palsy, cannot speak, and has limited control of her movements, but her mind is razor-sharp and her memory is extraordinary. Trapped by others’ assumptions and by tools that don’t let her express herself, she’s deeply frustrated by how hard it is to make people understand what she knows and wants.
Despite being every bit as bright—often brighter—than her classmates (and the adults evaluating her), many people underestimate her. Refusing to be defined by CP, Melody is determined to prove what she can do, especially once she gains access to a device that finally lets her “speak.”
Readers’ Thoughts About This Book
When we asked our readers what books we should add to our list of child protagonists for the Lifetime of Reading Challenge, Out of My Mind was the top recommendation.
For another highly-rated YA pick, consider A Mango-Shaped Space by Wendy Mass. Please note that some readers with synesthesia disagree with the accuracy of the portrayal.
Esme Cahill Fails Spectacularly
Book Summary
Esme feels like she’s failing. Fired from her NYC publishing job, divorced, and with piles of unfinished manuscripts in her broken-down car, she returns home to Asheville, North Carolina.
Before she died, her late grandmother, Adele, had begged Esme to come home. Now Esme discovers that the family’s once-charming lakeside retreat is sliding into financial ruin. Determined to help her grandfather save it, and with unexpected help from her estranged mother and a traveling chef, Esme sets out to revive the property.
While cleaning out the attic, Esme discovers a trove of museum-worthy quilts and a hidden chapter of Adele’s life that reshapes everything Esme thought she knew.
The story unfolds in a dual timeline, alternating between the grandmother and granddaughter, and between past and present.
Why We Picked This Book
Both Book Girls’ have recently discovered how much they enjoy Marie Bostwick’s writing, so we can’t wait to pick up this title! Trust us that synesthesia plays a role in one of the character’s lives and how the plot unfolds.
Murder on the Rocks
Book Summary
After her father’s murder, Mackenzie “Mack” Dalton runs Mack’s Bar in downtown Milwaukee. One morning, she discovers the body of her father’s former girlfriend in the same alley where her dad was killed, and the investigation points uncomfortably close to home! The police are interested in her employees, regulars, and even Mack herself.
Mack has synesthesia, a neurological condition in which stimulation of one sense can evoke a reaction in another sense. This makes her a uniquely perceptive (and sometimes overwhelmed) amateur sleuth. As she works with Detective Duncan on the case, they wonder if her father’s interest in Al Capone could be related to the murders.
What Readers Say About This Series
One of our readers recommended this Wisconsin cozy mystery, noting that the book was interesting throughout because nearly every character was a potential suspect. She also enjoyed the depth added by the inclusion of the character’s synesthesia.
To complement the bar setting, the author includes cocktail recipes throughout!
There are six books in the Mack’s Bar Mysteries, concluding with Last Call (2018).
Book Summary
Rookie Detective Veronica Shade is recognized as one of Oregon’s youngest and most promising detectives. But she’s keeping a secret about the special ability that makes her so good at her job.
Veronica has multi-modal synesthesia, a rare condition that lets her smell fear and see the aura of hidden guilt.
When the body of a young woman is discovered hanging from the rafters of the local Sheriff’s home, the authorities are quick to declare it a suicide. But Veronica’s senses scream murder.
As more apparent suicides surface in neighboring counties, Veronica must race against time to stop the killer. It turns out that her unique gift might be a double-edged sword that is not only costing her the chance at a normal life, but might also put her next on the killer’s hit list.
Keep This in Mind
Keep in mind that while people can and do have multi-modal synesthesia, Veronica’s abilities in this book are an exaggerated, fictional portrayal. The senses that she exhibits in the novel are not medically recognized forms of synesthesia.
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