Joyce keeps writing fabulous books. This is another one that I found totally engrossing and rich and could barely put down.

The story follows Jack Chambers as the executor of his estranged father's will. As he reluctantly starts the process he learns that he must publish his father's manuscript "Invisibility: A Manual of Light." He also meets his half sister whom he has more than sisterly feelings for. Together they search for the unknown woman who will inherit most of the estate while simultaneously being wrapped up in the search for the color indigo and the ability to be invisible.

As in other Joyce novels, his characters are extremely three dimensional and real; their actions and speech flow smoothly and create an elusive yet off-kilter atmosphere throughout the book. This really helps get across the obsession of the deceased father to see indigo. As a basis for a lot of the story, Joyce focuses on the "controversy" around indigo and how it may or may not be a true color. There is discussion of where it does not fit into the spectrum nor does it qualify as a primary (red, yellow, blue) or secondary (orange, green, violet) color. It was a bit freaky at times to read the story and realize that parts of it are true. And then to compound things, it really sounds as if the eye exercises recommended in the father's manuscript could lead you to see things that are outside the normal range of seeing. A creepy concept done in a very engaging manner. Definitely a thumbs up and a good read! ( )

Seriously weird and not very special. Two half-siblings are caught up in their dead father's obsession with Indigo, a sometimes "literal" sometimes metaphorical alternate to normal perception. As one of the characters blurts out the obvious interpretation a few pages before the end, all the reader's judgement is handed back. The strongest thing in this is the book within a book that must be published in 200K copies for the will to be satisfied. What actual gains of achieving Indigo are is the biggest mystery. ( )

At first sight, this book seems to occupy the same space as Christopher Priest's 'The Glamour'; both claim to involve invisibility. But in Joyce's book, the invisibility is something more of a McGuffin; and a wider cast of characters and more exotic foreign travel colour appear in the book (although, even in Chicago, the colour tends towards the blue end of the spectrum...).

The central character, Jack Chambers, very much plays the Englishman Abroad, though he seems to feel equally at home in both the USA and Italy as he chases up all sorts of loose ends in settling the affairs of his father, from whom he was estranged. Settling the will brings him into contact with a half-sister he never knew he had, and a group of his father's artistic hangers-on whom he had enticed into his circle with the promise of advancement, fame and the revelation of a Secret - the secret of Indigo. Even that secret is elusive and may even be a total fraud; how Jack Chambers resolves those problems is an exciting and by turns humorous and tragic story.

Graham Joyce has done his research here, both into places and art, and some interesting side alleys as well, such as epilepsy and US law on pornography. Chambers' father's book on Indigo has the terrifying certainty of all nut-cult gospels, though some of the psychology in the novel certainly rings true. Joyce has also returned to themes of transgressive relationships explored in some of his earlier novels.

All in all I found this a satisfying read, and more of a page-turner than I expected, without the lack of substance that term implies. And there remains a mystery at the end of the book, even after one other mystery has turned into two before being resolved. ( )