Hyde by Daniel Levine

 

In this novel, the reader gets to hear the famous Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde story told from the viewpoint of Hyde.  Dr. Jekyll has returned to London after a scandal in France that resulted in the death of a patient with three personalities that Jekyll was treating.  He experiments on himself to see if he can determine what went wrong and why some have other, darker personalities lurking.  In their case, the father had sexually abused them as a child and that was when Hyde first appeared.

Now Jekyll injects himself whenever he wants to let Hyde loose.  He sets up a bank account for him and changes his will so that if he disappears everything goes to Hyde in case he can't return to the body.  Hyde rents a house and tries to live as a normal man.  He falls in love and brings his lover and her little sister to his house.

But he doesn't always remember what happens when he prowls at night.  Is he responsible for the actions that seem to occur then?  Men murdered, girls gone missing?  He sends the girls at his house away so that he can never hurt them.  Things start to spiral out of control and someone may be setting him up as he is getting cryptic messages and finding things in his rooms.

Readers will find this an interesting take on the original tale.  It fills in some of the gaps that was in the first story and gives background on how Hyde may have developed as a protector for Jekyll as a helpless child.  This was Levine's debut novel and it garnered praise as one of the best thrillers of the year.  It is recommended for horror and suspense readers.