Jekyll & Hyde: Consulting Detectives is the first in a series of historical mysteries featuring the titular pair, written by Tim Major. Released 3rd Sept 2024 by Titan Books, it's 304 pages and is available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats. Paperback due out from the same publisher in 3rd quarter 2025. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout.
Neat premise: Jekyll -and- Hyde as a two-in-one consulting detective. The story is written from the PoV of Jekyll's ex-fiance, Muriel. They meet up, and team up, as a result of a chance meeting contiguous with disappearances in their upper class social set. The author is quite adept at writing the antipathy / fondness / exasperation (mostly on the part of Muriel) which colors their collaboration.
The characters (including Muriel) are drawn from the print and film canon. The dialogue and descriptions are very well done, very Victorian, and without discernible anachronisms. It's an enjoyable and engaging read with a well done mystery "hook".
It's the first of a series (second book due out in Oct 2025), so much of the first book's content is given over to development and background, but the denouement and resolution are classic and fair-play.
Four stars. Well done. It will appeal to classic mystery readers, and fans of similar modern genre mysteries (Haig, Turton, et. al.). The author has included a short (quite interesting) acknowledgement note at the end with more info about the characters. Read it after finishing the book.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
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