DR JEKYLL & MR SEEK, ANTHONY O'NEILL
There is something of a huge comfort in picking up a book that possesses that air of gentility which was common to works written in the latter part of the 19th century. The first pages of DR JEKYLL AND MR SEEK instantly catapult the reader into a murky world where deception and nefarious acts are committed by intelligent yet desperate men.
DR JEKYLL & MR SEEK is a delightfully immersive read that quickly draws us into a world we never knew we had been missing. A relatively short foray back to 1800’s England, this book wastes no pages in being overly descriptive and instead well spends in gloriously period dialogue and the suitably outraged inner splutterings of Mr Utterson as he investigates this most grievous of wrongs. We’re easily caught up and sympathetic towards Mr Utterson who has had the best of intentions all along and seems quite deserving to inherit from the considerable burden of his secret knowledge.
DR JEKYLL & MR SEEK is neatly crafted of course around the key events of Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic novel THE STRANGE CASE OF DR JEKYLL AND MR HYDE. You don’t need to know much about the first book in order to respect the homage paid in this modern day follow up and this novel is successful without the need to include an onerous summary of the first. A small but respectful continuation of a very grand tale.
Seven years after the death of Edward Hyde, a stylish gentleman shows up in foggy London claiming to be Dr. Henry Jekyll. Only Mr. Utterson, Jekyll’s faithful lawyer and confidant, knows that he must be an impostor – because Jekyll was Hyde.
But as the man goes about charming Jekyll’s friends and reclaiming the estate, and as the bodies of potential challengers start piling up, Utterson is left fearing for his life ... and questioning his own sanity.