Hyde – Craig Russell
Variations on Robert Louis Stevenson’s Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde story are commonplace, or at least its theme about the duality of human nature and its capacity for evil is influential on much of crime fiction, but what can Craig Russell bring to the subject that is new? Well in some ways, Hyde is a companion piece or expansion of how Russell treated similar themes in his last book The Devil Aspect . That rip-roaring Gothic adventure managed to blend vampire mythology with East European folklore and hints of the dark side of Nazism in its 1935 setting. The “devil aspect” theory suggested that the potential for madness lies in all of us and with the right trigger applied, those most susceptible can be pushed towards acts of great evil. Hyde seems the obvious way to explore this issue further, but you can expect that Russell will similarly bring a new and thrilling twist to the classic story. What is immediately noticeable about the story is how Russell brings it back to the Scottish orig...