2018 Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Awards Finalist
Thomas Reed's debut novel, Seeking Hyde, recounts the fascinating
history of Robert Louis Stevenson's epic horror story, Strange Case of
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. It is the tale of a young author defying his
father's wishes by becoming a spinner of romantic yarns. It is the tale
of his American wife, ten years older than he, driving her husband hard
to write one more great novel before his chronic lung disease carries
him away. It is the tale of Stevenson reeling under charges from the
mother of an old friend that he had fueled her son's fatal alcoholism
through his recklessly Bohemian ways.
Seeking Hyde sticks closely to the biographical record as Robert Louis
Stevenson struggles to write another book to be the successor to
Treasure Island. After the infamous two characters, Dr. Jekyll and Mr.
Hyde, take form in a dream, Stevenson writes passionately for three
days, convinced that he has crafted his masterpiece. His wife Fanny, a
willful and demanding gypsy, offers a scathing critique, obliging him to
start over from the beginning. While the revised tale is published to
great acclaim, it is ultimately blamed for inspiring a gruesome series
of murders in London's East End. From that tragic historical irony,
Seeking Hyde moves beyond the actual story of how Jekyll and Hyde
came to be to explore the realm of "what if?" Desperate to address his
own guilt, Stevenson enters the dark underworld of Victorian London. As
he follows a twisted path through this midnight landscape, the
author-turned-detective wrestles with the social demons of prostitution,
police corruption, and the hypocrisy of powerful men--ultimately coming
face-to-face with Jack the Ripper himself.
