Hyde by Craig Russell

 Hyde is a book that follows Captain Edward Hyde who is the Super intendant of inspectors of Edinburgh police and his team on a bunch of murder mystery cases. The book starts with a hanged man and throughout the book, we learn of further murders which we later learn are all connected. The other part of this book which is also linked in with the murders is that of an Otherworld which is present in the minds of a number of people in the book including Edward Hyde himself. The book also contains a case of a missing woman which again links to the murders and that of the Otherworld which is spoken about throughout the book.

I could say lots of things about this book but I will start by saying it is an analysers dream book, therefore, making it perfect for an English Langauge and/or Literature exam which would see students analyse the great language. This book disappointingly did not contain as much of Robert Louis Stevenson's book The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde which was a bit unfortunate to start with but it was soon a good thing. This book does reference Stevenson's book as well as Dantes Divine Comedy though. Furthermore, the book also references Freud's ideas of the Id, ego and superego which is also featured in Stevenson's book which is again great to bring in the psychology element as well as again linking it to Stevenson's original book. 

Furthermore, there are many references and adjectives used in this book to present Hyde who in this book is a good man as an evil man with a dual personality and like the Hyde we know from Stevenson's book which really adds to the suspense of this book. Finally for this paragraph, Russell I must say is the master of, or more like the king of cliff hangers and hooks as whenever I got to the end of a chapter he always got me reading the next and this kept me up late at night reading his amazing book which is obviously a sign of an outstanding book.

I like this book on many different levels. Firstly, it is similar but different to Stevenson's story which worked out to be a good thing and really made the two stories work well together. The whole idea of Edward Hyde is greatly juxtaposed in this book compared to that of Stevenson's book which once again makes for an interesting read. Furthermore, the story is a unique psychological thriller which I like and really took to my interest. Also, this is a good modern gothic book which features all the elements of Gothic Literature which I love!

I disliked a few parts of this book and they include how the horror was not as intense as it could have been and did not frighten me as much as I would have liked and one of the other things was the ending. I did not like how it ended as it ended a bit too soon which was a shame as I have been enjoying this book so much.

This book is different compared to other books as it is well written and full of hooks to keep the reader interested and the writer uses genres which are obviously of a readers interest. Readers like me like horror, we like psychology, we like gothic literature and I am surprised to say I like the murder mystery element and Russell has been able to incorporate all these ideas into one book which although is completely independent of Stevenson's tale is also nicely incorporated with it.

Altogether, this is an outstanding book and I would go as far as saying not only it is the best book I have read this year but the best modern fictional book I have read in a very long time. I really have not found another modern fiction book like this which I have enjoyed as much as this is an excellent piece of art, this is literature even. That is why I, therefore, must rate this book 5 stars as it really is a work which should be enjoyed for hundreds of years to come. I would like to finish by thanking Net Galley and Little Brown Book Group UK for giving me exclusive access to this book in return for an honest book review.