The Diabolical Miss Hyde by Viola Carr

The Diabolical Miss Hyde by Viola Carr
My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

There is a murderer loose in London that is slicing of women’s limbs for some insidious purpose. Dr. Eliza Jekyll is a crime scene investigator and she is called out to the first crime scene and there she meets Captain Lafayette from the Royal Society. She must be very careful around him since magic is strictly forbidden and the Captain is hunting anyone that uses magic of any kind. But the need for her to take the elixir is sometimes too strong for her to resist.

**********

I bought The Diabolical Miss Hyde a couple of months ago, well this spring actually. And, I even started to read it, but then other books came between and then a couple of weeks ago did I finally return to it. And, oh Wow! This is a fantastical great steampunk book.

I liked Eliza Jekyll and Lizzie Hyde very much and I liked that Lizzie and Captain Lafayette relationship which is, even more, interesting because Eliza isn’t feeling the same way about him and since they share the same body is that a bit of a problem. The same body? Yes, Eliza and Lizzie are “the daughter” of Henry Jekyll from the classic book: The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. And, Eliza is the good daughter and Lizzie is the bad one that is turned loose when Eliza drinks her father’s elixir.

I loved that the book had no vampires or that it felt YA. Instead, it felt gloriously dark and adult to read. Yes, the story could be a bit predictable. It wasn’t that hard to figure out who was the guardian for Eliza Jekyll and Lizzie Hyde and I wasn’t that surprised when the true killer was revealed. But, nevertheless, I enjoyed reading this book immensely.

I was very curious about Eliza’s “relationship” with Razor Jack (Malachi Todd), a serial killer that she caught before everything happened in this book. Eliza and Todd felt a bit like Clarice and Hannibal Lecter. I especially got that vibe when she was in the mental hospital where he is and he is telling her what the killers wants (well telling her very subtle, she had to figure it out herself of course). Does it feel a bit weird to ship Eliza with Jack? Yeah, it does, but I just can’t help it. And then again Eric Northman (Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris) is hardly a saint and I liked him. I hope to read in the future about how Eliza captured him, not just as a flashback in a book. I want the whole story.