The Jekyll Revelation by Robert Masello

The Jekyll Revelation by Robert Masello
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

While on routine patrol in the tinder-dry Topanga Canyon, environmental scientist Rafael Salazar expects to find animal poachers, not a dilapidated antique steamer trunk. Inside the peculiar case, he discovers a journal, written by the renowned Robert Louis Stevenson, which divulges ominous particulars about his creation of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. It also promises to reveal a terrible secret—the identity of Jack the Ripper.

Unfortunately, the journal—whose macabre tale unfolds in an alternating narrative with Rafe’s—isn’t the only relic in the trunk, and Rafe isn’t the only one to purloin a souvenir. A mysterious flask containing the last drops of the grisly potion that inspired Jekyll and Hyde and spawned London’s most infamous killer has gone missing. And it has definitely fallen into the wrong hands.

With parallel story lines set in present-day California and 1880's London, THE JEKYLL REVELATION alternates between Rafe and Stevenson in a fast-paced tour through history and contemporary California as both they both race to stop the terror that’s coming for them. 

Bestselling and award-winning author Robert Masello (whose known for the #1 Kindle bestseller The Einstein Prophecy, The Romanov Cross, and The Medusa Amulet among other works) has crafted a thriller that is equal parts adventure story and literary history and throughout the suspense, he reveals fascinating, little known details about Robert Louis Stevenson’s life and times.

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The tantalizing cover and the intriguing blurb made me interested in the book. The identity of Jack the Ripper is a subject I find fascinating and I was curious how Robert Louis Stevenson would fit into this story. This book has two storylines and in the present storyline are we introduced to Rafael Salazar who is an environmental scientist. He discovers in an old truck a journal that turns out to be written by no other than Robert Louis Stevenson and the present storylines alternate with the journal entries.

I found the intro of this book promising with Robert Louis Stevenson trying to find if not a cure something that would make him better since he had been suffering from bad health since he was a child. And, it's now he meets a doctor that will change his entire life. In the present time, Rafael Salazar is studying coyotes in Topanga Canyon when he and his trainee Heidi stumbles on the trunk with the diary. But, the trunk also has a flask containing a portion that would be best to leave alone.

As much as I enjoyed the beginning of the book did it come a time after I read little over half the book when I found myself questioning whether I should continue reading or not. The story started to become a bit dull, and I found myself not enjoying either storyline. However, I did not give up and the story picked up. Well, at least the journal entries got better, I still did not find the present storylines that interesting with Rafe having trouble with his sister Lucy, the meth heads and his puppy love for Miranda. And, as I came to think of now when I'm writing the review, Heidi who was with him when he found the trunk and later on when they almost died in a car crash just disappeared from the story. And, that was just too bad because I liked her. I can't say that Rafe and Miranda interested me that much, but for the story to take the obvious direction was it necessary. And, here we have the big problem for me with this book. It was too often pretty obvious what would happen, no twist to the story that astonished me. Although the ending, the last entry in the journal both solved a question that I had back in my mind and was an interesting turn of event.

Still, I'm glad to have read the book. It may have had some weak moments in the middle of the book, but the story picked up and towards the end of the book even Rafe started to interest me a bit more than when he was having trouble with the meth heads and Miranda's boyfriend Laszlo. 

I want to thank 47North & Little Bird for providing me with a free copy through NetGalley!