HYDE IN THE SHADOWS
Daniel Carter was a London cop who just wanted to do the right thing. But during a raid on an organ-selling chop shop, he is almost torn to pieces by monsters. And no one believes him. Hurt and crippled, his career over and his life in ruins, Daniel is suddenly presented with a chance at redemption. And revenge. It seems that more than two centuries ago, the monsters of the world disappeared—into the underworld of crime. Guild-like clans now have control over all the dark and illegal trades, from the awful surgeries of the Frankenstein Clan, to the shadowy and seductive Vampire Clan, to the dreaded purveyors of drugs and death, the Clan of Mummies. And there’s always the Werewolf Clan, to keep order.
Only one force stands opposed to the monster clans: the superstrong, extremely sexy, quick-witted Hydes! Now Daniel is just one sip of Dr. Jekyll’s Elixir away from joining their company. At Jekyll & Hyde Inc.
Jekyll & Hyde Inc. written by Simon R. Green, is classic horror-meets-spy thriller. This is a fast-paced, simply written novel with a good premise. It seems to be a standalone novel that has nothing to do with the rest of his written world.
An ex-cop joins a mysterious organization, known as ‘The Hydes,’ in order to defeat supernatural clans that consist of your classic monsters (Frankenstein, Mummy, Vampire, and Werewolf). He is out to rid the world of evil and get revenge.
The pacing of the novel is fast, so fast that you feel you’ve missed something…the problem is you haven’t, it is actually missing.
Unfortunately, there isn’t much else I can say for this book. The plotline is thin and predictable, the characters shallow and dumb. There is minimal buildup of anything in the storyline, and it is so fast-paced that the writer has left numerous plot holes making you constantly question why? Why did they do that?
Even the big fights and confrontations are over so fast that you wonder why it took them this long to take out the other side. These conflicts have supposedly taken years to plan, but they seem to consist of very vague instructions that pretty much boil down to “sneak up and kill them.” The main character might as well be a big dumb barbarian – he never questions anything. They point at a target and tell him to attack.
Actually, now that I am writing this, it sort of reads like a dungeon crawl from a beginning Dungeons and Dragons set. Maybe this should be marketed for one of those style games?
I give the book 2 stars. Even though this is an easy read, I struggled to finish it. It gets two stars because of the premise. There was a lot of promise to the storyline, unfortunately it wasn’t well executed.
Written by: Simon R. Green
Cover Art by: Todd Lockwood
How we rate our Books
1 = We finished the book with effort
2 = Readable, but more fluff than substance
3 = Good
4 = Pretty Good and worth passing on to your friends
5 = We couldn’t put the book down
