Dr.Jekyll and Mr.Holmes is Loren Estelman's second turn in the avenues of Sherlockiana and ultimately it is not a compelling one. Like its predecessor Sherlock Holmes Versus Dracula, this yarn blends two literary traditions together. But while the saga of the Transylanian Count was full of fissures to fit the 221 B Baker Street boys into, this mystery has a single goal.
We are presented with the mystery of Dr.Jekyll and his weird friend Mr.Hyde and Sherlock and Watson dither about through most of the book trying to get to the bottom of that strange connection. But alas anyone who comes to this book will already know the answer, so the mystery is largely a fail.
The story seems to drag along as Esteleman tries to insert the two detectives into the saga, but they have precious to do. Contrary to the earlier book in which Holmes accepts the supernatural nature of Dracula fairly quickly and proceeds to deal with it, in this one he remains suspicious but ultimately unaware of the true nature of the Jekyll-Hyde scenario. That hurts the story which drags and it hurts his reputation as a truly insightful detective.
The truth is, that like its earlier vampiric mate, this book was written with an eye for film and the action seems designed for cinema rather than the written page.
This one is a drag, and I wished it over long before the end came.
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Yep, that's the Neal Adams Tomahawk cover (to the right) I remember. Looks like some sort of painterly tone was applied, ink wash, pencil, or sheer sorcery. One of the best, from a period when Adams must have been trying to prove something.
ReplyDeleteIt does have an oddly muted background. It'll show up again in all its glory at the end of the month when I post all the Adams covers featured.
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