Jekyll & Hyde: Winter Retreat

If you could invite anyone to a winter retreat, who would it be? Family, friends, someone famous. What you should never do is invite a detective, anytime you do, someone always seems to end up dead. In the case of Jekyll & Hyde: Winter Retreat by Tim Major, you get two private detectives for the price of one, and indeed their partner. Three detectives at one remote location in December, how many deaths will that end in? 

Muriel Carew has established herself as a silent partner in the Jekyll & Hyde: Consulting Detectives Agency, being a lot of the brains of the outfit. Dr Jekyll may be clever, but he is not always observant. He also happens to turn into Mr Hyde every three days or so, a man of few words and many fists. When they gain a new client, it will require subtle investigation at a remote manor. Muriel is ready for the role, but can she rely on Jekyll & Hyde, especially when a body is found? 

The initial Jekyll & Hyde: Consulting Detectives Agency, was a wonderful use of the IP by Major that touched on the original story and then built on it in a realistic manner. Winter Retreat is Major’s opportunity to make the characters his own and take them to places that Robert Louis Stevenson would never have imagined. This is still a homage to the original, but there are more modern ideas explored about the nature of man, and of gender. 

Before the book delves into the core of Jekyll & Hyde, and also Muriel, there is a stonking big murder mystery to solve in the centre. The book has the rightly old-fashioned feel of a locked room mystery. It has some Sherlock about it, but also plenty of the later written Christie novels. That sense of impossible crimes and reams of suspects to get through. Fans of complex murder mysteries will be in clover; there are clues dotted around the place to work out what is happening. As a pure crime story, it hits well. 

However, this is only part of the story. This is an urban fantasy novel as well; one of the characters turns from a mild-mannered doctor into a brute. There is an extra layer of complexity as Muriel is investigating, while also dealing with the fallout of Jekyll’s apparent addiction to his serum. There is a lot of character development to get through. Muriel has her own time to shine later in the novel as Major tackles interesting concepts of the nature of self and gender. 

Winter Retreat is an intelligent book, but that makes it complex. I admit to being a little lost in places, but when it came to the reveals and conclusion, it was clear what was happening. The characters of Jekyll, Hyde, and Muriel are different by book’s end, so much so that I think purist fans of the original will now think it has deviated too far. However, for a modern audience, Major is exploring interesting new areas that will prove even more exciting in future outings.