Book Review: The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

I enjoyed my read (or re-read, not sure which) of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson last week on my Kindle. It was one of their freebies that I downloaded. The nineteenth-century atmospheric writing lent a certain ghoulishness to the story, which I liked. Stevenson was very adept with adjectives and in his descriptions of the emotional turmoil that the characters in the story underwent. I realized that even though I knew what the use of the Jekyll/Hyde syndrome means in modern parlance, I'd never read the story or, at least, I hadn't read it in a long time. It's a good psychological study of a character in the process of disintegration, a moody mystery, and provides good insight into how people's personalities can encompass good and evil in the same persona. Highly recommended.

Book Review: Skeleton Key

Skeleton Key by Jane Haddam was a satisfying mystery read. Haddam's Armenian-American detective, Gregor Demarkian, leaves his native Philadelphia for the rich Connecticut suburbs to help solve the murder of a poor, little rich girl. The sub-story involving Gregor's relationship with his girlfriend, Bennis, is almost more interesting than the mystery (or, mysteries, as it turns out). I love how Haddam follows the character's trains of thought. It is so much like how people think in real life--people's thoughts just are, they don't always make sense or even follow any seeming logic. Haddam captures that very well and, in so doing, helps us understand her characters better. Good characterization is one of the hallmarks, in my mind, of excellent writers. Haddam succeeds admirably in doing this.