Mrs. Hyde, by David Dean

  "Mrs. Hyde," by David Dean, in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, March/April 2023. This is the seventh appearance here by my friend and fellow SleuthSayer. Regular readers of this column may recall that I am not a big fan of pastiches, but I do like homages. The pastiche is fan fiction: Author B trying to create a story in the style of and with the characters of Author A. Consider, for example, ten zillion Sherlock Holmes stories not written by Conan Doyle.   A homage on the other hand is something more subtle. B delves into the universe A has created and produces something new and different. Dean has offered us a homage here and, boy, it is a doozy. This is apparently the first in a series of Victorian-era stories about Dr. Beckett Marchland.  He is an alienist, which is to say, an early psychologist.  One day he receives a troubling letter from a woman who reports that her once loving and kindhearted husband is being changed for the worse by a bad companion. The woman is Mrs. Edward Hyde.  The wicked friend is Dr. Henry Jekyll. At this point the reader may be excused for saying: Huh? Dean has turned Robert Louis Stevenson's novella inside out and takes us to very interesting territory indeed.  I should mention that this tale takes place in London, 1888, during the plague of attacks by Jack the Ripper.  Could Jekyll and/or Hyde be involved in those grisly crimes? Purists may point out that Stevenson's book appeared in 1886, but that's a small bit of disbelief to suspend for such a wonderful story.  The characterization is rich and one twist literally made  my jaw drop.