“Seeking Hyde” Chat and Signing

Thomas Reed’s debut novel, Seeking Hyde, recounts the fascinating history of Robert Louis Stevenson’s epic horror story, Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Seeking Hyde sticks closely to the biographical record as Robert Louis Stevenson struggles to write another book to be the successor to Treasure Island. After the infamous two characters, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, take form in a dream, Stevenson writes passionately for three days, convinced that he has crafted his masterpiece. His wife Fanny, a willful and demanding gypsy, offers a scathing critique, obliging him to start over from the beginning. While the revised tale is published to great acclaim, it is ultimately blamed for inspiring a gruesome series of murders in London’s East End.

From that tragic historical irony, Seeking Hyde moves beyond the actual story of how Jekyll and Hyde came to be to explore the realm of “what if?”