Barnabas, Quentin and Dr. Jekyll's Son

Dark Shadows, Book 27

By: Marilyn Ross

Narrated by: Kathryn Leigh Scott

Length: 5 hrs and 11 mins

Publisher's summary

Before the blizzard cuts Collinwood off from the rest of the world, Barnabas Collins arrives there from England, bringing with him his friend, Dr. Henry Jekyll, who hopes to find a new life where no one knows he is the son of London's most savage murderer.

Another stranger also finds refuge from the storm at Collinwood. He calls himself Paul Faron, private detective - but to Barnabas, he is Quentin Collins, victim of the werewolf curse.

As the personal tensions and animosities at the strange old house increase, a senseless, brutal murder takes place - and terror reigns at Collinwood. Obviously, the killer is someone living at the estate. And most under suspicion are Barnabas, Quentin, and Dr. Jekyll’s son.

As suggested by its title, a homage to Robert Louis Stevenson's 1886 novella, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, a text also used in the television series for inspiration.

©1971 Marilyn Ross (P)2020 Oasis Audio

Not great, but I love spending time in this world

If I am being honest, this is a 2-star book. It is really not that good. The story starts off strong, introducing our characters and their circumstances and placing them in a closed circle setting-snowed in at Collinwood. A closed-circle setting can be an interesting pressure cooker situation for our characters, where tensions run high, and desperation makes people do crazy things. Or, in the case of this book, it can be a place of stasis, where not much happens until the very end.

There are several problems that made this short novel a slog to get through. One, not much happens, and if something does happen-a few murders, they happen off-page and are given very little gravity. Two, a good chunk of the novel is characters repeating what they heard in a previous chapter to another character. We already know the information. It does not have to be relayed verbatim over and over again, just to fill pages. Three, the big reveal is absurd. It takes a lot of strength or passion to kill someone with blunt force trauma. The villain would not have been capable of these murders.

Nevertheless, it is always fun to spend time in Collinwood Mansion, especially with Barnabas and Quentin. I am nostalgic for Dark Shadows, so I am willing to go a little easy on this novel. The audiobook is read by Kathryn Leigh Scott: Maggie Evans/ Josette du Pres, and she does a fantastic job of reading the original Dark Shadows novels and giving a real energy to the books, even when the source material itself is a bit dull at times.