Seven doubles in the twisted world of mystery fiction

Emily Beyda is a Los Angeles native who written the popular “Dear Glutton” advice column in The Austin Chronicle. She is graduate of Texas State’s M.F.A. program.

Her debut novel is The Body Double.

At CrimeReads Beyda tagged seven of her "favorite doubles in the twisted world of mystery fiction and (slightly) beyond," including:

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson

Probably one of the first ever books centered around the behavior of a second self, I was surprised at how effectively creepy Jekyll and Hyde is. I was familiar with the conceit of the book of course–the main character’s duality is probably one of the most infamous plots of rarely read but widely known literature–but the details of it, including the distance of the telling, and the huge role foggy, filthy London plays in the unfolding of the story, were a delight to discover. I left the pages feeling unsettled in a hard to shake, bone deep way. Jekyll and Hyde is the perfect rainy day book, easy to plunge through with one pleasurable gulp. It’s no wonder it’s been adapted as many times as it has!

Read about the other entries on the list.

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde also appears on Caroline Louise Walker's list of six terrifying doctor-villains in fiction, Robert Masello's list of six classic stories with supernatural crimes at their center, J.R.R.R. (Jim) Hardison's list of eleven top vile villains in fiction, Chris Howard's top five list of addictive books featuring sci-fi drugs, Steve Toutonghi's list of six top books that expand our mental horizons, Irvine Welsh's list of six favorite books that explore human duality, the Huffington Post's list of classic works that are all under 200 pages, Koren Zailckas's top 11 list of favorite evil characters, Stuart Evers's list of the top ten homes in literature, H.M. Castor's top ten list of dark and haunted heroes and heroines and John Mullan's list of ten of the best butlers in literature, and among Yann Martel's six favorite books. It is one of Ali Shaw's top ten transformation stories and Nicholas Frankel's five best pieces of decadent writing from the nineteenth century.

--Marshal Zeringue