Books: The Album of Dr. Moreau By Daryl Gregory (2021)

It’s 2001, and the WyldBoyZ are the world’s hottest boy band, and definitely the world’s only genetically engineered human-animal hybrid vocal group. When their producer, Dr. M, is found murdered in his hotel room, the “boyz” become the prime suspects. Was it Bobby the ocelot (“the cute one”), Matt the megabat (“the funny one”), Tim the Pangolin (“the shy one”), Devin the bonobo (“the romantic one”), or Tusk the elephant (“the smart one”)? Las Vegas Detective Luce Delgado has only twenty-four hours to solve a case that goes all the way back to the secret science barge where the WyldBoyZ’ journey first began—a place they used to call home. 

So Daryl Gregory is combining the science fiction premise of the famous novel by H. G. Wells with the panache of a classic locked-room murder mystery and the spectacle of a beloved boy band in, The Album of Dr. Moreau.  As a recent fan of his weird and original ideas, this novella works mostly towards the end. While he’s poking fun at boy bands, some twenty years after their zenith I might add, and used (as mentioned in the “Apologies” section at the end) his own grown children to help him out, the first half does go on a bit longer than it should. The books humor was, surprisingly, tempered here (the puns were sometimes funny, though) and even the social commentary on the original novel and the questions of what makes someone human when they are genetically spliced together is hinted at, but never fully realized.

It’s fun though, a bit bizarre and premise cannot be taken too seriously. But even a small style book like this is worth the trip into the mind of Daryl Gregory.