The Daughter of Doctor Moreau

Having never read The Island of Doctor Moreau by H.G.Wells perhaps I'm missing out on the frisson of recognition when Moreno-Garcia harks back to the original. Maybe my understanding of the original as an outright horror story had me expecting a bit more bite here. This is a restrained tale that's less terror and more Tempest - especially when Carlota Moreau falls for the handsome Eduardo Lizalde, arguably the first man she has seen on the estate that wasn't her father or the tortured majordomo Montgomery Laughton.

There is so much table setting going on, the many pieces stacked up against one another, piled ever higher and higher as the story progresses and yet it somehow manages to resolve not with a bang but a whimper.