By Justin Richards

BBC Books, out now (ebook)

New York, and one of the classiest dames in town recalls one of her stranger adventures…

Linked to the finale of the current run of Doctor Who, this is an unusual novella for the BBC range, a first-person hard-boiled narrative courtesy of a certain Melody Malone (aka… well, if you don’t know, I’m not going to spoil it for you). With a bit of assistance from Justin Richards, she tells a tall tale of film stars, amnesia, mad producers and not-so-Earthly helpers.

It’s a fun quick read – at 81 pages, it’s not going to take long to get through at all – but if you’re expecting it to be the actual book that the Doctor is reading in the episode, you’ll get a bit of a surprise. There’s no appearance by Time Lord or companion, but there are prequel elements.

Richards captures the way that you know Melody would talk in such circumstances, and has fun playing with some of the conventions of the genre. Bearing in mind that we know that Amy and Melody have some tie-up in the years after The Angels Take Manhattan, maybe the formula could be resurrected for a full-length novel to sort out some other loose ends?

Verdict: A fun piece that will put a smile on your lips. 7/10

Paul Simpson

Click here to order Doctor Who: The Angel’s Kiss from Amazon.co.uk

 

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