We're so back! I'll preface this one by saying I love this type of old-timey mystery novel with first person POV; Dracula is one of my favorite books. If you like that, this book works. If you don't, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry.

There's three mysteries interlocked in this story. One is the fake suicide of Dr. Seavers and the subsequent murder of Richard Harries. This part is a classic whodunnit. Then there's the scifi part with the zombie Harries and the other murders. And then there's the Doctor Who part with Simpson, the Time Lord agent in disguise, and the Artron energy drain that is killing Compassion (and the Doctor, but much more slowly) and that would stop any Time Lord around from regenerating. I'm not gonna lie, the mystery solving part of the novel was not as well done as it could have been, and the scifi was not super tight (the murder in the past was a source of Artron energy? How? Why?) but it was fun to read anyways. One complaint I have is that Hopkinson's and Stratford's voices, as it were, were not distinguishable enough; sometimes I had to stop and check whose POV I was in. Nothing major, but it could have been done better.

Seeing the TARDIS team from an outsider POV was a delight for me. Fitz in particular was a highlight. We usually see him from the author's POV, but we've got his first person POV in 'Frontier Worlds' and 'Parallel 59', and now we've got an outsider view of him. It's fascinating. He comes across as much braver than he thinks he is, as both Hopkinson and Stratford note that he's very quick to react when people are in danger. Compassion is sadly mostly absent again, kind of possessing Susan Seymour only at some points. It would have been nice to see how these people would have reacted to her lovely personality. The Doctor spends half the book missing, but evokes the expected confusion, suspicion and admiration from the people in the house, as he should.

Fitz is firmly in the role of #1 Main Companion, which includes being very worried about the Doctor when he goes missing, hackling the policeman Stratford about it. His breakdown when they find the Doctor 'dead' was a very good scene, it made me honestly clutch my heart. I think this is the first time Fitz truly believed the Doctor was dead. He has been told the Doctor was probably dead before, but this is his first time seeing it. Probably not the last. Poor man nearly throws himself down the hill right after the 'body' to try to save him. I love how their relationship is developing, and how much we can tell they care for each other. Sam leaving and Compassion's coldness really were the perfect catalysts to bring the Doctor and Fitz close together. I wonder if maybe the TARDIS reconstructed Fitz with some slight alterations to make him a better fit for the Doctor, or if this was all a natural development. Hmmmm.

The big consequence of this story is that, thank to stupid, stupid Susan Seymour, the Time Lords have a fix on them now. The next book, 'The Ancestor Cell', is probably about that. Knowing a bit about what is soon to happen, the Doctor's line about how the late 19th century was where he'd choose to live if he had to is a very unsubtle bit of foreshadowing.

Apart from pretending to be dead, the Doctor comes out of this one pretty much unharmed. Well, he does get slapped around and choked by a zombie, but it's not that serious. No list of pain this time.

TL;DR: Solid book that fans of mystery novels will like, and non-fans will probably hate. Don't you love how Doctor Who can play around with so many genres, though? The Time Lords are on our heels now, and things are coming to a head...