This book had potential, but it doesn't deliver. Not a bad read, but very meh.

The premise is simple: the Doctor and Sam answer a distress signal sent from Proxima 2, humanity's first ever colony outside the Solar system. There's been several murders, and Chief of Police Ben Fuller thinks the killer is not a simple human colonist. The beginning of the book reads like a noir mystery novel, but In Space, as we follow the POV of some of the colonists. It takes quite a few chapters for the Doctor and Sam to show up, in fact. Once they arrive and are appraised of the situation, they obviously offer to help in the investigation, with the Doctor handily producing some documents proving they are professionals (real documents!). The leader of the colony, Helen Percival, is very sus, though. Apart from the titular Face-Eater, she's the main villain here and, by God, she sucks. Not a single redeeming quality, just evil. The Face-Eater's telepathic power is putting everyone in the colony a bit on edge, but she's just off the rails 100% of the time. Decides early on that she doesn't trust the Doctor or her own Chief of Police, and just absolutely loathes Sam on sight. The other characters are a mixed bag: some had potential, like Lopez and Joan, but they die super quickly. Ben Fuller, hot and troubled detective, has a whole 'The Mentalist' backstory, but also dies at around half the book, and Jake Leary only really shows up on the third act.

Sam begins the story wanting to make sure that the nanites that overtook her in 'Beltempest' are truly gone and that she's 100% herself again. This is mentioned a few times, but it's not a great source of angst or reflection; this is more of a plot book than a character book. By the end, we and Sam can be sure there's no nanites left, since she gets horribly hurt and almost dies twice: has a bomb explode on her (thanks, Percival) and is in a car crash (that she herself has to cause to get rid of one of the Face-Eaters). She had a some rapport with Fuller until he dies, and then connects with Leary, but it's a short-lived collaboration. She and Doctor spend most of the story separated, again. They split up for the investigation when they arrive, Sam with Fuller, the Doctor with Joan, and only meet again at the very end. The Doctor's part of the investigation takes him to the Proximans, kind of chipmunk/rat telepathic little creatures that I unfortunately spent the whole book picturing as 'Alvin and Chipmunks' from the movie. Yes, with the sweaters. Anyway. They kind of telepathically tell him that the Face-Eater(s) lives in the mountains and that it, not Jake Leary, is the responsible for the murders. One of the things attack him and Joan, she dies, he gets hurt and then disappears for half the book.

Part one is mostly about the investigation. In part two the focus shifts to Percival's paranoia leading to a manhunt for Sam and Fuller, and to riots in the streets. The Doctor is nowhere to be found, but washes up with a broken leg after a few days. Except it isn't the Doctor, it's one of the Face-Eaters! Gasp! The author doesn't want us to know that, though. We get his POV and he's mostly thinking things and saying things the Doctor would think and say, but there's something a bit off. He makes some mistakes, he doesn't anticipate some things he should, is too desperate when he talks to Sam in the hospital. Buuut I don't know, the twist wasn't constructed as well as I'd have liked. I particularly didn't like that it wasn't Sam to figure out it wasn't really him; the real Doctor sent Leary with the message to her and Percival. It would have been so cool to have Sam confront a fake Doctor, to have her realise it wasn't him by some small thing only a long time companion would have noticed! But no, Sam can't get a win like that, apparently. All her plans, as it more often than not happens in these books, are either failures (getting Leary's file from Percival's office -- Ben dies before they do anything with the info, the Doctor meets Leary himself) or inconsequential (trying to stop Percival from setting off the nuclear bomb -- Horton already did it). Her big win in this one was the car crash, poor Sam.

Part three is a whoooole mess. Giant tentacle monster attack mess. We get the real Doctor's POV on what happened and how he met Leary, then he goes to confront the main Face-Eater along with one of the chipmunk thingies. The only reason he doesn't die is because these books are called 'The Eighth Doctor Adventures'. He bluffs and confuses the Face-Eater a bit, but if it wasn't for the Proximans we'd be meeting John Hurt here. He gets thrown around and smacked a lot, and is nearly mind raped; he even says he 'thinks he might regenerate from bruising alone', my poor guy.

The day is... saved, ish, although a lot of people died, the colony is mostly destroyed, and the Proximans doomed themselves to extinction when they 'deactivated' the Face-Eater. A horrible week for all involved, Sam and the Doctor just want to get out of there and never think of any of this ever again. Fair.

Guess who's back? The list! Leary kiiiind of tortures/interrogates him, but his discomfort is mostly due to the broken leg, so I'm only counting that, and the Face-Eater doesn't quite get inside his head enough to count as torture (given that this is the Doctor we're talking about).

• Memory Loss:1 (in 'The Eight Doctors')
• Serious Injuries/Near Death Experience:7 (gets vampired 'Vampire Science', nearly drowns in the Thames in 'The Bodysnatchers', bomb+fingers broken in 'Kursaal', electrocuted in 'Longest Day', gets shot + severe blood loss in 'Legacy of the Daleks', nearly squashed by giant hydra in 'The Scarlet Empress', leg broken + slapped around by giant tentacled monster here)
• Torture:2 (in 'Genocide', 'Seeing I')