I’m a sucker for 2 things when it comes to the NAs, interesting meta/narrative framing and character work, this story nails the first one, seeing the story from Watsons and Bernice’s perspectives from diary entries or just in general from the first person perspective is so much fun, this book is structured in the sense that it is an Andy lane Book wrapped around a Sherlock Holmes novel and while I have not read to deeply into the Sherlock Holmes canon I was quite happy seeing the cameos of moriarty and what not. Holmes and the doctors relationship in this book is brilliant, they mirror each other but getting to see Sherlock Holmes realize that the doctor is kind of … well not kind of but very much above his league is cool, seeing the doctor from Watsons perspective makes the character seem so much more mysterious, we’re used to seeing the doctor and his schemes from the perspectives of people like ace, and Benny who know the doctor well but seeing a total new comer in Watson notice things about the doctor, how alien he is was very fun…

this book combines lovecraftian and Indian Mythology with Sherlock Holmes and adds doctor who in there… what more can I say , it’s a fun read and definitely worth a check out if you have time!

This was the first VNA I've read (actually, the first Classic Who novel I've read). There are parts of it that I like; a lot of the dialogue is great. But I felt that the Doctor and especially Ace were too mean. I don't know if that was how the characterization evolved over the previous VNAs, but it was jarring and unpleasant. The first half, in London, worked better for me than the second, in India and on Ry'leh. There is maybe a little too much going on with the plot, but the pacing is snappy.