I chose to read The Wages of Sin due to it being set in 1916 and it tying in – at the time -with my History of the Universe marathon.  I was also intrigued a little by the pairing of Liz and Jo as the 3rd Doctor’s two companions and by a historical Pertwee story.

All in all, it was a massive disappointment.  Halfway through, I realised it was like reading a Young Indiana Jones episode with the Doctor inserted.  And not a very good Young Indiana Jones episode either.

The Wages of Sin is just a huge pile of dull.  The Doctor, Liz and Jo pitch up in  St Petersburg, the TARDIS is stolen, they meet Rasputin, lots of Russian dignitaries and a secret agent called Kit.  Rasputin is the focus for the story and the events of the novel lead up to his murder.

Now, I’ll admit I’ve got into a bad habit lately of reading before I go to sleep, quite late at night and, quite often, I’ll drift off mid-page.  This means it’s taken me a while to get through this book, sometimes only managing to read a few pages a night.   This might have influenced my engagement in the book as might the plethora of Russian names.  I’ve always found I have an issue when names in a story are difficult to pronounce.  My brain can’t skip easily through the text and I seem to fail to get a short hand of who is who.  I spent a sizeable chunk of this book confused about who was who and how they were related (I’m still not 100% sure who Kit was!),

But putting this aside, there doesn’t seem to be a lot happening anyway.  Liz hangs out with a guy who may have stolen the TARDIS, who is also part of the plot to kill Rasputin.  Liz is coerced into persuading Rasputin to attend a meeting where the conspirators intend to kill her.  And that is the extent of her plot.  Jo hangs out with Rasputin, decides he isn’t as bad as history makes out, and almost derails history by replacing poisoned cakes and glasses meant for Rasputin.  And that’s her contribution to the story.

The Doctor wanders around St Petersburg, meets Kit, gets arrested, and heads off to find the TARDIS.  He really does very little throughout the whole story – oh, and he stands and watches Rasputin drown at the end.

I just don’t know what to make of the story.  Historically, it paints Rasputin in a more favourable light than we might be used to (and slightly more intriguing than he was in The Wanderer) and his character is definitely the highlight of the novel.  His murder is the most dramatic part of the book, but having waded through 200 odd pages of not very much happening, it is little reward.  Apparently, according to I Who, this was originally to be a 1st Doctor, Barbara, Ian and Vicki story which makes a bit of sense – I’m not sure it would have made it any more interesting though (Liz would seem to be fulfilling Barbara’s role and Jo I would assume has Vicki’s plot (with maybe less of Rasputin leching after her).  Ian would have hooked up with Kit, the secret agent and the Doctor would probably have just hung round the local dignitaries and police force acting all superior.  I’m not convinced it would be much better but it may have felt like a better fit than it does for the slightly odd grouping of 3rd Doctor, Liz and Jo.

Maybe I have done this tale a disservice and I’m sure it has its fans somewhere (I’ve read two contrasting reviews on the internet – one which agrees with my assessment and one which says it’s an underrated gem) but it isn’t a novel I could honestly recommend to anyone.