BASIC PLOT
In New Orleans, strange magics are afoot. An artefact dealer has been murdered, a charm carved from human bone is missing and Nothing is pursuing the Doctor.

DOCTOR
Eighth.

COMPANIONS
Fitz and Anji.

MATERIALISATION CIRCUIT
Pg 24 A cemetary, New Orleans, c 2004.

Pg 123 Southwest of New Orleans, April 30 1980.

Pg 127 Vermont.

PREPARATORY READING
None.

CONTINUITY REFERENCES
Reference to Dave (Escape Velocity).

Pg 33 It's not a direct continuity reference but the words "the pyramids of Mars" appear, attributed to Carl Sagan.

Pg 59 "The Doctor had become distracted by the salt shaker, frowning at it apprehensively." This is likely a joke about the appearance of the Daleks.

Pg 61 Reference to Graham Greene and the Doctor having met him (The Turing Test).

Pg 69 Reference to the Doctor being in Prague in 1903, during the Earth arc.

Pg 89 "Had there been another daughter once? A granddaughter?" References to Miranda (Father Time) and Susan.

Pg 95 "He was afraid that he wasn't an agent of life at all, that in the long run he had destroyed, and would destroy, more than he created." There's a subtle discussion of the Doctor's actions at the end of The Ancestor Cell and whether it's best to live with the consequences or forget.

Pg 96 The word "Sabbath" is mentioned, possibly foreshadowing the character's appearance in The Adventuress of Henrietta Street.

Pg 101-102 "He wore a battered hat, also white, and held clasped to him, like a child with a stuffed animal, a ridiculous-looking red-handled umbrella." This is the seventh Doctor and the eighth remembers seeing him and Ace at the funfair from Timewyrm: Exodus in Endgame.

Pgs 109-110. The Doctor's tarot card reading references his first eight selves (the first Doctor = the Hierophant, the second Doctor = the Hermit, the third Doctor = the Emperor, the fourth Doctor = the fool, the fifth Doctor = the Star, the sixth Doctor = the Moon and the seventh Doctor = the Hanged Man, the eighth Doctor = magician). The ninth card, the Tower, equates with Gallifrey's destruction.

Pg 119 "She hung the bone masks - again, the Doctor had a fleeting sense of deja vu" Bone masks are used by Faction Paradox (Alien Bodies etc).

Pg 125 Reference to Miranda.

Pg 155 Reference to the Obverse (The Blue Angel) and artron energy (The Deadly Assassin).

Pg 175 "Have you discovered the graviton yet?" There's one in The Moonbase.

Pg 214 "Wherever he went - and in the dream he found himself on, for varying reasons, a rooftop, some church steps, a sofa, a beach, a dining room table (surrounded by appalled faces), a staircase hewn from gemstone, the deck of a ship and far more operating tables than he felt were strictly justified." In order: Set Piece, Timewyrm: Revelation, The Curs of Fatal Death, The Also People, Lungbarrow, Sky Pirates!, All-Consuming Fire and the telemovie.

Pg 228 We see the Doctor's tattoo, mentioned in The Year of Intelligent Tigers

Pg 241 There's another subtle discussion of the events at the end of The Ancestor Cell.

Pg 242 "I prefer not to die in some stupid, avoidable accident. Once was enough." The TV Movie.

OLD FRIENDS AND OLD ENEMIES
None.

NEW FRIENDS AND NEW ENEMIES
Various magical beings, inhabiting human bodies

CONTINUITY COCK-UPS

1. Pg 10 "Rust would have said his old-fashioned-looking, dove-grey coat was linen" doesn't square with page 275: "The night was chilly and he wore his green velvet frock coat"
2. "He spit it out on the pillow." I wonder if he spat it out?
3. Pg 258 "Finally gor a proper lockpick, didn't I?" I wonder if he got one, as well.

PLUGGING THE HOLES [Fan-wank theorizing of how to fix continuity cock-ups]

1. The Doctor might change coats for the epilogue, or Rust might be colour-blind.
2. The Doctor is so outraged by Mrs Flood's attempt to feed him that he can't get his tenses straight.
3. Fitz is putting on a weird accent, for some reason.

FEATURED ALIEN RACES
Pg 147 Elementals, who manifest as human beings. Pg 242 Swamp bogles.

FEATURED LOCATIONS
New Orleans, early twenty-first century (it's a few years too late for Anji, as page 121 attests). It's October (pg 12).

Pg 123 Southwest of New Orleans, April 30 1980.

Pg 140 Vermont, early twenty-first century.

Pg 235 Lyon, France, early twenty-first century.

Pg 246 The Elementals' world.

IN SUMMARY - Robert Smith?
Two thirds of this book is gorgeously written, with some haunting imagery and a firm grasp on the character of the Doctor as protagonist. The setting of New Orleans is fantastic and wonderfully evoked. Sadly the novel crashes and burns at the end, which is a bit of a shame because up until that point, it was a serious contender for the great EDA that we've all been waiting for. It's still a very classy work, though.