★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ 4 stars, I liked it a lot.
Justin Richards is a rather prolific writer. He has written quite a few Doctor Who novels and oversees many others in his role as Creative Consultant for the BBC licensed novels. This is the first book I have read that was written by him but it is unlikely to be the last.
The Doctor and Clara are drawn into Victorian London when they observe a power spike that should not exist in that era. The Doctor doesn't want to involve "The Great Detective" and sets out to investigate on his own. Meanwhile Madame Vastra is working on an investigation of her own and Strax is trying to find the man who murdered his friend. The three investigations lead them to the Frost Fair and the Carnival of Curiousities. Coincidences are piling up all around them and as the Doctor knows, coincidences are rarely actually coincidental.
Silhouette is new territory for me. Twelve is fresh and new and a bit of an unknown but he worked well alongside Madame Vastra, Jenny Flint, Strax and Clara Oswald. I felt that Richards' portrayal of the four regulars was very well done. Clara's cheekiness, Jenny's accent, and Strax' inability to tell man from woman were all included in here and I could nearly hear their voices as I read.
The villain in this story was a good match for the Doctor. He was quick and clever and gave the Doctor a good challenge. It was not immediately obvious to the reader who the true villain was or even what he was. The Frost Fair was a good distraction to refocus both the Doctor and the reader and keep them in the dark.
All in all this was a good book. The story kept me interested, the characters rang true and the length was perfect. There were a few minor grammatical errors that bugged me but nothing that made the book unreadable. I felt like the setting was borrowed from some other source material but the longer the story went on the more the author made it his own. If you are a fan of Doctor Who you should definitely read this one. If you are not a fan of Doctor Who....well why aren't you?
I received this book from blogging for books in exchange for an honest review. You can find more information about this book here.
