‘Doctor Who: The Crimson Horror’ – Mark Gatiss (Target/BBC Books)


Page Count: 178 Pages

My reading continues to take me down very familiar paths (short ones) and you know what…? That suits me just fine ;o) It’s not a bad life but there is rather a lot of it going on right now and as someone who (mostly) likes everything to be in the correct place… Lets just say that there’s a lot of ‘filing’ that’s outstanding ;o) Oh well, just a few days until the weekend.

When I get a chance to escape into a book then, time is at a premium so I’m looking for reads that I know I’ll enjoy. I’m looking to recharge, not waste more energy ;o) A little ‘Doctor Who’ is usually a safe bet then and when I saw ‘The Crimson Horror’ on my favourite Greenwich Market book stall, I picked it up with some comfort reading in mind. As it turned out, ‘The Crimson Horror’ wasn’t a bad way to spend an evening, just not for the reasons that I’d been anticipating…

‘We must get to the bottom of this dark and queer business, no matter what the cost!’

Something ghastly is afoot in Victorian Yorkshire. Something that kills. Bodies are washing up in the canal, their skin a waxy, glowing red… But just what is this crimson horror?

Madam Vastra, Jenny and Strax are despatched to investigate the mystery. Strangely reluctant to assist their enquiries is Mrs Winifred Gillyflower, matriarch of ‘Sweetville’, a seemingly utopian workers’ community.

Why do all roads lead to the team's old friends Clara and the Doctor?

Who is Mrs Gillyflower's mysterious silent partner Mr Sweet?

And will the motley gang be in time to defeat the mysterious power that threatens all the world with its poison?

A quick question to kick things off… When is a ‘Doctor Who’ novel not a ‘Doctor Who’ novel…? Well, in the case of ‘The Crimson Horror’, it’s when the Doctor barely makes an appearance and the focus is firmly set on those ‘alien Victorian sleuths’ the Paternoster Gang – Madame Vastra, Jenny Flint and Strax, their Sontaren butler. I could get a lot done if I had a Sontaren butler, but I digress ;o)

What was I going to say? Oh yes, it’s two stories for the price of one here with Jenny’s first meeting with the Doctor followed by ‘The Crimson Horror’ itself. And I’ll be frank, the Doctor barely makes an appearance in either. To be fair, that’s all the Doctor really needs to do (to make it all about him) but even so… The impression I came away with was that this wasn’t so much a ‘Doctor Who’ story as it was a story of alien detectives, solving crime, with a very familiar cameo appearance at just the right moment.

That may well be just me though, ‘your mileage’ and all that ;o) What I was left with still ended up being very entertaining though. Mark Gatiss knows his way around the setting (I’m very hesitant to use the term ‘Whoniverse’… damnmit) and clearly has the happy knack of being able to write a very immersive Victorian detective story. I’m not sure that the payoff/reveal, around Mr. Sweet, is a decent one but the time we spend getting there is definitely time well spent. Having said that, the ‘All Britannia Aptitude Contest’ was a little too obvious and clumsily executed, at least from where I was sat. A minor bump on the road but one that really could have been avoided. When we got onto the actual point of the book, things did pick up.

Is ‘The Crimson Horror’ a ‘Doctor Who’ novel though…? And am I spending too much time obsessing over this question when the book itself was actually a decent read? I’m still not sure and… probably ;o) That’s what happens when I get all obsessive and have to read every book that I happen across.

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