REVIEW: Doctor Who: Silhouette by Justin Richards (Novel)

Madame Vastra, the Docotr, Jenny, and Strax in Justin Richards’ Doctor Who: Silhouette

(Credit: BBC Books)

We still have a few months before Doctor Who returns to the airwaves, but if you’re hungry for more adventures with the Twelfth Doctor and Clara, you do have options. There’s Titan’s ongoing Twelfth Doctor comic book, and there’s a trio of original novels that were released last fall — including the one I just concluded, Doctor Who: Silhouette by Justin Richards.

Before I dive in to my review, let me share the publisher’s summary to give you an idea of what to expect:

"“Vastra and Strax and Jenny? Oh no, we don’t need to bother them. Trust me.”Marlowe Hapworth is found dead in his locked study, killed by an unknown assailant. This is a case for the Great Detective, Madame Vastra.Rick Bellamy, bare-knuckle boxer, has the life drawn out of him by a figure dressed as an undertaker. This angers Strax the Sontaran.The Carnival of Curiosities, a collection of bizarre and fascinating sideshows and performers. This is where Jenny Flint looks for answers.How are these things connected? And what does Orestes Milton, rich industrialist, have to do with it all? This is wherethe Doctor and Clara come in. The Doctor and his friends find themselves thrust into a world where nothing and no one are what they seem. Can they unravel the truth before the most dangerous weapon ever developed is unleashed on London?"

One of my chief complaints about the Steven Moffat era of Doctor Who is the over-reliance on Victorian London. With all of time and space to explore, Moffat has had the Doctor return to this time period over and over again. Even Trenzalore, where the Eleventh Doctor spent his final 900 years, was styled to resemble a never-aging Victorian village.

For this reason, I was reluctant to read Silhouette. For as much as I believe the Paternoster Gang (Vastra, Jenny, and Strax) deserve a Big Finish spin-off, I have grown tired of their frequent appearances on Doctor Who. Thankfully, my misgivings about the book were soon proven to be false.

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Silhouette is a fantastic Doctor Who adventure. Richards, a long-time Doctor Who author, perfectly captures the Twelfth Doctor, despite the fact this book was written before Series 8 even premiered. I could hear and see Peter Capaldi in every scene with the Doctor, and the same goes for Clara, Vastra, Jenny, and Strax.

Speaking of the Paternosters, Silhouette is further proof that these three truly do deserve a spin-off. Much of the book is spent with the Paternoster Gang, specifically Jenny and Strax, and their adventures are every bit as captivating and entertaining as the moments with the Doctor and Clara. It’s especially fun seeing Strax out on his own, investigating the death of his drinking buddy. Per usual, Strax gets the best lines, too, including this attempt at a Sherlock Holmes quote: “Once one has eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must also be eliminated.”

As for the plot itself, it unfolds cleverly if not a little slowly in spots, with a cadre of compelling villains who would be right at home on our television screens. I don’t want to give too much away, but eventually an evil plan is put into motion that is not unlike the one recently featured in Kingsman: The Secret Service (my favorite film of the year so far, by the way), and though there are a few logistical leaps, it’s all pretty frightening, with a rewarding conclusion.

Silhouette is a breezy read at 256 pages and fairly large type, though I confess it took me more than a month to finish due to my limited free time these days. All said, it clocks in at around the same length as an average Doctor Who episode, given the extra exposition and other requirements that a novel entails. And that’s probably the highest praise I can give Silhouette: it feels like a missing episode from Series 8, and a rather good one at that (definitely better than most of the episodes we did get).

Three Twelfth Doctor books were released in September 2014.

(Credit: BBC Books)

There were two other Twelfth Doctor books released alongside Silhouette last fall: The Blood Cell and The Crawling Terror. I attempted The Blood Cell when it was first released, but it didn’t engage me, and I put it aside; though I’m planning to give it another go sometime soon. In the meantime, after thoroughly enjoying Silhouette, I intend to pick up The Crawling Terror this weekend. And, don’t forget, there are three more Twelfth Doctor books set for release this September.

Have you read Doctor Who: Silhouette? What did you think? Sound off in the comments below!

Next: Doctor Who: The Great Canon Debate

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