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
New Orleans.

New England.

PREPARATORY READING
None.

CONTINUITY REFERENCES
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 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.

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).

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

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

• 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"

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

• The Doctor might change coats for the epilogue, or Rust might be colour-blind.

FEATURED ALIEN RACES
Various magical beings, inhabiting human bodies

FEATURED LOCATIONS
New Orleans, early twenty-first century

New England

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.