A review by shane
Doctor Who: The Romance of Crime by Gareth Roberts

4.0

The Fourth Doctor and Romana II are very well known to me from the TV episodes. I remember Tom and Lalla so well the first time around and now get to revisit these old friends in book form. Gareth Roberts does a fantastic job here in capturing the Doctor and Romana as they find themselves embroiled in an investigation on a rocket powered asteroid called The Rock of Judgement. A humorous, run-around reminiscent of the classics that have the Doctor and co. 'running through corridors' and generally managing to engage the reader in a story that's smart and silly and everything in-between all at once. With never a dull moment(I won't count what amounts to a text-dump by the Doctor at one point in a bid to catch us all up on proceedings by 'telling' rather than 'showing') the pace keeps us on our toes and builds to a nice climax and a satisfying conclusion at the end.

Happily, the next one I've chosen to read is set directly after this one, even though it wasn't written until later in the Missing Adventure series. It's An English Way of Death and if it's only half as good as this, Ill be very, very happy.

Highly recommended.