This is another welcome manifestation of the new BBC policy of commissioning Doctor Who books from authors who are well known outside the sub-genre. Colgan is the author of a dozen or more chick-lit novels (I think I actually have read her first, Amanda’s Wedding), but here she has served up a tense and well-written story of Eleven-on-his-own landing in the tenth century in the north of what we now call Scotland, and encountering a fiery alien menace as well as Vikings. There are some brilliantly vivid descriptive passages and some nice character moments for the Doctor, as well as a decently handled romantic subplot which is not allowed to take over the story. In general the new run of Who books by other authors is proving pretty successful.