September Books 8) The Blood Cell, by James Goss

One of four, count them, four Doctor Who books published this month, and one of the first three to feature the Twelfth Doctor, but I’m sorry to say that my favourite New Who writer, James Goss, slightly disappointed me here. It’s a decent enough story about a prison governor who is more than he seems, and whose most troublesome prisoner is of course the Doctor; poor Clara (who looks set to be the least-novelised of New Who companions) gets only a couple of scenes. I felt that Goss was stepping down his usual intense descriptive grittiness in expectation of a younger readership than his previous books may have had, and ends up pulling his punches.