This is a Doctor Who story featuring the Silurian Madam Vastra (aka The Great Detective), her wife Jenny Flint (English parlourmaid, although the wife status is not mentioned in this book… that's from the TV series), and their manservant Strax (a Sontaran). It's set in Victorian London and is highly reminiscent of the Christmas special "The Snowmen", although that could just be because both stories are set in Victorian London and it's winter. Overall, this is the sort of story that I like to have as light entertainment. The writing is somewhat flowery, desirous of emulating a Victorian prose style, but it was made more bearable by Dan Starkey's narration. Starkey plays Strax on Doctor Who, and Strax always cracks me up with his pronouncements. He did a decent job with the rest of the voices, although sometimes Jenny and the little boy Harry sounded a bit similar because they both had Cockney-type accents. Still, this made for an enjoyable listen, and I would be happy to partake of further adventures involving this detective crew. ( )

Entertaining diversion, with a good story that is well written by the ever-reliable Richards. Due to its length I'm guessing, the story is short on characterization for Vastra and Jenny. We do have allot of silly Strax humor as per the show. I was hoping for a less humor, but Strax is as foolish here as in the series. The ending in the Crystal Palace is a little drawn out and once again only teases us with the warrior side of Vastra. ( )

This is a fun little read for any Whovian, especially those that are fans of the Paternoster crew. Well-paced and well-written, it seems like Richards did a fine job characterizing Madame Vastra, Jenny, and Strax (especially Strax - Sontar-Ha!). I switch between Amazon's Whispersync and ebook during the day; the narrator of the audio portion is Dan Starkey (AKA Strax from Doctor Who) and he does a wonderful job. ( )

This is a cute detective tale for the Doctor Who fan, particularly the Doctor Who fan who watched the 2012 Christmas Episode, "The Snowman." The point of this story was not to provide greater insight into Madame Vastra's relationship with Jenny or how she became the "Great Detective" nor to discover more about Strax's arrival in Victorian England. It is simply a fun mystery with some currently popular Whovian characters involved. It is also an ominous prelude to the possible power of Snow (again a reference to the Great Intelligence's role in the 2012 Christmas Episode).

A good one-sitting read for me! ( )

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2046702.html

Justin Richards seems to be on form these days; this is another tie-in e-book, intended as a prequel to The Snowmen (though as far as I could tell it was not available outside UKania until after the broadcast), a tale of Madame Vastra, Jenny and Strax battling a smoke monster with the assistance of a small boy as viewpoint character. It is a pastiche of Victorian children's stories with a nod to Leon Garfield (though his Devil-in-the-Fog was set a hundred years earlier), spooky and enjoyable. When we first met Vastra and Jenny, fandom cried out en masse for spinoff stories about them, and I think this and James Goss's piece for last year's Brilliant Book shows that fandom was right. ( )