BAD THERAPY

AN ORIGINAL DOCTOR WHO NOVEL

'We're not like you - we can't be whole on our own.'

Seeking respite after the traumatic events in the thirtieth century, the Doctor and Chris travel to 1950's London.  But all is not well in bohemian Soho: racist attacks shatter the peace; gangs struggle for territory; and a bloodthirsty driverless cab stalks the night.

While Chris enjoys himself at the mysterious and exclusive Tropics club, the Doctor investigates a series of ritualistic murders with an uncommon link - the victims all have no past.  Meanwhile, a West End gangster is planning to clean up the town, apparently with the help of the Devil himself.  And, in the quiet corridors of an abandoned mental hospital, an enigmatic psychiatrist is conducting some very bad therapy indeed.

As the stakes are raised, healing turns to killing, old friends appear in the strangest places - and even toys can have a sinister purpose.

DOCTOR WHO

MATTHEW JONES wrote 'The Nine-Day Queen' for Doctor Who short story collection Decalog 2.  He also writes a regular column, 'Fluid Links', for Marvel's Doctor Who Magazine.  He lives in east London and this is his first novel.

'You're on your own, Bernice.'

Bernice Summerfield has drawn the short straw. Not for her the pleasures of intergalactic conferences and highbrow lecture tours. Oh no. She's forced to take two overlooked freshers on their very first dig. And just when it seems things can't get any worse, her no-good ex-husband Jason turns up, claiming that he is in deadly danger. Benny finally begins to believe his wild claims, but unfortunately only after he has been kidnapped from his hotel room.

Feeling guilty, she sets out to rescue him. Well, let's face it, no one else is going to. Her only clue is a dusty artefact that Jason claimed was part of an ancient and powerful weapon. But Professor Bernice Summerfield PhD knows that's just silly nonsense. She's been an archaeologist long enough to know that lost alien civilisations do not leave their most powerful weapons lying around for any nutter to find. Do they?

Once again Benny is all that stands between Jason and his own mistakes, as she tries to prevent the wrong people acquiring this terrible and somewhat unlikely weapon - a weapon rumoured to have powers beyond the sun.

Ten Stories - Seven Doctors - No Fixed Abode

Imaginatively entitled DECALOG 2, this is the second collection of Doctor Who short fiction.  And this time the theme is the Doctor's home - inasmuch as a peripatetic Time Lord can be said to have a home.

As before, the editors have gathered a galaxy of star writers to illuminate the theme.  Many of the contributors will be well known to the readers of the New Adventures and the Missing Adventures series of novels: Daniel Blythe, Paul Cornell, Andy Lane, David McIntee and Gareth Roberts are prolific Doctor Who authors.  And as before this volume also includes contributions from new writers.

In these stories, among many other unexpected occurrences, the Doctor meets a pretender to the English throne, Nyssa meets a ghost, Zoe gets lost in time, Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart is dismissed from UNIT, and K-9 is in electrifying form.  And the Kandyman is on Tara in a verse play in iambic pentameters.