May 28, 2025
When a psychic shriek for help nearly overwhelms the TARDIS, the Doctor and Belinda track the source to a distant planet….
A new adventure for the Doctor and Belinda is released today, on hardback and audiobook.
This original novel is written by Hannah Fergesen - a former literary agent who has represented New York Times best-selling authors and since written their own debut novel, The Infinite Miles, another time-travelling science fiction odyssey and homage to Doctor Who.
Spectral Scream is available now in hardback and audiobook - order your copy here.
Read an extract from Spectral Scream below…
The scream pierced to the very heart of Belinda’s being, shocking in its intensity. One dazed look at the Doctor told her that he felt it too, a scream so intense neither could think or speak. They slapped their hands over their ears and dropped to their knees, incapable of remaining upright under the agonising auditory onslaught.
And it just … kept … going. A howl of deep, horrible agony, a soul-shredding pain.
Belinda couldn’t have said what made her whack the Vindicator as hard as she could, except that she had been trained to take action in a crisis, and it was the first action that came to mind. Luckily, it must have been the right call because the scream cut off abruptly. Both of their bodies slumped, utterly exhausted, the horrible aftershocks of the sound still echoing inside her mind.
‘What the hell was that?’ she finally managed to say. She felt utterly winded, like she’d just run a marathon without any training.
‘There’s a better question,’ the Doctor replied, just as breathless.
‘Which is?’
He pointed at the never-ending dance party, where the disco raged on unaffected, the dancers all blithely unaware of what the Doctor and Belinda had just endured. She caught a glimpse of her neighbour’s lookalike, the expression on the older woman’s face a disturbing glower, but then Belinda blinked, and the woman was gone.
Belinda turned her attention to the Doctor. ‘But how is that possible? They must have heard it too. That might have been the loudest scream I’ve ever heard.’
‘And yet, somehow, it was a scream only the two of us could hear.’ He paused. ‘A telepathic scream?’
And there it was, that expression she was beginning to know well: the lightbulb moment when the Doctor realised something desperately important. ‘Of course. It isn’t a magnetic field blocking the Vindicator signal. It’s a psychic one.’
‘What are you on about?’
The Doctor sprang into action, gathering the Vindicator in his arms. ‘There’s a field of psychic energy blocking the signal. When I dialled up the power, the Vindicator pierced that psychic field, just enough to let a different signal through from the other side, and into our minds.’
‘Not sure I’d call it a signal,’ said Belinda. ‘I’ve heard some screams of pain in my time – that’s what I heard just now.’
The Doctor nodded. ‘I reckon you’re right about that. The TARDIS must be helping it through.’ He pushed the door to the police box open and disappeared inside. ‘The translation circuit. I think the signal has been hijacked. When our Vindicator signal punctured the psychic field of some far-off planet, another telepathic signal was able to escape through that puncture and hitch a ride on the signal the TARDIS feeds into our brains.’
Belinda joined him at the console. ‘And that allowed us to hear the scream inside our minds. Like a distress call.’
‘Totally.’
‘So who’s in distress?’
The Doctor leaned towards her, lowering his voice conspiratorially. ‘That’s asking the million-dollar question, isn’t it?’
Want to find out what happens next? Order Spectral Scream now, on hardback and audiobook - order your copy here.
