August 23, 2024
A murder mystery in the stars awaits Mel Bush, in this exciting new release from BBC Books.
Doctor Who: Death in the Stars is the debut novel from star of stage and screen and Doctor Who alum Bonnie Langford. Written with Jacqueline Rayner, the adventure follows Bonnie's character Mel Bush on one of her own adventures between departing the Seventh Doctor's TARDIS in Dragonfire and reuniting with the Fourteenth Doctor in The Giggle.
Read an exclusive extract from Death in the Stars below...
Get your copy of Doctor Who: Death in the Stars in hardback or audiobook here.
'Zephonium, zeus plugs, zodiac spork … and a carrot.’ Melanie Jane Bush put the carrot in her pocket and out of her mind and crossed off the last item on her electro-clipboard. It had taken several months, but she had finally completed the inventory of the Nosferatu II. She loved having a project in hand, and each time she ticked off a step along the way it released as many endorphins as completing an aerobics workout. As she went off to find lunch, she was smiling a very satisfied smile.
Sabalom Glitz was also smiling when Mel joined him in the ship’s ice-cream parlour, a beatific, beaming smile of such bliss that she knew he was hiding something. It was probably only that he had hastily substituted the smoothie he was now sipping for a double-chocolate super-sundae - but with Glitz you never quite knew. He was so cheerfully amoral that he could be planning a planet-selling scam or a multi-galaxy jewel heist and he’d have that exact same look of angelic innocence on his face.
Mel knew she wouldn’t change him, not at the deepest, fundamental level at least. She wasn’t even going to try. But she remained hopeful – no, more than that – she was convinced that she could channel his criminal tendencies towards something more worthwhile. She herself was quite painfully law-abiding; that was as much an immutable part of her as her flaming red hair. But she’d realised during her time with time-travelling righter-of-wrongs the Doctor that sometimes rules had to be disobeyed in order for good to be done.
Mel’s moral compass would always point in the right direction, and Glitz would help her trample over any metaphorical Keep off the Grass signs in order to follow it. Together, they were going to be – eventually – unstoppable.
‘Get you anything, Mel? Cottage cheese? Shimaleaf salad? A carrot or two?’
‘I rather fancied a double-chocolate super-sundae,’ she said, matching Glitz’s own angelic smile. ‘I deserve a treat for finishing the inventory and I think there’s one left in the freezer …’ She laughed as his grin gave way to awkwardness and added, ‘Only joking!’
Mel went behind the counter and started to cut up some fruit, as Glitz produced the half-eaten (and now half-melted) ice-cream dish from under the table and recommenced his lunch.
Glitz had lost his previous ship, the Nosferatu (taken by one of Glitz’s creditors, then blown to smithereens) and his previous ship’s crew (sold to the same creditor for seventeen crowns each, after a failed mutiny). Luckily it had turned out that the shopping centre owned by Kane, the creditor in question, was really a starflight photon-driven spaceshipand, following Kane’s demise, Glitz appropriated it as his own. With a new ship (rechristened the Nosferatu II) and a new crew (Mel), it was soon back to business as usual for Glitz – more or less.
Keeping what had been Iceworld’s ice-cream parlour in place wasn’t something Glitz and Mel had discussed, but it was soon clear that neither of them had any great desire to change it. Not for sentimental reasons – Mel was too practical and Glitz too self-centred for that – but just because they both found it a handy meeting place. Now it was the heart of the ship: a combination of canteen, rec room and lounge, and they shared a meal or two there most days. It had taken time, but they’d fallen into a rhythm of cohabitation, becoming used to each other’s ways and…
Mel suddenly realised that in their earliest days eating together on the Nosferatu II, Glitz hadn’t thought twice about tucking into a triple-decker kronkburger in front of her, followed by a fudgsicle or three, all washed down with a bananaberry milkshake with extra whipped cream. But now here he was acting all coy over a mere ice-cream sundae! Was he feeling guilty for the way he generally mistreated his body? She might not be trying to change Glitz (too much), but if he wanted to change himself – well, that was certainly gratifying.
Get your copy of Doctor Who: Death in the Stars in hardback or audiobook here.