There are a few older books that got Audiobook releases around the 50th. Look up the Monsters Collection and the History Collection (I think that’s what they were called). Off the top of my head, I know they did Scales of Injustice, Shadows in the Glass and Human Nature.
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So I read this back in late-April 2021 via the audiobook narrated by the “voice of everything” Nick Briggs. From my GoodReads review at the time: “I really enjoyed it. Maybe it’s because I listened to the audiobook narrated by Nicholas Briggs who’s a good narrator, even if his Ninth Doctor impression is only passable (let’s face it, Jacob Dudman’s is better). The book kept me engaged all the way through and was an intriguing mystery of who’s the villain and what the truth is about some of the main characters. The finale was fun and engaging, full of action and suspense.”
I honestly don’t really remember any of it at all now. It was enjoyable at the time, but wasn’t a novel that really stuck with me over the years. There are novels I’ve read that have, this just wasn’t one of them. I still look forward to potentially reading and commenting on other books along with you all.
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I read it years ago and remember practically nothing about it so I’m enjoying listening to the audiobook this time round. Briggs is very ‘generic Northen’ but as it’s an audiobook reading (rather than an actor trying to ‘impersonate’ a Doctor for a ‘drama’) I think that’s okay. Plenty of these audiobooks are read by women and we don’t expect them to sound exactly like the Doctor.
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If I finish timewyrm in time I might listen to the audio book, but I too have read it before, just don’t really remember it to well
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A spin off thread about author, Justin Richards
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I swear a couple of times he does the Northern accent for Rose’s lines 
I was confused.
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Listened to Chapters 1-4 so far. Spoilered thoughts below:
Some interesting mysteries being set up but it’s a little plodding at the moment. There were far too many characters at the dinner party to keep track of (something I hate in a book) and more characters keep getting introduced. The revelation of Freddie’s identity will hopefully lead somewhere but, at the moment, seems a bit inconsequential because, as the Doctor and Rose say, they won’t be successful in restoring him to the throne of Russia. The Painted Lady is intriguing but the weird ‘who’s lying’ bit of Repple and Aske just got a bit confusing as to who we are supposed to believe - probably part of the point.
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Finished chapter 5 today, pretty slow going so far. Doesn’t feel like much has quite happened yet to be honest. Hoping it’ll pick up soon!
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End of Chapter 7 and I think we’ve got our first old style cliffhanger
A clockwork suit of armour advancing on the Doctor and Rose courtesy of the Painted Lady.
Chapters 6 and 7 seemed to be treading water a little and building up the slightly odd mystery of the black cat.
As I say, I remember very little of this from when I first read it so this is actually quite a nice revisit. It’s not the most thrilling of stories but it is entertaining enough.
I particularly liked the bit where the Doctor asked why ‘phonetic isn’t spelled with a F’ and Rose replied with ‘I can spell Doctor with an F’… 
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That quote made me chuckle as well!
It seems I’ve been streaming ahead of everyone’s I’m on Chapter 17. I’ll post thoughts later…
I finished the audio book last night when I didn’t have much else to do
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Chapters 8 and 9
So there was more to the cat than meets the eye and I’ve just had to pause where they’ve discovered where the multiple cats have been coming from.
One aspect Richards has obviously tried to echo is the 9th Doctor’s habit of enabling other people to be the hero - it was a big feature of his era on TV.
Still some good mysteries and I’m enjoying Brigg’s range of plummy, upper crust gentlemen.
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Put it on the quotes section of the guide for this book then 
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I will but I need to exact quote. Might have to listen to that bit again ,can you remember if it was chapter 6 or 7?
What were your thoughts? I just finished it now.
It was quite a good start to the Ninth Doctor’s book range.
Spoiler: I fell for the trick at the end, thinking Freddie was dead!
There were some moments when I thought the author didn’t get The Doctor and Rose’s characters correctly, but that’s understandable as this came out so early. Rose in particular was rather generic character, but then I guess she doesn’t have many features that really stand out apart from a little bit chavvy, and kind to people. She wasn’t kind to the cat though!
I thought the mystery was a bit convoluted and the ending dragged on a bit, but it did pull at my heartstrings in the right places. I enjoyed the Clockwork Men, and imagined they may be somehow connected to those in The Girl in the Fireplace and Deep Breath (I know they’re not). I made a new trope for Clockwork.
I’d give it 3/5!
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It’s kind of weird to me that it’s not at least partially connected to girl in the fireplace, all I could see in my head when that was brought into it was the clockwork people from that episode, at the very least I wonder if that 10th Doctor episode took some slight inspiration in that regard
And yeah, I wasn’t expecting a lot of character moments from an early book, not when they don’t really know how the characters are going to end up (though tbth I’ve never been the biggest fan of rose in the show itself so that didn’t really bother me)
3/5 is fair, decent start for a new generation of books in a new generation of Doctor who
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7 I think but not 100% sure.
DOCTOR: I’ve always wondered. Why isn’t “phonetic” spelt with an “F”?
ROSE: I can teach you how to spell “Doctor” with an “F”.
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I think I’ll join this club today. I’m currently in the middle of a Harry Potter series reread, but I’m up for a little break if that means I’ll be able to read some more Doctor Who!
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