Edinburgh in 1759, and as Benjamin Franklin visits the old world on behalf of the disgruntled colonials, the anatomists are at work in unusual ways.

The Many Hands does nothing to shake off the feeling that too many of the Doctor Who novel range are formulaic, with a dash of celebrity historical and a fusion of The Beast With Five Fingers with the bodysnatching motif that’s inevitable for 18th Century Edinburgh doing nothing to disguise the familiarity of the way Martha and the Doctor run around dodging Humans until they find some monsters to run away from.

What does boost it is the realism of the setting, with the streets depicted familiar to anyone who’s visited Edinburgh’s Old Town, allowing Dale Smith to create a more satisfying atmosphere within which to play out the familiar tropes than many - and he gets bonus points for jumping straight into the plot, with the Doctor battling a zombie atop an out-of-control stage-coach on the first page.

Three S (out of Five)
Anthony Brown