Devil in the Smoke

"How can a dead body just appear inside a snowman?"

Writer: Justin Richards

Format: Novella

Released: December 2012

Printed in: Summer Falls and Other Stories

Featuring: Vastra, Jenny, Strax

Synopsis

On a cold day in December, two young boys build a snowman – and are confronted with a strange and grisly mystery. Their snowman begins to bleed... 

The search for answers to this impossible event will plunge Harry into the most hazardous – and exhilarating – adventure of his life.

Verdict

Devil in the Smoke was an excellent novella to continue my way through the Summer Falls and Other Stories collection! This was easily the best of the collection thus far and I was actually a tad surprised to find that it had been released as its own ebook prior to the airing of The Snowmen back in 2012. I have no memory of ever hearing about it which is a shame as it would have been pretty cool to read the story when it was released and experience it as a true prequel. It serves as a magnificent introduction to the world and time in which the aforementioned Christmas Special would be set whilst giving us just enough of a subtle hint regarding the threat to come. Highlight the Paternoster Gang here was just brilliant and they are a tremendous trio. I have loved their further adventures with Big Finish, but honestly I feel like they work even better in prose! Maybe that's just testament to the writing of Justin Richards here because he absolutely nails the dynamic between them all. Referring to them here as the Lizard Woman, Parlour Maid and the Troll is quite amusing but it's a pretty apt description! Strax might just be one of my all time favourite characters because he's just so wonderful ridiculous. No matter the format, he just works. He's so funny! A good Sontaran is not something that should work – especially alongside two female characters! – but he just does. He's tremendous. The humour he presented here was once again marvellous with his insistence on using heavy weapons, thinking Cockney dialect was code and accepting their retreat as regrouping. The technicalities of a war-bred species! His offering to be the subject of court marital and summary execution when failing to wholly act out the requests of Vastra in bringing Felicity was hilarious too. Her fate was not though. The story behind Harry and Jim was quite a sad one as they were only young boys building a snowman. What else would youngsters do when there's a white covering? I thought the fact a dead woman fell out of their snowman was a horrifying good image and one that I think would be superb on screen. I initially thought that this was going to be connected to the glass woman and the Great Intelligence with the use of the smoke, but they were just striking similarities. That wasn't a problem at all and whilst we didn't get a name for the smog creature that often took on the form of Able Hecklington, I liked the way it was defeated in having a covering of snow basically absorb the creature in its steam form. That was pretty effective and I like to think it would go on to conjoin with the Great Intelligence to soon do battle with the Eleventh Doctor. I thought the way that creature was presented was fantastic and the prospect of it wanting to consume the world and even the sun when whole was superb. The use of the toffee tin was really effective actually in keeping it separate and Strax was actually pretty useful there. Even Vastra admitted as such! The cauldron sequence was pretty incredible with the threat of Harry being taken down into the smoke, but once again Strax was on hand to use the weapons he oh so loves to save the day. Jim being forced into tricking Harry to getting there in the first place was a shame, and his ultimate fate was a sad one for a child! The Victorian setting was there in abundance in knowing that Harry was from a workhouse which made Jenny's offer at the end a nice touch. No Sontaran military training for the young lad! As a whole, this was a fantastic prequel whilst serving as its own story at the same time which is an impressive feat. There was so much to like. Great detective work and a terrific little mystery that was genuinely gory and interesting. A fantastic read! 

Rating: 9/10