Death in the Stars

"We will all meet at journey's end."

Writers: Bonnie Langford & Jacqueline Rayner 

Format: Novel

Released: August 2024

Series: BBC PDA 05

Featuring: Mel

Synopsis

A band of killers. Survivors with a secret. A death-defying murder mystery in space.

When young Mel's business partner, Sabalom Glitz embarks on yet another "get rick quick" scheme, it marks the start of an epic, death-defying murder-mystery in space.

After barely escaping the snares of a murderous galactic cult, Mel searches for fellow survivors in a nearby spaceship graveyard – while Glitz looks to fill his pockets. But the discovery of a spaceship with its crew in suspended animation and incredible secrets on board leaves the duo stranded with no way off.

Mel revives the crew – and then the murders start. Murders that cannot possibly have been committed by any of the crew members. In fact, there are only two realistic suspects – Glitz and Mel themselves....

Verdict

Death in the Stars was a great novel! I really enjoyed this book from start to finish as it just had a really good vibe. I love following from Dragonfire in pairing Melanie Bush up with the whacky Sabalom Glitz and the duo actually made for a fantastic tag team! Their chemistry was terrific and I was so impressed with how well the authors captured both characters in prose. Their personalities absolutely shine through which was delightful and they seemed to have a mutual understanding of each other despite being very different people. Mel was all about the carrot juice and eating healthily whereas Glitz was focused on his next scam whilst selling it as honest business. Glitz was still wanting to eat a chocolate sundae and Mel was wanting to do things by the law book, and yet somehow together they just gelled. It was really good and set the basis for the book. I enjoyed the numerous references to the Doctor and hearing of Glitz stealing a sonic screwdriver from the Third Doctor only to have it pickpocketed by the Fourth Doctor was a lovely note. It turns out The Trial of a Time Lord wasn’t Glitz’s first meeting with the Doctor after all! That’s a fun little detail. I thought the book was interesting in that it almost felt like it was split into two, with the mystery promised on the front cover not really coming until over 150 pages in. That was a tad surprising considering the book only had 102 pages to go, but it was more just an intriguing observation than a criticism. I think Mel’s abbreviation of their ship as the Tu-Two was cheesy but fun and it was nice that she and Glitz would have daily meet ups at the ice cream parlour. They did their own things but always checked in. That was nice to know. I thought the horrors of the miscommunication across generations at the start of the book was quite sad actually and when Mel was able to play a message to Hope from her now deceased father, she was devastated. Sure, the ship might one day reach Xuxion, but Hope would not be reunited with all those that had been thrown into the engine generator as fuel. When Hope learned the truth her moment of anguish was difficult to read. She was heartbroken as you would expect. Just hearing the truth of her past was enlightening and she struggled to break with years of indoctrination as the logical truth came out. It was strong stuff and her name being what was referred to in the poem of prophecy was just awful. She didn’t need to be thrown into the engines! Luckily Glitz was on hand to teleport her away with Mel and Finrae, who had dubbed himself leader by virtue of being the chosen one from Galatsnax. I thought that was pretty silly but still fun as the vending machines restocked automatically and he just happened to be standing by one when Hope’s father fixed the power systems. I thought the teleport bringing the murder mystery was good and it really did feel like a completely different adventure from there with just Hope the connecting element. This ship seemed to be heading to Ravolox which was good continuity for Mel and Glitz as they knew what had happened there, but 75 million lives were at stake. And a crew of the was being murdered. I thought the Barry Day AI was a little odd and I do think it would have been better as the Doctor as a way to get him into the story, but I can also appreciate wanting to keep the focus on Mel. She was a lot younger than we would see her in The Giggle and it was good to make use of her intelligence. She knew all about computers and go to showcase that instead of just being use for screeching screams wherever there was a threat. This story certainly did Mel justice. I appreciated little inclusions of the wider Whoniverse in mentions the likes of kronkburgers, the Graske and Slitheen which was really good and fine details like that just really add to an adventure for me. The truth regarding the murderer being the conscience machine was a little unexpected but I liked how it correlated with what happened in Hope’s father turning it off on the other ship. It was all about the children they didn’t need utmost devotion. It tied things together nicely and explained everything, and it was wonderful for Mel to really be the hero with Glitz and Hope both manifested into taking places of the murdered crew. She had to put a bit of herself into everyone through the machine and self sacrifice was big on her agenda. Bastelle kicking her out of the machine just before the end to save her was fantastic and I liked how the remaining crew wanted her to know that was what the true version was really like. Overall, a great read!

Rating: 8/10