Review: Forever Autumn

It's Halloween in the New England town of Blackwood Falls, and something's up. When a group of young boys uncover a mysterious old book at the foot of a tree, and spooky green mist begins to swirl around everything, it becomes clear that a long-dormant alien presence is about to become a very real threat to the residents. And, as usual, the Doctor and Martha are along for the ride, striving to save the day.

As the (stunningly beautiful) cover suggests, Forever Autumn is a particularly chilling novel. Packed full of tension, with good-sized dollops of traditionally scary imagery - and pumpkins - the entire novel has a certain darkness and oppressiveness to it, which is fantastic.

Despite this, the Doctor remains his reassuringly-upbeat self - offering up a typically incongruous "You're definitely off my Christmas card list" when immobilised by a frightening alien threat - and Martha is also written well.

Compared to other New Series novels, the cast of supporting characters are astonishingly well-drawn. Right from the outset, Morris populates the story with characters that are stereotypical enough to make them instantly-indentifiable, but individual and defined enough to make them unique and refreshing - any possibility of cliches creeping in is dispelled by the Doctor's hilarious "We'll take it as read that you've got issues, that no-one understands you and that you're confused about your sexuality", directed at a teenager.

The eerie tone and dark mood of the novel gradually accumulate, growing towards a climactic conclusion that moves perhaps at too fast a pace, even coming across as clumsy. And, after spending so long with such a fantastic gang of original characters, it's a shame that only a few pages are spent on the aftermath of the story before the Doctor and Martha depart.

All in all, Forever Autumn is another satisfying novel, successfully managing to break away from the other books in the series by adopting a refreshingly different tone and setting. I have my fingers crossed (in vain, probably) that this isn't the Doctor's last visit to Blackwood Falls.