But even knowing this, I had no all-consuming desire to commit words to paper. I’m an action gal, not a pen-pusher. I wrote my first book just so all of time and space wouldn’t get ripped apart – the book already existed, you see, so not to write it would be a paradox. Melody Malone: Private Detective in Old New York Town was me telling the story of events I’d lived through – the time when the Doctor lost my mother and father for ever. The decision to give myself a hardboiled alter ego was therefore dreamed up somewhere within the paradox, both made by me and not made by me simultaneously. I liked it, though. I liked Melody Malone. She had her flaws, of course, but then don’t we all?Great piece of spinoff writing, with Alex Kingston's name on the cover but Jac Rayner's on the inside, and very true to the spirit of the character of River Song; lots of side notes to the TV stories, but also a reasonably standalone plot which follows several timelines and parallel versions of River Song and her alter ego Melody Malone simultaneously, and manages to keep them all in balance. Lots of action and snappy dialogue. Fun stuff. You can get it here.
