Albino's Dancer

Time Hunter #9

by Dale Smith

'Goodbye, little Emily.' April 1938, and a shadowy figure attends an impromptu burial in Shoreditch, London. His name is Honore Lechasseur. After a chance encounter with the mysterious Catherine Howkins, he's had advance warning that his friend Emily Blandish was going to die. But is forewarned necessarily forearmed? And just how far is he willing to go to save Emily's life? Because Honore isn't the only person taking an interest in Emily Blandish - she's come to the attention of the Albino, one of the new breed of gangsters surfacing in post-rationing London. And the only life he cares about is his own. Part mystery, part detective story, part dark fantasy, part science fiction... original adventures in time and space.

Genres: Doctor Who, Science Fiction

120 pages, Hardcover

First published August 14, 2006

Reviews

[Andrew]

I am now coming to the last few titles in the Time Hunters series and yet there are still many questions left unanswered (let alone being asked in the case of this story).

Again all the action takes place in the space of little over 100 pages so as you can imagine it does not relax or take a breather.

Now one of the interesting things here is that the story involves time travel (no surprise there even without reading the cover the series name does give a bit of a hint) however as a result the author has cleverly written the story in such a manner you could read it in a number of different orders - so much so there is a table at the back where you can read it focusing on the different characters.

Do not worry though I read the book in the order it is printed in and was still able to follow it and even enjoy it but it does hint at the fact that the author intended for this story to be enjoyed in a number of different ways.

[Chris Griffin]

Enjoyable, and nicely constructed to enable the reader to read it in order of events for different characters. If your going to do complicated time travel stories, this is the way to do it. This and Johnny Morris’s Flip-Flop are about the best attempts I can think of.

[Mole Mann]

Catherine had left Lechasseur, and by taking the belt with her she might condemned them both to death. But all she could think about was the memory of him in the darkened corridor, of her launching herself at him, desperate to escape. Catching the belt that he wore around his waist and activating it, jumping them all...
Though this is quite late into the Time Hunter series (with only two other novels following it), I feel that this is actually quite a good introduction to the series - or at least its vibes and potential. I find the non-linear time travelling narrative within this one to be one of the best within the wide world of Doctor Who spinoffs, if not within Doctor Who as a whole. I wish that more stories were written like this. It is also quite short, but uses its short lenghth perfectly. It is not too long but it does not feel too short.