A Twelfth Doctor New Series Adventures novel set within the events of Series 8 of Doctor Who.
The Doctor and Clara Oswald have returned to Victorian London to enjoy one of the Crystal Carnivals, but strange doings are afoot that are already being investigated by their friends the Paternoster Gang. A gentleman alone in his locked study was somehow stabbed to death just as he was writing a letter to Madame Vastra — asking her to investigate the Carnival of Curiosities that has set up shop after attending a distressing performance by a shadow puppet artist. A friend of Strax, a belligerent boxer who had fallen on hard times, has also been mysteriously killed having the life literally sucked out of him. As they, Jenny Flint, and the Doctor and Clara begin to investigate the Carnival of Curiosities, they will come up against three people known to their employer, industrialist Orestes Milton, only as Silhouette, Empath, and Affinity. These three have been "gifted" remarkable, dangerous abilities that are not of this Earth, and are serving to help Milton create a weapon that could wipe it out.
Tropes:
- Arms Dealer: Milton is a weapons dealer who specialises in Human Weapons.
- Bond Villain Stupidity: Zigzagged. Milton is Genre Savvy enough to realize that he won't be able to use the Doctor, and he's present for his first attempt to kill him. After that, however, he just leaves his minions to deal with the Doctor and friends without him, which ultimately proves to be his fatal mistake.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: The distinctive red gem each of Milton's minions wears is a device that allows him to brainwash them into serving him and killing others.
- Circus of Fear: The Carnival of Curiosities has wonders to display, but its performers are in the employ of an evil mastermind, and those who come to close to realizing the truth are killed. It ends up saving London in the end, with help from the Doctor and Strax.
- Empathic Shapeshifter: One of the "living weapons" is a shapeshifter who duplicates a person's self-image, which usually gets them to trust him. He gets very confused dealing with the Doctor, who has twelve self-images and doesn't really like any of them.
- Empathic Weapon: Empath, who is an Emotion Eater who can not only suck the life out of people but disgorge the emotions he consumes — anger in particular.
- Faux Affably Evil: Orestes Milton.
- Hate Plague: Milton's plan is to release the collected anger of Empath's victims into the skies of London, which will cause this to spread and grow amongst its people, driving them to destroy one another. This is all just a demonstration for prospective buyers of his technology. The Doctor manages to counteract it by first creating a pocket of resistance with a circus, and then getting Empath to collect the happiness from the circus audience and releasing it into the rest of the city.
- Human Weapon: Milton is an Arms Dealer who creates Human Weapons, enhancing their talents to become Psychic Powers and then mind-controlling them through Power Crystals. His ultimate weapon is turning a man who was mildly empathic into an Emotion Bomb capable of unleashing a Hate Plague on London.
