Shroud of Sorrow (novel)

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Shroud of Sorrow was the fifty-fourth novel in the BBC New Series Adventures series. It was written by Tommy Donbavand and featured the Eleventh Doctor and Clara Oswald.

Publisher's summary[[edit] | edit source]

23 November 1963

It is the day after John F. Kennedy's assassination and the faces of the dead are everywhere. PC Reg Cranfield sees his late father in the mists along Totter's Lane. Reporter Mae Callon sees her grandmother in a coffee stain on her desk. FBI Special Agent Warren Skeet finds his long-dead partner staring back at him from raindrops on a window pane.

The faces begin to talk and scream and push through into our world as the alien Shroud begins to feast on the grief of a world in mourning. Can the Eleventh Doctor dig deep enough into his own sorrow to save mankind?

Plot[[edit] | edit source]

After Clara and the Doctor help a ship to fly away from a world covered in a vast, bubble bath filled liquid, they are entailed in an adventure that involves them thwarting an alien's plot to send the whole world into grief. They end up meeting a news reporter and an FBI agent on 23 November 1963, after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, who, along with an army of clowns, help the Doctor to stop the Shroud from draining the world full of happiness.

Characters[[edit] | edit source]

Individuals imitated by the Shroud[[edit] | edit source]

Worldbuilding[[edit] | edit source]

Foods and Beverages[[edit] | edit source]

  • The Doctor has a carrot in his pocket.

Notes[[edit] | edit source]

  • Of the three novels released in April 2013, this is the only one to feature Clara Oswald and marks her literary debut. It is also, to date, the only full-length Eleventh Doctor novel to feature her.
  • At the time of its release, this was the only piece of spin-off fiction confirmed to feature Clara, as neither the Doctor Who Magazine nor Doctor Who Adventures comic strips, nor AudioGO talking books line had announced any upcoming stories featuring the companion.
  • The novel is set on and around 23rd November, 1963, the day Doctor Who debuted, and revisits Totter's Lane. A meta reference to this takes place when Doctor notes that it's Saturday teatime in Britain and "the fun is about to begin." Published in the 50th anniversary year, this is the only original novel published that year to have an explicit tie to the milestone. However, its sibling releases, Plague of the Cybermen and The Dalek Generation, released on the same day also, contain brief (and possibly coincidental) references to the anniversary: the former mentions Karn ahead of the premier of The Night of the Doctor, while the latter ends with the Doctor declaring "No more".
  • A character in this book, Reg Cranfield, is a policeman patrolling Totter's Lane, and is named for the actor who played the policeman at the beginning of "An Unearthly Child".
  • The wormhole in this story is described as unique; there was a tunnel that needed to be traversed, unlike other wormholes that were instantaneous, there was breathable air, it had a solid area to walk across (though it was described as uneven), it resembled a "dead" Time Vortex, and had the bodies of the Shroud's previous victims spread across its walls. The Doctor mentions that the bodies greatly resembled the bodies of Pompeii. (TV: The Fires of Pompeii, AUDIO: The Fires of Vulcan) People that travel across the wormhole also have a chance of experiencing a mental jump and going through what one of the victims went through before their death.
  • Various incarnations of the Doctor attended the Brigadier's funeral. Paragraphs of the book (without name) refer to the Second, Third, Sixth, Seventh and Ninth Doctor being present during the event, and the First Doctor once mentions that all of his incarnations were present at the funeral and behaved themselves, although some arguing did occur at the wake. (PROSE: The Gift) The Eleventh Doctor is made aware of the Brigadier's death in The Wedding of River Song, however the Seventh Doctor appeared to be aware of the circumstances in Battlefield.
  • This was chronologically the last BBC New Series Adventures novel to date to feature the Eleventh Doctor, the other two novels released at the same time taking place prior to Clara becoming a companion. (A later release, Tales of Trenzalore was a short story collection, not a novel.)

Continuity[[edit] | edit source]

Editions published outside Britain[[edit] | edit source]

  • Published in the USA by Broadway Books in 2013 as a paperback edition.
  • Published in the Czech Republic by Jota in 2014 as a hardback edition.
  • Published in Brazil by Suma de Letras in 2015 as a paperback edition.
  • Published in China by New Star Press in 2019 as a paperback edition.

Audiobook[[edit] | edit source]

External links[[edit] | edit source]