The novel “Beast of Fang Rock” by Andy Frankham-Allen was published for the first time in 2015.
The island of Fang Rock has been the center of legends for many years due to alleged sightings of a monstrous creature and the mysterious deaths of a group of people in the lighthouse in 1902. In 1955, the lighthouse was closed, but after being renovated is ready to be put back into service. A group of students arrived on the island to celebrate the event, but are faced with a ghost and a shooting star.
Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart suspects alien activity behind the strange sightings reported on Fang Rock Island and intends to investigate. Anne Travers receives a letter left to the family’s law firm from Archibald Goff, an ancestor of hers who visited Fang Rock nearly a century and a half earlier, yet the letter is addressed to Anne, mentioned by name.
The Lethbridge-Stewart series tells the adventures of the character who became famous in the “Doctor Who” TV show when he works without the Doctor. The stories start from the period immediately following the debut of Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart in the TV show and then extend the period covered. These stories include some characters that appeared in the TV show, some invented for other productions connected to it, and others that were created specifically for these novels.
Anne Travers appeared in “Doctor Who” in the serial “The Web of Fear” in which she and her father help the Second Doctor repel an attack by the Great Intelligence. In various novels connected to the show, her personal story is developed and this also happens in “Beast of Fang Rock”, in which she’s a protagonist and other characters are her ancestors. Their presence involves Anne in the mystery linked to the island of Fang Rock and its lighthouse, and consequently to another serial, “Horror of Fang Rock“. For this reason, the preface to this novel was written by actress Louise Jameson, who played Leela in that serial.
The various legends related to Fang Rock show that they have a grain of truth after the investigation that begins following the appearance of a ghost. Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart is in a period of his life in which he has accepted the existence of aliens and starts recognizing the signs of their activity. The collaboration with Anne Travers comes once again after the woman is given a letter written more than a century ago by an ancestor who knew her name well before she was born.
The novel’s plot is almost a game that contains constant references to the connections between Fang Rock, Anne Travers’s family, and the mysteries surrounding the island. For this reason, the pace tends to be slow and especially in the first part there’s a lot of conversation and little action.
The fun comes with the many references to “Doctor Who” and the story of the protagonists extended in the novels linked to the show. The Doctor is mentioned several times, but his existence is a secret so the few who know him refer to him as the “cosmic hobo”. Honestly, sometimes all those references weigh down the novel a bit, but overall they seem like a positive element to me.
“Beast of Fang Rock” doesn’t contain much action, which is mainly present in its final part, where there are also some answers to the various mysteries introduced in the initial part. This is one of the first novels in the Lethbridge-Stewart series and is useful to develop the character of Anne Travers, but is above all an investigation on various mysteries that is developed slowly. It includes a lot of dialogue and a certain tendency towards exposition, so it may appeal to readers who appreciate the homages to the classic “Doctor Who” series and are interested in this series of novels.
