this story, the Seventh Doctor and Ace are in London during the Blitz in WWII. The Doctor has brought Ace here at her request, and it becomes clear in the story that he hopes that a little reality as to the horror of war may help Ace find an adult response to situations that doesn't include Nitro-9. To put Ace's timeline in perspective in this story, it's set after Survival (the last episode of the tv series cancelled in 1989), so Ace is still a young woman who has had a troubled life. Her responses, as shown in the first part of the book still involve explosions and agression. It's really good to see in this book that she matures in her outlook somewhat, and I found myselfa few lines of chapter one before I was supplying the easy American drawl of a thousand private eye voice overs. A minute or so later I knew that the location was London during the blitz and that a serial killer, dubbed The Limehouse Lurker, was at work in the bomb damaged streets. "Put that damn light out," shouts a warden a few pages later in true Dad's Army fashion. By now the main supporting character is firmly established, the scene is set and I haven't yet resorted to flipping the pages to see how far I've got to read before the Doctor turns up.The combination of the private eye and the sardonic Special Branch man Mullen are as familiar as the Tardis crew. The tv series often