Veronica Britton: Chronic Detective: Episode One: A Wounded City

by Niall Boyce

The first instalment - Veronica Britton is a Victorian private detective who specialises in tricky situations occurring in both time and space. Navigating the corridors connecting the time zones of London, she uncovers a series of mysteries adding up to one shocking truth that could spell the end of the city she loves - and then the world.

Genres: Science Fiction

120 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 27, 2011

About the author

N.P. Boyce is a writer and editor based in London. He’s previously published short stories in magazines including Litro and Dark Horizons, and with Big Finish’s Doctor Who and Bernice Summerfield ranges. He has also provided non-fiction material for Classic Doctor Who DVDs. Other related work includes journal articles on artists such as the cartoonist Ronald Searle and the Victorian painter Richard Dadd.

Reviews

[Peter Bradley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Veronica Britton - Chronic Detective by N.P. Boyce

Please give a helpful vote to my Amazon review - https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-re...

I read the Amazon digital version of this, which covered the first couple of chapters of the complete book. In those chapters, we were introduced to Veronica Britton, a woman living in late 19th century London, with all the social strictures and restrictive clothing that entails. It seems that there are a number of well-mapped worm-holes through time that the enterprising can use for illegal purposes. Miss Britton is a detective employed by an agency that works against such malevolent use of the phenomenon.

It was a short and fairly entertaining introduction. Unfortunately, it seems that the story has been pulled from the digital catalogue and that the author has not published the further chapters in story format.

[Lady Entropy · Rating 4 out of 5]

For some reason, Veronica's original Book (the physical copy) was divided in 4 bits\4 novelettes for the ebook edition (which can't be found anymore, except as audiobook. Why? Go figure).

The author wrote a lot for Doctor Who, and the love for adventures in time shows. And actually is quite good -- as a stand alone book it deserves more of a 3 star because it leaves a lot of things open, but since this is the first of a complete series, I'm giving it a pass. The book does something wonderfully - a female protagonist (with a female sidekick). It doesn't bother spending time exploring her sexuality, her romance or her appearance\taste for clothes. It just... present her and lets her do her job. Whenever it lingers on her clothes it does because it's meaningful for the story (what clothes to wear in another time periods. And instead of having a huge wardrobe, she does the smart thing and actually had a very simple and neutral dress made that won't draw too much attention no matter when it's being worn).

So yeah, definitely reading the next books!