Shroud of Sorrow (novel)

Shroud of Sorrow was one of three Eleventh Doctor novels published in April 2013 and the first to feature Clara Oswald.

Publisher's summary
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
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

 * Eleventh Doctor
 * Clara Oswald
 * Mae Callon
 * Reg Cranfield
 * Warren Skeet
 * The Shroud
 * Penelope Holroyde
 * Ben Parsons
 * Jim
 * Mairi Ellison
 * Ruby
 * Andrew Ross
 * Sammy
 * Edith Thomas
 * Mr Parsons
 * Jane
 * Michael Green
 * Peggy
 * Private Wright
 * Sergeant Scott
 * General Harley B. West
 * Captain Adam Keating
 * Flip Flop
 * Wobblebottom
 * Jorge
 * Dolfini
 * Orma
 * Jaz
 * Bev Sanford
 * Shirley
 * Cathy
 * Pinky Bradford

Individuals imitated by the Shroud

 * Betty Callon
 * Jock
 * Tyler
 * Sophie
 * Betty
 * Reuben
 * Tess
 * Astrid Peth

Audio release

 * An audiobook version of the story, read by Frances Barber, was released by AudioGO, with a play time of 5h, 41min.

Continuity

 * Just before using the Once More With Feeling on himself, the Doctor reassures Clara by saying that it's "as easy as falling off a mushroom on Mechanus". (TV: The Chase)
 * The Doctor previously visited Dallas during JFK's assassination, albeit in his ninth incarnation. (TV: Rose)
 * An enormous amount of previous companions and their departures are shown as the Doctor uses the Once More With Feeling on himself, including Susan Foreman (TV: The Dalek Invasion of Earth), Zoe Heriot, Jamie McCrimmon (TV: The War Games), Jo Grant (TV: The Green Death), Sarah Jane Smith (TV: The Hand of Fear), Adric (TV: Earthshock), Peri Brown (TV: Mindwarp), Mel (TV: Dragonfire), Grace Holloway (TV: Doctor Who), Jack Harkness (TV: The Parting of the Ways), Astrid Peth (TV: Voyage of the Damned), Amy Pond, Rory Williams (TV: The Angels Take Manhattan), and Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart (whose death was mentioned in TV: The Wedding of River Song). Several more characters are shown and mentioned as well, including David Campbell (TV: The Dalek Invasion of Earth), Clifford Jones (TV: The Green Death), Nyssa, Tegan Jovanka (TV: Earthshock), Yrcanos, Kiv (TV: Mindwarp), Rose Tyler (TV: The Parting of the Ways), River Song (TV: Forest of the Dead), and John Benton, Liz Shaw, Mike Yates, Jo Grant, the Second Doctor, the Third Doctor, the Sixth Doctor, the Seventh Doctor, and the Ninth Doctor.
 * The Doctor uses Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart's name, but changes his rank to Colonel. The Brigadier was a Colonel when the Second Doctor first met him (TV: The Web of Fear), with another character noting that, at this time, the real Lethbridge-Stewart is on manoeuvres in Salisbury Plains.
 * The Doctor mentions his cheese-making degree. (TV: The God Complex)
 * The Doctor keeps a satsuma in his pocket; his previous incarnation had come across someone else who did this. (TV: The Christmas Invasion)
 * At the Brigadier's funeral, Benton commands the UNIT soldiers, "Five rounds rapid!", which is what the Brigadier said to Jenkins in TV: The Daemons.
 * The Doctor speaks Baby. (TV: The Lodger, Closing Time)
 * The Doctor mentions the Roswell crash. (TV: Dreamland)
 * The Doctor refers to Clara hurting the TARDIS' feelings. While trying to enter the TARDIS at Caliburn House in 1974, the time machine refuses to allow her inside. (TV: Hide)
 * The Doctor mentions briefly spending time in Bedlam, and also meeting Peter Streete. (TV: The Shakespeare Code)
 * The Doctor rediscovers his recorder in his pocket and plays Three Blind Mice. (TV: The Power of the Daleks)