Melody Malone: Private Detective in Old New York Town

Melody Malone: Private Detective in Old New York Town was a memoir posing as a pulp detective detective novel.

The book centers on an investigation into Weeping Angels in New York City by hotshot female private detective, Melody Malone. In reality, Melody is time-travelling archaeology professor River Song (née Melody Pond, f/k/a Mels) from the 52nd century, who areas of expertise include the Angels and The Doctor.

Melody describes herself as having "ice in her heart, a kiss on her lips, and a vulnerable side which she [kept] well hidden." Her "lipstick was combat ready" and she "pack[ed] cleavage that could fell an ox at twenty feet,"

Chapter 1 of the book, "The Dying Detective", presumably tells the story of Sam Garner.

The narrative comprising the book's true purpose began in chapter 7, "The Skinny Guy". On the night of 3 April 1938 when she spied a familiar skinny guy whom she followed for two blocks before he turned around and told her that he had just gone to get coffee for her husband the Doctor, and her mum Amy Pond. They greeted each other, "Hello, River." "Hello, Dad".

The book goes on to tell of Melody and her father Rory Williams being taken to the home of mobster Julius Grayle at 406 94th Street, in Manhattan]], her restraint by Grayle at the hand of an Angel, Rory's basement imprisonment with cherub Angels, and her rescue by her husband and mother, who know where and when to arrive by having read up to that point in chapters 8 and 9, "Julius Grayle" and "Calling the Doctor". Fearful of reading something undesirable and thus creating an unalterable fixed point in time, they proceed to obtain further insight by reading only the chapter titles in the book's table of contents. Even doing that, however, devastates the Doctor when he sees the final two chapters are titled "Death at Winter Quay" and "Amelia's Last Farewell".

After living through the events and twice witnessing her parents disappearances through time while risking their lives, River Song proceeds to either compose the manuscript and/or utilise a paradox by copying the Doctor's copy of the book. The Doctor and the TARDIS could not return to New York's past without destroying the city, but River and her vortex manipulator apparently could do so, thereby enabling her to give the manuscript to her mother. River also tells he grieving husband that she would instruct her mother to write him an afterward, whereupon he flew the TARDIS to Central Park to retrieve the final page which he had earlier discarded.

Chapters

 * Chapter 1 The Dying Detective
 * Chapter 2 The Angels Take Manhattan
 * Chapter 3 Missing in New York
 * Chapter 4 Taking the Case
 * Chapter 5 Night in Statue Park
 * Chapter 6 The Gargoyle
 * Chapter 7 The Skinny Guy
 * Chapter 8 Julius Grayle
 * Chapter 9 Calling the Doctor
 * Chapter 10 Death at Winter Quay
 * Chapter 11 Amelia's Last Farewell
 * Afterward

Afterward, by Amelia Williams
Hello old friend.

And here we are. You and me on the last page.

By the time you read these words, Rory and I will be long gone, so know that we lived well and were very happy, and above all else, know that we will love you. Always.

Sometimes I do worry about you, though. I think, once we've gone you won't be coming back here for a while and you might be alone, which you should never be.

Don't be alone, Doctor.

And do one more thing for me: There's a little girl, waiting in a garden. She's going to wait a long while, so she's going to need a lot of hope.

Go to her. Tell her a story.

Tell her that if she's patient, the days are coming that she'll never forget. Tell her she'll go to sea and fight pirates, she'll fall in love with a man who'll wait two thousand years to keep her safe, tell her she'll give hope to the greatest painter who ever lived, and save a whale in outer space.

Tell her this is the story of Amelia Pond, and this how it ends.

Continuity

 * River was confident enough with the success of Amy's extremely dangerous gamble to let the Angel send her back in time from 2012 to be reunited with Rory, that she encourage Amy to use the plan, against the pleas of the Doctor.
 * River also knew that Amy worked held a position in Earth's past whereby she could ensure the novel's publication.
 * River had visited New York City in July 1969, at an earlier point in her adult life, prior to her pardon. (TV: Day of the Moon)
 * Sometime in the six months following River's departure from New York City, River's younger self arrived in New York as a small child (then presumably known as Melody). Very ill, she regenerated into an outwardly black infant. (TV: Day of the Moon, Let's Kill Hitler)
 * The Doctor honoured Amy's final request in her afterward, arriving in her garden on 8 April 1996 the morning after his centuries-younger self promised her that he would be back in five minutes. (TV: The Eleventh Hour, The Angels Take Manhattan)