Alex Kingston

She's got ice in her heart and a kiss on her lips... 1939, New York. Private Eye, Melody Malone, is hired to find a stolen ruby, the Eye of Horus. The ruby might hold the secret to the location of Cleopatra's tomb - but everyone who comes into contact with it dies. Can Melody escape the ruby's curse? 1939, New York. River Song, author of the Melody Malone Mysteries, is forced to find a reality-altering weapon, the Eye of Horus - but everyone who comes into contact with it dies. River doesn't believe in curses - but is she wrong? From the top-security confines of Stormcage to the barbarism of first-century Egypt, River battles to find the Eye of Horus before its powers are used to transform the universe. To succeed, she must team up with a most unlikely ally - her own fictional alter ego, Melody. And together they must solve another mystery: Is fiction changing into fact - or is fact changing into fiction?

Doctor Who: The Ruby's Curse

avarni

Heck, for 50 bucks an hour I'd let people call me 'chick' and 'girlie' and not hit them even a tiny little bit.

'Cash? What does that matter? That gem is priceless.' 

'Oh damn,' I say, trying to sound concerned that the millionaire guy has lost his pretty bauble. 

The lure of gold and maybe getting your name in the history books made every Tom, Dick and Ptolemy want to head out there with a spade, curse or no curse. But the frenzy faded, like frenzies always do, and Egyptology was eventually overtaken by exciting new crazes like jazz music, yo-yos and Stalinism.

A British newspaper did ask her: If you're Cleopatra reborn, can't you tell us where you were buried?' to which the dame replied, 'But darling, I was already dead by then.'

Be very, very suspicious of anyone who says, 'Yes, mate, it's 50 BC.' 

Cleopatra. Her beauty, like Helen of Troy's, caused tragedy in its wake. That's what history says. Except it wasn't really beauty. It took only a few moments in her presence to realise she had something much more alluring than mere good looks. She was somebody. She had charisma, she had personality, and I would soon learn that she had a fierce, burning intelligence.

'I was going to use my infinite power to make my mum a necklace of moons' I said dreamily. 'I think I was only going to get Dad to shave off his moustache, though.'

Doctor Who: The Ruby's Curse quotes

Join the club