Title: The Stranger Times

Author: C.K. McDonnell

Book Length: 424 pages

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Genre: Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, Paranormal, Urban Fantasy, Mystery, Crime, Magic

Read Start Date: May 28, 2023

Read Finish Date: June 15, 2023

No. of Book in Series: 1

Brief Summary of the Plot from Goodreads: There are Dark Forces at work in our world (and in Manchester in particular) and so thank God The Stranger Times is on hand to report them. A weekly newspaper dedicated to the weird and the wonderful (but more often the weird) of modern life, it is the go-to publication for the unexplained and inexplicable . . .

At least that’s their pitch. The reality is rather less auspicious. Their editor is a drunken, foul-tempered and
-mouthed husk of a man who thinks little (and believes less) of the publication he edits, while his staff are a ragtag group of wastrels and misfits, each with their own secrets to hide and axes to grind. And as for the assistant editor . . . well, that job is a revolving door – and it has just revolved to reveal Hannah Willis, who’s got her own set of problems.

It’s when tragedy strikes in Hannah’s first week on the job that The Stranger Times is forced to do some serious, proper, actual investigative journalism. What they discover leads them to a shocking realisation: that some of the stories they’d previously dismissed as nonsense are in fact terrifyingly, gruesomely real. Soon they come face-to-face with darker foes than they could ever have imagined. It’s one thing reporting on the unexplained and paranormal but it’s quite another being dragged into the battle between the forces of Good and Evil . . .

My Review: I had never heard of this book and found it sitting on a shelf at the public library. The synopsis was intriguing, so I decided to give it a shot. I am so glad I did. This book is freaking hilarious! It is not often that I find myself laughing out loud while reading, but I definitely did just that several times while reading this book.

Hannah, a newly divorced woman with no job experience, had quite a peculiar job interview for The Stranger Times, a newspaper that reports on the weird, extraordinary, and supernatural event. The editor of the paper, Vincent Banecroft literally shot himself in the foot with an old blunderbus while trying to get one of his employees not to jump from the building (something that he threatens to do every week). The bizarre occurrences didn’t end there, as she soon joined the eccentric team at the newspaper as the “new Tina” a.k.a the new assistant editor.

Hannah’s colleagues were a colorful bunch. Banecroft, known for his foul-smelling and foul-mouthed ways, lived in the office, along with Manny, who had an interesting dress code (if he wore clothes at all, that it). Grace, the office manager, had her hands full managing Banecroft’s temper. Stella, the young runaway teen taken in by Grace was a constant presence even if it wasn’t clear what she actually did at the paper. Reggie served as the paranormal consultant, and Ox was the ufologist and resident “general paranoid.”

Meanwhile, the man standing outside the building, Simon, desperately wanted to work for The Stranger Times but faced a peculiar hurdle with their “No Simon” policy. When he is killed under mysterious circumstance, and the police are left scratching their heads, the newspaper staff takes it upon themselves to solve the case.

In the greater Manchester area, Simon’s death is not the only strange occurrence that the police are investigating. Little does anyone know at the beginning, but magic is afoot and rules of the magical underworld are being broken, leading to chaos in the mortal realm.

This book has it all. Fantasy, crime, mystery and most of all humor. If you haven’t read this book yet, you must!