‘Wonderfully dark, extremely funny’ proclaimed ADAM KAY, author of the No.1 bestselling This is Going to Hurt‘A filmic romp with great characters, a jet-propelled plot, and a winning premise’ said the GUARDIANJASON MANFORD thinks it’s ‘Hilarious. You’ll never look at Manchester the same way again.’The Chronicles of St Mary’s series author JODI TAYLOR declared ‘I loved this . . . great premise – … author JODI TAYLOR declared ‘I loved this . . . great premise – great story – great characters . . . hugely enjoyable.’
And THE TIMES called it ‘ripping entertainment from start to finish.’
There are dark forces at work in our world (and in Manchester in particular), so thank God The Stranger Times is on hand to report them . . .
A weekly newspaper dedicated to the weird and the wonderful (but mostly the weird), 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 foul-mouthed husk of a man who thinks little of the publication he edits. His staff are a ragtag group of misfits. 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 problems of her own.
When tragedy strikes in her first week on the job The Stranger Times is forced to do some serious investigating. What they discover leads to a shocking realisation: some of the stories they’d previously dismissed as nonsense are in fact terrifyingly real. Soon they come face-to-face with darker forces than they could ever have imagined.
The Stranger Times is the first novel from C.K. McDonnell, the pen name of Caimh McDonnell. It combines his distinctive dark wit with his love of the weird and wonderful to deliver a joyous celebration of how truth really can be stranger than fiction.
Readers love The Stranger Times:
***** ‘A delight from start to finish – laugh out loud funny yet with plenty of thrills.’
***** ‘Full of wit and humour, and knows how to keep the reader hooked.’
***** ‘You’ll soon fall in love . . . fans of Pratchett, Gaiman, Aaronovich will be blown away.’
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Looking for something quirky that’ll make you laugh out loud? Then get your ink-stained paws on a copy of The Stranger Times.
You’ve got a wacky newspaper staff (at an even wackier newspaper), you’ve got odd creatures stalking the night, and you have a printing press that may or may not be possessed. It all combines into a can’t-put-it-down-No-wait-i-have-to-put-it-down-because-I’m-laughing-too-hard start of a new series.
First reactions: Weird. Intriguing. Funny, as in tongue-in-cheek, laugh-out-loud, not peculiar!
A brilliant piece of writing, a wonderful combination of the bizarre, weird, fantastic and horrific. Does C K McDonnell give too much away in the blurb, I wonder?
The author brought all the characters completely to life, and gave them distinct accents without any need for spurious spelling. The feeling of well-rounded ness was enhanced because some of them, well, weren’t! The plot twisted enough to make it a satisfying crime mystery, and it was so funny I laughed as well – sometimes at inappropriate moments, I expect.
A great book. I’m looking forward to more in what promises a sequel, if not a series.
And great fun!
Did you ever run into one of those books where, without being in any way glad that it’s over, you recognize that it’s a darn good thing because it’s Hours past your bedtime and you forgot to eat dinner? Yep. This is one of those. Caimh McDonnell seems to pull off those kinds of books at will. Quit reading this review and go buy the thing, you won’t regret it! (But better make some sandwiches before you start reading).
This book had great characters and story. It was funny and scary at the same time. I loved it.
In Manchester, England, an ensemble of characters are about to collide like a mix of The Hitchhiker’s Guide, Men in Black, Highlander, and the early days of the National Enquirer all had a baby. A 2-headed baby that was really an alien and spoke in an ancient language.
The book switches back and forth between the characters, which is a strength and weakness as we know more about what is happening but we know less about the individuals who are inhabiting this carnival known as The Stranger Times (a tabloid documenting the weird and the wonderful).
Hannah is desperate for a job, and if that means working for a mean-mouthed hobo who manages the Stranger Times, so be it, but her first week at the paper could be the death of her. As she and her co-workers at the tabloid are drawn into a bigger mystery of a secret cabal, they discover the strength of friendships and the power of the press.
Overall, the book is funny as heck and I highly recommend it.
I absolutely loved this weird and wonderful book! Lots of strange and fun characters and so much humor! Incredibly well written, I adored it from the first page to the last (though I SO hated it to end). Sounds like another book might be coming… I can’t wait!!