I initially requested this book on the description and when I realised that it was the author Caimh McDonnell I was over the moon that I had a chance to read his new book. So a preface to this review is I loved his previous two series set in Ireland and have recently just finished reading them. This series has the same wit and laugh out loud situations but with a paranormal storyline.

Hannah has recently found herself, divorced, skint and at a crossroads in her life. She somehow manages to find herself a job at the newspaper The 'Stranger Times'. This newspaper seems to be filled with oddballs and misfits but all with strangely intriguing personalities. There is then a tragedy which has to be investigated and a whole world of weird and magical things start to happen.

The novel was a joy to read from start to finish. It engages you with the characters and is anything but predictable so it feels like you are along for the ride with them. I really did enjoy that there isn't just one main character who you are following, its all of them, each with their own individual personality and story.

I really hope this is another series of books as I would love to follow the stories of the characters and read more about the magical world I got a glimpse of.

Is there a subgenre called "cosy urban fantasy"? If not, there ought to be. Not that The Stranger Times pulls its punches, oh no, we see some gruesome deaths here and evil is rather on the march, but still, there is that same combination of a strong sense of place and a slight twist of the absurd which I enjoy in cosy crime, an assurance perhaps that while there's a mystery to be solved and a decided threat, other things are also important, or more important: office banter, for example, and getting the latest edition of The Stranger Times to press, and pursuing a good story.

First, though, there's the little matter of a job interview... as this book opens, Hannah is desperate for a job. Accustomed to a life of upper middle class luxury, she's alone, in unfamiliar Manchester, without money or friends, for the first time in her life and desperate enough - just - to seek employment with the eponymous paper, which glories in the weirder side of life: UFOs, hauntings, conspiracy theories and the like. ('Nessie is the Father of my Child'). Presided over by Vincent Banecroft, a former hotshot Fleet Street editor fallen on hard times who now looks 'like his own corpse waiting two happen') The Stranger Times has ethics of a sort: nobody pretends to believe in the outré goings-on that feature in the paper (well, not all of them - some of the staff believe in ghosts, others in UFOs) but there's an integrity in the way that it recognises and reports things that are being claimed to have happened.

Nobody expects to wade into a supernatural crisis and indeed, for a considerable time they don't release that the disappearance of a down-and-out man and the bodies in the morgue with strange wounds have anything to do with each other. McDonnell allows the setting and personnel of the paper plenty of time to establish themselves (truly, the staff of the paper - Hannah, Grace, Reggie, Ox and Stella - are stranger than anything it reports...) while in parallel, telling us about a couple of villains who reflect the darker side of things and are clearly Up To Something. While the grotesquerie at the paper was entertaining and I enjoyed seeing the interplay between, for example, Grace, the fiercely Christian receptionist and drunken, foul-mouthed Banecroft, this first third perhaps felt a little slow at times - most of the action was with the villains. However it does mean that when things really begin to move along, with the team from the paper fully in the firing line, we really care what happens to them.

I won't say too much about the background to that, except that The Stranger Times does follow the template of there being a "hidden" paranormal world that lives in tension with the mundane world - there's a balance that has to be kept and it is, of course, in danger of being upset. McDonnell does, however, bring a real freshness to the concept. The Stranger Times isn't about rivalries between clans of monsters or about humans being drawn into their worlds, rather its's about individual motivations, greed and ambition and survival and the willingness to exploit others in pursuit of those things.

And, as I said, about the importance of getting the paper to press, come werewolves, police or rogue sorcerers. Also, about integrity, whether in that mission to report what is being said, or in the desire of DI Sturgess to give the dead their due by investigating every case meticulously, even the hopeless ones; or in Grace's fierce love for tearaway Stella who broke into the paper's offices one night and has stayed ever since.

The group at the heart of the novel are eccentric, bickering and plain odd, but they have a fierce loyalty to one another which gives this novel real heart and soul. Combined with some sharp writing ('Mason himself seemed oblivious to his own halitoxicity', 'Coppers often dealt with people who were having the worst days of their lives. That deserved somebody's best') and a good sense of rainy Manchester ('predicting it was beyond the capacity of meteorological science') that makes for thoroughly readable and completely enjoyable story.

Here's hoping we meet Hannah, Vincent and company again, and soon.

This is an unusual read, I will tell you that. Hannah Willis is famous for having burned down her house in a revenge act against her cheating husband. Now, after a public divorce and homeless and moneyless, she needs a job and she applies for the position of assistant editor for The Stranger Times a newspaper dedicated to weird and inexplicable facts. Her boss is quite a character – he shoots himself in the foot during her job interview – and her colleagues can be considered normal either. For my personal opinion, the story is fun, witty, intriguing, but, for some reason, I couldn’t get completely into it. All in all, I enjoyed it and I would still recommend you give it a try…

I loved this! It’s a darkly funny contemporary fantasy novel, following protagonist Hannah as she ventures into a new job after a messy divorce, ending up at the office of The Stranger Times, a newspaper full of “nonsense”. That is, stories about such things as a the Loch Ness monster or a toilet possessed by the devil. Here we meet the newspaper’s long suffering staff: office manager Grace, reporters Ox and Reggie, printer Manny, Stella, and of course, the boss, Vincent Banecroft. Banecroft became a favourite of mine from his very first scene- its safe to say while I’ve had my share of bad job interviews I’ve never had one quite like the experience he gives poor Hannah! Each of the others has their own excellent quirks and mysteries, some of which leave more questions than answers by the end.

This ragtag bag of “investigators” quickly become embroiled in a mysterious case, where all is definitely not as it seems, and in fact seems like it could have been pulled from their very own pages.

This is the first in a series and as such there’s a fair bit of set up for future novels and many, many unanswered questions. Despite that, I quite like the slightly vague feeling of this novel. Enough is explained to follow the story whilst leaving enough mystery for me to desperately want the sequel. What story will The Stranger Times be reporting on next?

4.5 of 5 stars
https://lynns-books.com/2021/01/11/the-stranger-times-by-ck-mcdonnell/
My Five Word TL:DR Review : Please, I would like more

I had a ridiculously good time reading this book, it made me laugh out loud on more than one occasion, I just really enjoyed the humour and was hooked. In fact, I can admit that I turned into that annoying reader who keeps reading snippets out to the other half – even though it’s completely out of context and they’re not amused at your incessant ramblings.

So, in fairness, I’m not going to try and say that The Stranger Times brings anything particularly new to the urban fantasy genre, but, regardless of that it won me over with ease, it had characters that I enjoyed, I really liked the setting with the small office dynamic and the slightly eccentric style of news reporting. Also, I can’t deny that a book being set in Manchester, where I worked for a few years, also appealed greatly and I thought really lent itself to the nature of the story.

As the book begins we meet Hannah Willis. Hannah has recently split from her husband and is slowly discovering that the rich lifestyle she had become accustomed to is now a thing of the past and standing on her own two feet, having spent a number of years honing absolutely no skills whatsoever at all to perfection, means that her employment prospects don’t look too promising and when her first interview turns into a disaster Hannah realises that standing on her own two feet might be easier said than done.

However, against the odds, her second interview – which doesn’t resemble an interview in any shape or form, leaves her as the new assistant editor to the Stranger Times. Now, before you become all flabbergasted at this piece of luck two things must you know. Firstly, Hannah was the only interviewee and secondly, as a result of a very grumpy editor, most new people leave before their colleagues have even had a chance to remember their name. Hence, Hannah becomes known as the ‘new Tina’, the only person to have stayed in post long enough to make an impression.

The plot, is something of a murder mystery. We are immediately made aware that somebody evil is prowling the streets and after a couple of deaths, The Stranger Times employees find themselves drawn into the investigation and actually doing some real journalism. I’m actually not going to say anything more about what takes place because I think it would involve spoilers and I really loved the rather chaotic style of the story and think it best left for readers to discover it all for themselves.

What particularly worked for me was threefold. Firstly, the setting – as I mentioned ‘Manchester’ – but more than that, the humour, the author seems to have really captured the essence of the place in terms of banter, dialogue and sarcasm. Secondly, the characters. This feels like a cast that I could become attached too – on top of this the author has left a lot yet to explore with all of them. Thirdly, the quirky eccentricity of it all combined. A group of misfits working for a publication that writes about the weird and wonderful and pretty soon discover there’s more to all this ‘hocus pocus’ than they ever imagined.

To be honest, it’s not easy to pinpoint exactly why this worked for me at the time I picked it up. Perhaps it’s the nature of the strange times in which we live that makes such escapism a fun distraction but I can say without doubt that I would love to read more from this eclectic bunch of characters. I would love for certain friendships to develop further and I, well, I just want more. Pretty please.

I received a copy through Netgalley, courtesy of the publisher, for which my thanks. The above is my own opinion.

Good read - the staff of the Stranger Times newspaper need to unravel an evil plot in Manchester. Great characters and setting, well plotted and a satisfying read.

This book is the perfect antidote to the current strange times we live in!

The basic plot involves an eclectic collection of characters who work at a newspaper called The Stranger Times. This publication is unconventional in the sense that it focuses on the weird, wonderful, supernatural and magical tales.

The plot is great but the real joy in the book are the characters. There is such a range of people and they all have their own eccentricities, quirks and issues. Together they investigate some suspicious deaths that lead them deeper into a hidden world.

I don't normally read science fiction/fantasy genres as I struggle to really immerse myself and believe in the scenarios created. However, this had me completely believing in the reality I was reading. It was so well written.

The best bit is just how funny this book is. There are so many one liners, analogies and descriptions that made me laugh out loud.

I really hope that this is the beginning of a whole series of books as it is so unique and entertaining!

What a fun way to start the new year! The Stranger Times is a madcap urban fantasy about the titular newspaper and its staff. The worldbuilding was great in parts - explained further below - and I loved the sly humour that McDonnell used in his descriptions. I also do love me a good motley crews, so it's no surprise that I felt this was the book's other great strength; the characters were all well-drawn and likeable, and I enjoyed getting to know them and their various wacky processes. This is both a blessing and a curse, because the book has to juggle these characters with the plot, and I thought this was awkwardly done.

My biggest criticism of the book would probably be in its structure - the first part of the book was mostly focused on Hannah getting her job and learning how the paper worked, which - for plot reasons - necessitated a few single chapters sprinkled throughout to keep us up to date on what our villain was up to. I didn't love these chapters, but I get why they were needed to propel the plot forward. The second half of the book came together a little more as our heroes finally make it onto the same page as the villain, but I had my issues with this, too; the fact that someone essentially sits down and tells them about the magic world felt too convenient and too fast. Again, I get why this happened - it would be incredibly painstaking to have our heroes investigate every little thing, or have them dive into the final fight(s) with very little idea of what was going on - but I felt that the pivot-point explanation was too much of an infodump and made things too easy for our protagonists to figure out. And, paradoxically, it opened up a whole bunch of questions about the wider world that simply aren't answered because our characters only get the one information session.

Despite some awkwardness in structure, I really enjoyed reading this - the cast of characters were endearing, the world was interesting, and the writing style was engaging. I will certainly be checking out new books in the series as they come. Many thanks to Random House UK and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

This is the most fun I have had reading a book in a long time and it gave me strong Terry Pratchett and Jasper Fforde vibes.

This is a story about The Stranger Times, a newspaper that specialises in the bizarre and unexplained which at the helm is Banecroft (who seems to be the love child of Bernard Black (Black Books) and Cormoran Strike) who uses a unique leadership style. The mysterious news they report is suddenly thrust into their actual lives and they become embroiled in a strange and dangerous mystery.

As a fellow resident of the NW of England I also particularly enjoyed that this was set in Manchester and I loved the subtle northern jokes.

There is an accompanying podcast (The Stranger Times) for me to enjoy and I would not be surprised if this is picked up for a tv adaptation very soon!

Thank you so much @randomhouse @transworldbooks and @netgalley for this ARC. This is published 14th January 2021 and I predict big things!

Netgalley and Bantam Press (Random House UK, Transworld Publishers) provided an ARC, in exchange for an honest review. I've written the review as spoiler free as possible.

The Stranger Times is a very enjoyable and engrossing read. It has an excellent mix of personalities with good character development, a plot that moves at a good pace and it keeps you guessing with twists and turns along the way.

It's an intriguing story which opens with the protagonist, Hannah, down on her luck. Her dream interview has gone very badly wrong and now she's faced with attending a back up interview she never intended to need and accordingly has done no preparation.

First impressions aren't great, she's late and a man is threatening to throw himself out of a window above. He's engaged in conversation with another man and it turns out the pair are two reporters for the Stranger Times.

The Stranger Times is very aptly named, everything about it appears strange or weird. Or maybe both. The paper is based in a former church and features a host of misfit characters which all seem to get along and create content for the newspaper and get it published on time.

Vincent is the editor, he's loud, brash, old-fashioned and very difficult to work for; Ox and Reginald Fairfax the Third are reporters; The enigmatic teenager Stella; Manny who runs the press and lives in the basement; Simon who wants to be a reporter but isn't allowed inside the building and Grace the office manager who holds it all together.

I found myself questioning how The Stranger Times managed to keep going and this becomes apparent as the story develops. The Stranger Times finds itself at the center of a story so out there that even it probably wouldn't publish. Moretti is a great character, particularly odious and despicable taking a greater role as the plot progresses, weaving occult and conspiracy threads. I like how the plot manages to maintain a balance between these themes and maintain credibility, it's a difficult balance to achieve. The plot also has a rounded and balanced ending which ties all of the threads together really well.

I can't tell you how much I loved this book. It's absolutely hilarious and just what I needed. "The Stranger Times" isn't just funny though... It has an absolutely cracking story to carry the humour and brilliant characters to be the "victims" of it! I loved the writing too! This is the first book of what promises to be a fantastic series, and I couldn't be happier with that news!!

My thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley. This review was written voluntarily and is entirely my own, unbiased, opinion.

The Stranger Times was a fun, fast-paced mystery novel that is a little bit out of the ordinary. Although it's set in dreary Manchester, The Stranger Times brought a bit of light into the final days of 2020.

I loved the plot, I loved the setting, and I really liked the characters. The overarching plot is fantastic. It is full of action and McDonnell creates an unusual feeling of suspense. I'm not actually sure how to describe it but the novel does not necessarily focus on finding out who was murdering people, as detective novels do, but figuring out why and the way the story is told - through switching POVs - builds suspense as you're fed snippets of the antagonist's plan and his actions but you're never given the full story. I'm not going to lie, at times I was slightly more interested in the scenes at the Stranger Times offices - the daily insanity of working there - rather than the actual plot. Don't get me wrong, the main plot was excellent and the way McDonnell added magical aspects to mundane Manchester was skilfully done, but I just loved the light-hearted moments when Hannah, the main character, and her colleagues were at work. For me, it was this combination of a dark, dangerous mystery that kept me on the edge of my seat and the frequent bizarre, but jovial, snippets of life working at The Stranger Times that made this book so great. 

McDonnell's writing style was a complete joy to read. The novel was funny, fast-paced (but well-paced too!), and dynamic but also dark, tense, and almost theatrical. McDonnell takes our world, specifically Manchester, and infuses it with magic and I really enjoyed this particular take on magical realism because it was presented as an underground world. Not literally underground but 'underground' in the sense that it is hidden from the rest of the world, like a black market or the mafia or something. 

Each character was unique - very unique, in fact - and multi-faceted and, although I think it helps that most of the main characters were a little bit odd, they were all memorable. Hannah was almost wonderfully bland at the beginning of the novel. She acted as a foil to the other characters, mainly because she was so different and so out of place, but she has her share of quirks too which were revealed throughout the novel and I loved her as the main character.  

Overall, I just really enjoyed this novel! It was odd but wonderful and I'd highly recommend it if you're up for a dark read full of magical realism. I'd definitely buy it for myself so that I can reread it and, if this becomes a series, I'd read the sequel too!

I absolutely loved this book. The witty sarcastic humour, the characters and the pace of the book are just perfect. So what is the stranger Times? Its a newspaper that reports on the strange and paranormal
The Stranger Times is a mystery fantasy tale. The story takes place in Manchester. Enter stage left our MC Hannah Drinkwater I mean Willis. After finding out her husband cheats on her and actually burning down their house , she decides its time to leave him and find a job. We are introduced to the rest of the characters really early on. Ox and Reggie both work for the the news paper and they have to be my favourite characters. There are so many quirky eccentric characters that make this book what it is.
The story does take a dark turn as things start to get spookier. A homeless man is found dead and we are introduced to DC Tom Sturgess.
This wont be my last book of the series i read. Can no wait for the other books.

Thank you to Netgalley, Random House UK, Transworld Publishers and C.K McConnell for giving me the chance to read this gem of a book

The Stranger Times is a newspaper, but not like others. It is more a periodical, as it is only published once a week, but that isn't why it's different. The Stranger Times reports on those stories you won't read in The Times or the Guardian, the 'aliens ate my homework' kind of story, ghosts, hauntings, oddities and demonic possessions. The staff number just seven and the team requires a 'new Tina', or, to clarify, an assistant editor.

Hannah needs a job and she isn't choosy, so, when she attends an interview that ends in the editor's office catching fire, and she falls into employment by default, she takes a step into a different world.

The Stranger Times reports but doesn't judge, that is the point of it for Banecroft, the editor, and it is a commentary on what OTHER people believe, not a championing of those beliefs. Banecroft doesn't believe a word of it, but that doesn't matter. However, when the wannbe reporter who has camped on the paper's doorstep apparently commits suicide, they all have to change their approach.

The wit in this novel is unrelenting, written as a light comedy, with colourful, vibrant characters and a plot that somehow works. The world of magic folk in Manchester is revealed, and it's background. There is something of an info dump towards the end where everything is explained in one go, which is a bit distracting and too much information in one lump, but otherwise, it is an entertaining read and you keep going to enjoy the writing and to find out what the heck is going on!

This book was something a bit different. I quite liked the setting, this newspaper of strange happenings in an old church, and I really loved the characters, especially all those who work at the newspaper. the relationships between the main characters are great. There is a real 'none-of-us really like each other and we certainly wouldn't be friends in other circumstances but here we are and we are family' vibe which I think works well in the story. The story itself is a bit slow paced but not in an uninteresting way. things unfold in a natural way that slowly reveals something a little bit more about each of the characters and how they came to be where they are so that you keep reading to find out the next revealed secret or tidbit that gives you greater insight. I am planning to buy the finished book when it is released as I think it is worth a second read.

A brilliant piece of writing, a wonderful combination of the bizarre, weird, fantastic and horrific.

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.

I am a long time advocator for "bonkers" to be a genre in its own right and this book would definitely be worth of inclusion therein. And that's a good thing...
The Stranger Times is exactly what is sounds like - it's a newspaper which reports on strange things that happen. Hannah is on her uppers when she answers an ad for a job there. When she eventually finds the office, in a disused church, and meets the editor - a foul mouthed drunkard - she really thinks her life is ended. But, as things transpire, it's only the beginning as, with fresh eyes, they start to link things previously dismissed and realise that maybe something terrifying is going to happen, and soon...
I loved this book. It's all things weird and bonkers and wonderfully larger than life. The paranormal, the unexplained, the weird, the wonderful - they are all front and centre in this book. And all connected with a brilliantly plotted and executed narrative that spins quite a yarn.
But as well as being a scary battle of good vs evil, it's also very funny. Side-splitting at times, often puerile, but funny nonetheless.
And the characters are excellent. So well drawn and a veritable hotchpotch of an eclectic mix. All with their roles within the gang and all playing those parts well. I took to Hannah from the off, how she got to where she was when we met her and her determination to get back on her feet.
By the time I got to the end of the book I started to get a bit sad as I was going to have to say goodbye to the characters - some of whom I had really bonded with - but then, reading some of the other reviews here, I am delightedly overjoyed to find that this is book one of a new series - well - all the YAYs! Can't wait to witness the new shenanigans of book two...
My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

The Stranger Times
by C. K. McDonnell
Random House UK,
Thank you to Netgalley and Random House UK, for this review copy. This is my unbiased review of the author's work and style. If you want plot lines and spoilers, please see the publisher's blurb and other reviewers' reports.
It is rare that I take to a story immediately and even rarer that it grips me such that meals arrive late, and sleep gets missed. But C K McDonnell has achieved all of these and I feel refreshed and optimistic about what future goodies he has in store for us. Reading his new work (he has published many other works under his actual name Caimh McDonnel), I was immediately struck by the similarity between his structuring and that of the late lamented Douglas Adams. There is also a touch of the Pratchett’s and Neil Gaiman. I am not suggesting that he is following their style but at a time of dearth in the fantasy book industry it gives one a welcoming warm feeling that here is an author that is going places and I for one want to enjoy the journey.
The structuring of the book pulls one along as the story switches from one venue to another and more characters fill the pages, building the tale until, like reading a Dickens novel, you don’t want it to end.
Personally, I’d give it six stars, but the constraint of conformity means I can only offer five.

What a wonderful, bizarre, and very aptly named book! I found it well written with well drawn out and original characters. It seemed to be a mixture of different genres which I loved, the author's humour (clearly witty and sarcastic in the best way) shines through throughout as well.

All in all I found The Stranger Times to be a great antidote to a pretty rubbish time - go read it!

The Strangers Times could have gone either way really, but I knew within a short time of starting it that I wasn’t going to make it to the end.

Dark forces are present in our world and The Stranger Times newspaper reports on the weird and wonderful occurrences caused by them.

Hannah is having a bad time and goes for the job of assistant editor as a last resort not expecting that she will soon be facing a battle between good and evil.

This book has a host of unusual characters, but it felt like it was trying too hard.

The Stranger Times was hard to get into and forgettable.