Poor Hannah Willis. Not only is she in the middle of a tempestuous divorce from her cheating husband, but she also has to find a new job to survive her new life as a single woman. And find it she does… but in the most unusual place she could imagine!
That being the headquarters of The Stranger Times, a weekly newspaper in the town of Manchester dedicated to the weird and supernatural. UFOs, ghosts, even possessed toilets… the newspaper is willing to publish anything as long as it follows its ethical rule: stories related by people that really believe they witnessed events out of the ordinary. Oh, and the offices of the publication are located in an old abandoned church to top it all off.
Hired as the new assistant editor, Hannah soon gets acquainted with her co-workers. There is Grace, the lovable office manager that doesn’t allow swear words in the premises; Ox and Reggie, the dedicated and somewhat dysfunctional reporters ; Stella, the teenage assistant always holding her mobile; and Manny, the printing operator downstairs, with a propensity to walk naked in public. But every publication needs an editor and this is the insufferable Vincent Bancroft, a former top-notch member of the press in London that now is the grumpy, drunk and bad-tempered leader of a rag with not the best of reputations.
Things really get weird (weirder?) when some mysterious murders start to happen around Manchester, a furry and violent beast is reported and a funny looking American, adamant about always have have things go his way, is making the rounds.
A former comedian, author C. K. McDonnell achieves a big win with this first tome in a series of five books to date. He expertly mixes horror tropes with humour, good characterization and many plot twists, in a somewhat more well behaved version of Jason Pargin’s John Dies at the End series of books. There are some small problems, with some plot points apparently forgotten in the conclusion, but I am nitpicking and most readers probably won’t even notice this. That is the curse of being a professional editor, you are always unconsciously looking for the weak points in even the best armor.
But I digress. The Stranger Times is charming, fun and interesting enough to make me eager to return and spend more time in this world.
The Stranger Times (2022, Penguin)
By C.K. McDonnell
448 pages
Rating: 8 nerds (of 10) 😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎
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