This is a comic urban fantasy set around a Fortean Timesalike newspaper in Manchester. It’s very likeable, a fun and entertaining read, with some opening sketches for an interesting mythology should this become a series. It’s not hard to spot the antecedents. The “small organisation gets involved in defeating occult plots” set up will be familiar to Ben Aaronovitch’s fans, while there are also definite elements of Pratchett. McDonnell has a way to go before he can be talked of alongside him, but the camaraderie between the loveable - well, losers would be harsh, but winners is in no way accurate either - of the Stranger Times staff is reminiscent of the Watch. Either way, I wolfed it down in a day, and I’ll be looking out for the next one.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read this book: I absolutely loved it and am eagerly looking forward to the sequel. Along with a serious plot there were some laugh out loud moments, not to mention some useful tips on the appropriatness of digestives, reach tea and, top of the list, chocolate Hobnobs.

I have previously thoroughly enjoyed Caimh McDonnell's hilarious Bunny McGarry books about an Irish cop and his exploits in Dublin and then in the USA, so I was very keen to read this new urban fantasy series set in a Mancunian paranormal newspaper. Manchester is a city I know well, so it seemed a perfect fit for me.

Happily, the new book was really really good. There are a wide range of well drawn, diverse characters, some thrilling moments and plenty of laughs. I really liked the new heroine, Hannah too.

Five resounding stars and thoroughly recommended to urban fantasy readers of Ben Aaronovitch.

Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for providing a review copy in exchange for honest feedback.

This story is amazing, fast-paced, with plenty of surprises and with the most eclectic cast of characters I have read and loved in quite a while.

I wasn't sure where the otherworldly influence was going to make an appearance, but the idea of a newspaper devoted to the weird and unusual kept me reading.

The Stranger Times is a worthy addition to that Urban Fantasy genre that includes Ben Aaronovitch's Rivers of London and Charles Stross' Laundry Files.

Well, this was an unexpected treat. This is urban fantasy with great characters and gentle humour. The Stranger Times is a small and irrelevant newspaper dealing with stories of unusual or supernatural elements. Run by an editor reminiscent of the Jackson Lamb character in the Mick Herron Dead Horses series about spies that have been put out to pasture. Lot of similarities between the two series, and that’s a good thing.
Hannah is a new recruit to the small team at the paper, like the rest she is a bit of a loser and a bit of a misfit and that means she fits right in.
The paper reports on supernatural nonsense such as a demonic toilet, but then they have a real story and discover their assumptions might need to change.
This was great fun, the characters are all a delight and the plot gently lets you into things that are more than they first appear. Eventually we see the more standard urban fantasy urban secret world type trope, but you kind of know it will and you just enjoy the pleasure of the journey getting there.
There will be another book and I honestly can’t wait.

A must read for fans of urban fantasy. A humorous, moving story, in the vein of the great Ben Aaronovitch.

Funiest book i have read this year 2020 and i was glad of the laugh. Witty and laugh out loud funny from the outset. The charcters are incredibly well created and you'll soon fall in love with them all ( and yes, i mean them all! ). Fans of Pratchett, Gaimen, Aaronovich will be blown away with what is sure to be a sure fire hit. I can already see various companies battling over the options for TV ? Film rights.

Solid Five Star Read!

“Biscuits are never just biscuits. They send a message. Offering someone a rich tea is a slap in the face; a chocolate Hobnob is downright solicitous. You’ve got to strike the right balance.”
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Hannah has left her marriage and her business class life split between London and Dubai. Rather than take a penny from her adulterous husband she moves to Manchester and sets about trying to find a job. The fancy furniture showroom falls through, but she notices a small website ad
“Publication seeks desparate human being with capability to form sentences using the English language. No imbeciles, optimists or Simons need apply.”


And so Hannah finds herself working for The Stranger Times, a niche publication that operates out of an old church and deals in the paranormal. Office manager Grace keeps the place running on threats and tea. Reporter Reggie threatens to throw himself out of the window before every editorial meeting. Ex-Fleet Street Editor Vincent manages to shoot himself in the foot with a blunderbuss and strangest of all is nearly-naked Manny who operates the printing press in the basement. A spate of deaths locally has a strong whiff of the weird, but as The Stranger Times comes closer to revealing the truth, the whole team comes under threat from a forces that they never even knew existed


This was an absolute ray of joyous bonkers sunshine. The plot zipped along, the dialogue was funny, the characters sharply drawn and there was a lot of biscuit talk which had me at Hobnob. If you enjoy the Rivers of London series from Ben Aaronovitch then this will be very much up your Strasse and there’s another book on its way!

I'd like to start this off with a huge thank you to Netgalley, Random House UK, Transworld Publishers and C.K McConnell.

‘Good meeting. Now, whose leg do I have to hump around here to get a cup of tea?’

This was hands down the funniest book I have read in a long time.
It has an absolute fantastic cast of eccentric characters.

‘Message one,’ came the electronic voice. ‘Hello, yes. This is . . . It doesn’t matter who I am. I want to keep my identity secret.
My next-door neighbour, he’s an alien. His address is . . . Oh, wait a sec . . . I’ll call you back.’

It was absolutely filled to the brim with hilarious moments. The story is a brilliantly written modern fantasy. That breaths new life into the world of the supernatural.

‘By any chance are you referring to this little slaphead thunder -anus in the background?’

I usually copy 2 quotes for a review, however I have 7 and could have copied so many more. The whole book was filled with "moments" and by these I mean really memorable outstanding moments.

What an absolute joy to read :)

I really enjoyed this book, it reminded me of Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere on places, but a much more modern take. Slightly frustrated at so many loose ends, but I guess I’ll have to wait for the sequel. I thought it was pacy and interesting, though the very end felt slightly rushed. If you like magical realism I think you’ll enjoy it.

I absolutely loved this!!

Hannah, a newly divorced woman who’s decided to choose not to take half of what she would be entitled to; to start on her own from scratch. Going from a home we dream of owning to living in her old housemaids spare room.....she fails her first job interview ever only to land on her feet with her second. The back up. The one where she had no idea what she was signing up for.

So starts our story and starts our weird and wonderful collection of characters.

For fans of Richard Kadrey and anyone who loves a bit of sarcasm in their stories

This book was on my wishlist so I was so happy to be given an arc of it earlier than publication date (14th January 2021). Thank you to Netgalley uk and Random House.
This was an amazingly clever story full of strong characters and humour. The book is set in contemporary Manchester UK and as a person who used to live there, it was easy to picture these weird events actually happening there.
I really liked the way the author mixed humour and fantasy whilst creating a story that I found hard to put down.
There's also a website created by C.K. McConnell dedicated to creating articles for The Stranger Times newspaper which is very entertaining. Check it out if you enjoy the book and like me can't wait for the sequel thestrangertimes.co.uk

The Stranger Times is one of those novels where you don’t know what to expect when you start, but you’re quickly pulled into the story. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. An excellent cast of characters, an engaging and fast-paced plot and some proper humour made it even better. Utterly different to the authors usual writing, this change to urban fantasy is both a huge surprise and an excellent decision. Highly recommended for sure.

I'm a big fan of Caimh McDonnell's writing and was very interested to try The Stranger Times, a new genre for him. It was a fantastic book. Mr McDonell's strength is creating characters full of human frailties and imperfections and making us fall in love with them anyway. All the staff at The Stranger Times have some sort of issue, their boss, Vincent, being the worst of all. Yet I love them and was delighted to discover at the end of the book that there will be further stories to come. The concept that there's more on heaven and earth than can be explained by science, fantasy, is not a new idea. But Mr McDonnell takes the fantasy genre and turns it upside down and inside out, creating something so spectacular you'll be hustling for front row seats. What I wouldn't give to be able to subscribe to the newspaper - maybe I could open a regional London office? As is his wont, Caimh McDonnell has created a silk purse out of an old, linen bag and conjured up a magical and charming story that warrants a fulsome 5 stars.

I was so looking forward to reading this and it had great promise. Unfortunately I just couldn't get in to it.

A humorous urban fantasy. Hannah is desperate for a job when she stumbles into a converted church, now home to ‘The Stranger Times’, a newspaper of the weird and wonderful - think The Quibbler of Harry Potter in terms of stories. The paper appears to have its readership although the staff are few and the church dilapidated. Whilst trying to get the hang of her new job, the paper starts investigating a couple of unexplained deaths, and then things get pretty weird. Could some of the weird stories the paper covers be true? Well, possibly not the one about a haunted toilet. Readers of Ben Aaranovitch’s Rivers of London series would probably enjoy this book - it has a similar modern urban magic backdrop and is equally funny.

My thanks to #NetGalley and the publisher, Bantam Press, for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

C. K. (Caimh) McDonnell first came to my notice with his self-published and entirely engaging Bunny McGarry novels. The mix of well written crime stories with a heap of humour that somehow always added to, and never distracted from, the narrative made him mmediately stand out.
The Stranger Times is the first in a new series of novels taking a new set of characters on a pretty fantastic journey.
The eponymous newspaper reports the weird in the world and the motley crew who write and publish it are drawn from a variety of backgrounds
Hannah is our eyes and ears, an engaging protagonist who clicks nicely with the larger than life characters around her. The mix of the Manchester setting and the magical elements of the story will of course draw comparison to the likes of Rivers of London but this stands on its own as the start of a very exciting new series.
McDonnell cleverly builds the story, twisting between the humour of the newspaper team and the suspence of the antagonists journey.
I can't wait to see what comes next in what will hopefully become a long running series!

A great debut! Elements of Pratchett, Gaiman, Aaronavitch, as well as a strong dose of Black Books. There’s just enough hints of mystery to carry a future series and doesn’t get bogged down in Lore, letting the characters build the world rather than the narration.

This book has one of the best cold opens I have read in a long time! I was hooked and reeled in before I knew what was happening!

The Stranger Times is a low rent cousin to the Fortean Times, reporting all the weird news from Nessie to demonic toilets, they may not believe it, but the people they interview do, and they like it that way. When the suspicious death of an over-eager prospective employee pulls them in to a mystery that the powers that be would rather they ignore, they all thought they were rational beings but they have a lot to learn and accept in a short space of time!

The paranormal police/private detective procedural is a pretty full bookshelf these days, so the addition of a new series from the perspective of jaded tabloid journalism gives the genre a welcome new spin!

I loved this book and can't wait for more! Highly recommended - you will love it!

Thank you to NetGalley for providing a ARC of this novel in exchange for a fair review.

I loved this book, so much more to it than I was expecting from the blurb.
Hannah is our unfortunate main character, having to restart her life in Manchester having left an unhappy marriage, and London, behind her. Hannah is unqualified for anything it seems, but somehow stumbles into a job that no one else wants at The Stranger Times. A newspaper dealing with the strange and unusual, including reports of supernatural happenings, alien abductions and haunted toilets. The staff team are a rag tag bunch with eccentricities galore, none more so than the editor - a foul mouthed drunk with a terrifying temper.

Within a short space of time Hannah and the team are dragged into some real investigative journalism, and find themselves having to confront the fact that the stories they've been printing may have more truth in them than they ever realised.

There is a great mixture of humour and drama throughout this novel, and I've seen some reviewers comparing it to the work of Ben Aaronovitch's Rivers of London series. I can see why, but this really has the strength to stand on it's own merits.

This is the first novel in a new series and although we get a resolution to the mystery in this novel I am eager to see where the unexplored threads of narrative take us in subsequent books.

#UrbanFantasy #Cryptids #Fae