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‘At his best, Terry was a teacher’: Why we love Terry Pratchett

(The Stranger Times 4)

Relight My Fire

Reviewers love Relight My Fire... 
 
'Transgressively hilarious . . . Of course there's a story that the intrepid journalists of The Stranger Times have to tease out . . . but the real joy lies in the pitfalls and pratfalls of getting there' 
DAILY MAIL 
 
'An absolute riot of a read' DAILY EXPRESS 
 
'Laugh-out-loud funny' DAILY MIRROR 
 
'I loved the dry and embedded humour of this book, it's the stuff of life' SFCROSWNEST 
 
Some comebacks can be murder . . . 
 
Stella is enjoying life as an almost student, or at least she is until a man falls from the sky right in front of her, leaving a big old hole in the pavement for Manchester Council to fill. The obvious question of how he ended up in the sky in the first place has no obvious answers, which is where The Stranger Times come in. This isn't just the hunt for another story though. Dark powers think Stella might have been involved and the only way she and the team can prove her innocence is to find out what the hell is really going on. What have dodgy gear, disturbed graves and a decommissioned rock star got to do with all this? 
 
Vincent Banecroft has problems of his own in the form of a tall, dark but-definitely-not-handsome man dressed like a one-man funeral who has been sent to make the paper's editor atone for his sins. Once he finds out exactly what that entails, Banecroft is not keen. Being banished to a Hellscape for all eternity looks like being no fun at all, not least because he has that pale Irish skin that burns really easily . . . 
 
All that plus territorial ghouls, homicidal felines, eternal (and seemingly unstoppable) gnomes and a celebrity 'Who's Who' that'd put a royal wedding to shame, and you're looking at a wild few days for The Stranger Times. 
 
Relight My Fire is the fourth adventure in the acclaimed and brilliantly funny Stranger Times series. 
 
The Stranger Times - winner of the British Fantasy Award for Best Audio.

McDonnell's world is transgressively hilarious, grimly banal and beguilingly warm. Of course there's a story that the intrepid journalists of The Stranger Times have to tease out: grave-robbing, cryogenics, a very angry witch, and a washed-up indie legend looking for a lost album, but the real joy lies in the pitfalls and pratfalls of getting there.

Laugh-out-loud funny and full of colourful characters.

It’s no secret that here at SciFiTowers we’re massive fans of the Stranger Times series by C. K. McDonnell. Following the success of Love Will Tear Us Apart (which made February 2023’s list of best books), he’s back with book number four and we return to Manchester and the world of The Stranger Times newspaper who cover anything weird and wonderful.

I loved the dry and embedded humour of this book, it's the stuff of life . . . the whole thing is great fun.

You could be forgiven for wondering if author C.K. McDonnell could continue the high standards set in the previous three novels of The Stranger Times series, but fear not . . . Relight My Fire is perhaps the best since the original.

Wit, wonder and weirdness . . . McDonnell is an astute and enigmatic storyteller . . . eliciting visceral reactions from this reader who was at times stunned and falling off the chair laughing.

Born in Limerick and raised in Dublin, C K (Caimh) McDonnell is a former stand-up comedian and TV writer. He performed all around the world, had several well-received Edinburgh shows and supported acts such as Sarah Millican on tour before hanging up his clowning shoes to concentrate on writing. He has also written for numerous TV shows and been nominated for a Kid's TV BAFTA. 
His debut novel, A Man With One of Those Faces - a comic crime novel - was published in 2016 and spawned The Dublin Trilogy books and the spin-off McGarry Stateside series. They have been Amazon bestsellers on both sides of the Atlantic. As C. K. McDonnell, he is the author of The Stranger Times series contemporary comic fantasy series. 
Caimh lives in Manchester. To find out more, visit whitehairedirishman.com

Reviewers love Relight My Fire... 
 
'Transgressively hilarious . . . Of course there's a story that the intrepid journalists of The Stranger Times have to tease out . . . but the real joy lies in the pitfalls and pratfalls of getting there' 
DAILY MAIL 
 
'An absolute riot of a read' DAILY EXPRESS 
 
'Laugh-out-loud funny' DAILY MIRROR 
 
'I loved the dry and embedded humour of this book, it's the stuff of life' SFCROSWNEST 
 
Some comebacks can be murder . . . 
 
Stella is enjoying life as an almost student, or at least she is until a man falls from the sky right in front of her, leaving a big old hole in the pavement for Manchester Council to fill. The obvious question of how he ended up in the sky in the first place has no obvious answers, which is where The Stranger Times come in. This isn't just the hunt for another story though. Dark powers think Stella might have been involved and the only way she and the team can prove her innocence is to find out what the hell is really going on. What have dodgy gear, disturbed graves and a decommissioned rock star got to do with all this? 
 
Vincent Banecroft has problems of his own in the form of a tall, dark but-definitely-not-handsome man dressed like a one-man funeral who has been sent to make the paper's editor atone for his sins. Once he finds out exactly what that entails, Banecroft is not keen. Being banished to a Hellscape for all eternity looks like being no fun at all, not least because he has that pale Irish skin that burns really easily . . . 
 
All that plus territorial ghouls, homicidal felines, eternal (and seemingly unstoppable) gnomes and a celebrity 'Who's Who' that'd put a royal wedding to shame, and you're looking at a wild few days for The Stranger Times. 
 
Relight My Fire is the fourth adventure in the acclaimed and brilliantly funny Stranger Times series. 
 
The Stranger Times - winner of the British Fantasy Award for Best Audio!

(The Stranger Times 3)

Love Will Tear Us Apart

An addictive, wonderfully dark and laugh-out-loud funny urban fantasy novel with loveable, magical characters, sinister beings and strange goings-on! 
 
'Brilliant and bananas . . . we loved it' MAGIC RADIO 
‘Wonderfully dark, extremely funny’ ADAM KAY, on The Stranger Times 
 
Love can be a truly terrible thing. 
 
Marriages are tricky at the best of times, especially when one of you is dead. 
 
Vincent Banecroft, the irascible editor of The Stranger Times, has never believed his wife died despite emphatic evidence to the contrary. Now, against all odds, it seems he may actually be proved right; but what lengths will he go to in an attempt to rescue her? 
 
With Banecroft distracted, the shock resignation of assistant editor, Hannah Willis, couldn't have come at a worse time. It speaks volumes that her decision to reconcile with her philandering ex-husband is only marginally less surprising than Banecroft and his wife getting back together. In this time of crisis, is her decision to swan off to a fancy new-age retreat run by a celebrity cult really the best thing for anyone? 
 
As if that wasn't enough, one of the paper's ex-columnists has disappeared, a particularly impressive trick seeing as he never existed in the first place. 
 
Floating statues, hijacked ghosts, homicidal cherubs, irate starlings, Reliant Robins and quite possibly several deeply sinister conspiracies; all-in-all, a typical week for the staff of The Stranger Times. 
 
Readers LOVE C. K. McDonnell: 
 
‘Brilliant! Absolute genius!! . . . a comic masterpiece’ ***** 
‘This series just keeps getting better and better! This one was even funnier than the last!’ ***** 
‘THESE BOOKS ARE SO FUN TO READ. I JUST CAN’T WAIT FOR THE NEXT ONE!’ ***** 
‘What a truly entertaining read . . . just read the book’ ***** 
‘This series just gets better and better . . . it’s laugh out loud funny’ ***** 
‘Wonderfully strange, magical and heartfelt’ *****

Two Word Review - Read it! 5 Word Review - What Are You Waiting For?. . . my favourite of the series, not only does it manage to be funnier than the others it also gets a whole lot darker.

As completely and wonderfully bonkers as the previous two books in this series . . . a rollercoaster of a ride . . . kooky and fantastical, a riotous experience, one not to be missed. As The Times put it "a tennis match of witty banter."

Full of dark comedy that will leave you chuckling under your breath . . . it is always lovely to catch up with the gang in Manchester, watch them get on to new shenanigans and deal with some more supernatural stuff.

This is a series that I would happily read more of.

Another great entry in this series. McDonnell does some impressive world building and deploys a range of types of humour, including some great one liners . . . But at the heart of this series is McDonnell's great compassion for the crew of The Stranger Times. On top of plenty of ongoing mysteries, this is the not-so-secret ingredient that will keep readers coming back for more.

Truly epic . . . one of the best series I have ever read.

The Stranger Times - winner of the 2023 British Fantasy Award for Best Audio Work! 
 
Love can be a truly terrible thing. 
 
Marriages are tricky at the best of times, especially when one of you is dead. 
 
Vincent Banecroft, the irascible editor of The Stranger Times, has never believed his wife died despite emphatic evidence to the contrary. Now, against all odds, it seems he may actually be proved right; but what lengths will he go to in an attempt to rescue her? 
 
With Banecroft distracted, the shock resignation of assistant editor, Hannah Willis, couldn't have come at a worse time. It speaks volumes that her decision to reconcile with her philandering ex-husband is only marginally less surprising than Banecroft and his wife getting back together. In this time of crisis, is her decision to swan off to a fancy new-age retreat run by a celebrity cult really the best thing for anyone? 
 
As if that wasn't enough, one of the paper's ex-columnists has disappeared, a particularly impressive trick seeing as he never existed in the first place. 
 
Floating statues, hijacked ghosts, homicidal cherubs, irate starlings, Reliant Robins and quite possibly several deeply sinister conspiracies; all-in-all, a typical week for the staff of The Stranger Times.

(The Stranger Times 2)

This Charming Man

STOP PRESS! The Stranger Times wins the 2023 British Fantasy Award for Best Audio Work! 
 
Vampires do not exist. Everyone knows this. So it's particularly annoying when they start popping up around Manchester . . . 
 
Nobody is pleased about it. Not the Founders, the secret organisation for whom vampires were invented as an allegory, nor the Folk, the magical people hidden in plain sight who only want a quiet life. And definitely not the people of Manchester, because there is nothing more irksome than being murdered by an allegory run amok. Somebody needs to sort this out fast before all Hell really breaks loose - step forward the staff of The Stranger Times. 
 
It's not like they don't have enough to be dealing with. Assistant Editor Hannah has come back from getting messily divorced to discover that someone is trying to kidnap a member of their staff and while editor Vincent Banecroft would be delighted to see the back of any of his team, he doesn't like people touching his stuff - it's the principle of the thing. 
 
Throw in a precarious plumbing situation, gambling debts, an entirely new way of swearing, and a certain detective inspector with what could be kindly referred to as 'a lot of baggage' and it all adds up to another hectic week in the life of the newspaper committed to reporting the truth that nobody else will touch. 
 
This Charming Man is the second book in the critically acclaimed The Stranger Times series. 
 
'A gag-filled romp . . . in the spirit of Terry Pratchett.' The Times 
'Great characters, a jet-propelled plot, and a winning premise.' Guardian 
'Fresh and genuinely funny.' SFX

With crisp plotting, scabrous dialogue and deftly applied splashes of gore, former comedian C.K. McDonnell has served up another winner from his cast of delightful losers.

McDonnell makes Manchester chaotic, hilarious, elegiac and sinister at the same time . . . very, very funny . . . the work has already been compared frequently to Terry Pratchett, and given the whip-crack sharp lines and wryness, it is not inappropriate. But it is not a weak clone of Pratchett's work, and it has its own political edge.

Intriguingly brilliant . . . its greatest strength is in its engaging and enthralling characters, both new and old. The author revels in their personalities, their foibles and flaws as they guide you hilariously through an urban fantasy landscape bursting with myth and magic; all often hiding in plain sight . . . perhaps more Gaiman or Adams than Pratchett, McDonnell has a gift for describing the fantastical as delectably formulaic . . . if you enjoy your fantasy peppered with wit and deft creativity, then McDonnell's books will sit comfortably on your bookshelf next to those revered genre alumni.

Fast-paced, brilliantly written, and with characters to die for, This Charming Man will have you laughing out loud time and again.

(The Stranger Times 1)

The Stranger Times

From the publisher of Terry Pratchett and Good Omens comes the smart, knowing, outrageously fun and acclaimed supernatural romp by award-winning comic and hugely successful indy author Caimh McDonnell . . . now in paperback!

STOP PRESS! The Stranger Times wins the 2023 British Fantasy Award for Best Audio Work! 
 
'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 GUARDIAN 
 
JASON 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 - 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.' 
 
The Stranger Times and This Charming Man shortlisted for a 'Dead Good Reader Award' - the 'The New Kid on the Block Award for Best New Series'!

A filmic romp with great characters, a jet-propelled plot, and a winning premise.

I tore through The Stranger Times. Like an entertaining collision between the worlds of Mick Herron and Charlie Stross, it's a novel that proves ancient eldritch horror is no match for old-school journalism.

CHRISTOPHER BROOKMYRE, bestselling author of Fallen Angel

There are weird happenings in Manchester; good job the drunk and dysfunctional journalists of The Stranger Times, a newspaper dedicated to paranormal and the unexplained, are on hand . . . terrific, easygoing fun.

I loved this . . . great premise - great story - great characters . . . hugely enjoyable.

JODI TAYLOR, bestselling author of The Chronicles of St Mary's series

A cracker . . . brace yourself for murder, monsters, mesmerism - and merriment. Wonderfully wacky.

Darkly comedic . . . alternating between sinister and silly, McDonnell's writing is intelligently witty.

The one-liners zing, the dialogue is a tennis match of witty banter.

McDonnell loves creating characters and loves the characters he creates, and soon we are rooting for this quirky and eccentric multicultural bunch . . . a real generosity of spirit permeates the book. It is strangely feelgood but not in a schmaltzy way . . . a very funny book.

Weird, wacky and wonderfully funny

STOP PRESS! The Stranger Times wins the 2023 British Fantasy Award for Best Audio Work! 
 
'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 GUARDIAN 
 
JASON MANFORD thinks it's 'Hilarious. You'll never look at Manchester the same way again' 
 
And The Chronicles of St Mary's series author JODI TAYLOR declared 'I loved this . . . great premise - great story - great characters . . . hugely enjoyable' 
 
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.' 
 
The Stranger Times and This Charming Man shortlisted for a 'Dead Good Reader Award' - the 'The New Kid on the Block Award for Best New Series'!

C. K. McDonnell

Fiendishly clever and monstrously funny, C K McDonnell's latest will steal your soul and eat your brain. In the nicest possible way, of course.

Tom Holt, author of The Portable Door and The Eight Reindeer of the Apocalypse

(The Stranger Times 5)

‘Fiendishly clever and monstrously funny, C K McDonnell's latest will steal your soul and eat your brain. In the nicest possible way, of course.’ TOM HOLT, author of The Portable Door and The Eight Reindeers of Christmas 
 
It is beginning to look a lot like Christmas . . . 
 
For most people, that means a time of celebration, relaxation and inebriation, but not for the staff of The Stranger Times. While a book club meeting ending in a triple murder isn’t unprecedented, it is at least noteworthy. It quickly emerges that this is no ordinary book-club-triple-murder either, as it features a librarian possessed by a chaotic entity who has broken through from another dimension and is hellbent on vengeance. He’s made a list, but he’s not checking it twice as the whole of humanity is on it. Who would want to summon such a thing? And how is anyone going to be able to send it back? 
 
As if that wasn’t enough to be dealing with, a shocking revelation about a member of The Stranger Times team’s past brings family together, but not in a way that’s ever going to make it into a Hallmark movie. 
 
Featuring demonically possessed Santas, blood-thirsty books and the ghost of a legendary nightclub, it’s beginning to look a lot like a Christmas apocalypse . . . 
 
Ring the Bells is the fifth book in the award-winning, critically acclaimed and laugh-out-loud funny The Stranger Times series. 
 
The reviewers loved Relight My Fire: 
 
'McDonnell's world is transgressively hilarious, grimly banal and beguilingly warm. Of course there's a story that the intrepid journalists of The Stranger Times have to tease out: grave-robbing, cryogenics, a very angry witch, and a washed-up indie legend looking for a lost album, but the real joy lies in the pitfalls and pratfalls of getting there.' DAILY MAIL 
 
'An absolute riot of a read.' DAILY EXPRESS 
 
'Laugh-out-loud funny and full of colourful characters.' DAILY MIRROR 
 
'It’s no secret that here at SciFi Towers we’re massive fans of the Stranger Times series by C. K. McDonnell.' SciFiNOW 
 
'I loved the dry and embedded humour of this book, it's the stuff of life . . . the whole thing is great fun.' SFCROSWNEST 
 
'Relight My Fire is perhaps the best since the original.' STARBURST

C. K. McDonnell

Praise for Ring the Bells

Fiendishly clever and monstrously funny, C K McDonnell's latest will steal your soul and eat your brain. In the nicest possible way, of course.

Books by C. K. McDonnell

Series by C. K. McDonnell

The Stranger Times

Articles featuring C. K. McDonnell

‘At his best, Terry was a teacher’: Why we love Terry Pratchett

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