The Fortean Times and the National Enquirer are real newspapers in the same way that Dr Pepper is a real doctor. But while The Stranger Times may appear to be another such questionably-sourced publication, the news it reports - on subjects like vampires, werewolves, etc. - are all true. Hannah Willis becomes the latest in a string of Assistant Editors of The Stranger Times who figures this out shortly after starting - just in time to cover a dark magician’s infernal goings-on in the Manchester underworld that might make her the last hire of the paper… evarrr!
CK McDonnell’s The Stranger Times, the first in a series of urban fantasy novels, is a decent beginning that, while not telling the most compelling or original of stories, introduces a beguiling cast of characters in a pleasing style that will mostly appeal to fans of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld and Ben Aaronovitch’s Rivers of London books.
The book gets off to a good start. McDonnell introduces his fair-sized cast skilfully while establishing the plot: a homeless person is murdered in grisly circumstances closely followed by a supporting character loosely connected to the paper. And then... things stagnate for quite a bit of time with characters slowly realising what we already know: that there’s a bad guy going around a-killing. The pacing never really recovers after that and the final act is an uninspired and neatly-forgettable Hollywood-esque conclusion.
I guess “Mild Spoilers” for the rest of the review…
The plot twists aren’t tense as there’s never any doubt of their resolution. Will the paper be shut down forever? Nope, because this is the first book in a series dependent on there being a paper. Will they stop the bad guy? Of course, because this is the first book in a series where our heroes will face more bad guys in more books.
I wasn’t that gripped with much of anything that was happening because a lot of it was predictable - even when a minor character dies early on, I knew they were going to be resurrected because this is set in a world of magic so why not? And then in the epilogue, there they be. Yawn. McDonnell isn’t able to make the reader feel the emotions his characters are feeling because events either have little or no weight to them or you can guess what’s going to happen next so you’re never convinced that what he’s telling you is what it is.
That’s also the weakness of magic itself in any story: write yourself into a corner? Magic will set you free! And so it goes here. He at least tries to quantify magic (poorly - “she’s a Type 8!”; it’s still vague, and sounds dumb) but it’s still used as a get out of jail free card with regards any scene and, rather than create an exciting finale, made for a tedious one instead.
Still, the cast and their amusing office dynamics more than make up for a fast-moving, gripping story. Hannah is a fine protagonist/reader surrogate - flawed but likeable and “good” - while Vincent Banecroft, the irascible curmudgeonly editor-in-chief (think Spider-Man’s J. Jonah Jameson but Irish) stole the show with his bottomless fury energising every scene he was in.
Dr Veronica Carter, the paper’s giggly lawyer (or is she…?), and the paper’s owner Mrs Harnforth, who was comparable to Ankh-Morpork’s ruler Lord Vetinari, were both memorable and enjoyable characters too. McDonnell also keeps us interested in these characters with surprise moments that reveal hidden depths like Banecroft’s vulnerability when it comes to his wife or mild-mannered Reggie’s vicious side when a pair of would-be muggers appear.
McDonnell leans a bit too heavily on prefab elements/archetypes at times. He describes the villain Moretti as a “Danny DeVito lookalike” which is lazy descriptive writing (though it did give me a good idea of the character so it was effective to an extent). The werewolf hitman’s motivations were to save his sickly kid (cue eye-rolling) and all that rubbish about the Accords (rules for magic users) could’ve been taken from any urban fantasy story.
There are some fun scenes though like Hannah sitting through her first Loon Day, when the paper allows members of the public into their church-based offices to try to sell them their insane stories, and Moretti’s Men in Black-esque visit to a magic shop. And the interstitials - excerpts of stories from The Stranger Times proper - were a cute addition.
I would’ve liked to have seen more originality and a stronger core storyline but this first book of The Stranger Times succeeds in establishing the world and tone of the series, and, more importantly, its likeable cast of main characters. Easy to read, mildly entertaining, even funny at times - while not as good as Pratchett or Aaronovitch’s books, McDonnell’s novel is still worth checking out for fans of those authors.
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