The Stranger Times

The Stranger Times is a weekly newspaper in Manchester that covers ghosts, monsters, UFOs and whatever else the mainstream press refuses to print. Its ambitions are large. Its editor, Vincent Banecroft, is a drunk with a vicious temper who has little respect for the paper he runs, and his staff is a collection of misfits.

Hannah Willis has just started as assistant editor, a job that has seen a long line of people come and go. She arrives with troubles of her own. Then tragedy strikes during her first week, and the paper has to do some real investigating.

What the team uncovers is hard to wave away. Some of the stories they had written off as nonsense turn out to be terrifyingly real, and the forces behind them are darker than anyone at the paper had guessed.

This is the first book in the Stranger Times series. It is a darkly comic urban fantasy mystery with a supernatural plot, a large ensemble cast and a very British, very sweary sense of humour. The pace is quick and the tone is funny, in the manner of Terry Pratchett and Ben Aaronovitch.