I would like to thank Transworld for a copy of this novel in exchange for a fair and honest review

Publisher - Transworld

Published - Out Now

Price - £14.99 hardback £7.99 Kindle eBook

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.

Please note - this is the sequel to The Stranger Times by C K McDonnell this review may have mild spoilers. However I do like this a lot more than the predecessor!

Sometimes its good to try something again even if you didnlt enjoy the first experience that much. I do think we tend to be debut focused and forget that just like our own blogs we do get better each time we write. I was less than impressed with The Stanger Times by CK McDonnell but am pleased to report that the sequel This Charming Man is a for me a lot better at a fantasy horror procedural but at the same time confirms this series is not for me

The Manchester based The Stranger Tines is a fortean like paper specialising in stories of the strange and unusual and with its ‘unique’ set of reporters and it’s roguish editor Vincent Blanecroft they have found indeed that the world does have strange magical forces in the background. A truce with the paper has been declared but a man dying in a strange way with sharp teeth and containing someone else’s blood in his stomach suggests a new magical threat has descended and The Stanger Times is asked to investigate; avoid the police and also the magical forces that do not want this story out.

The good news is that in this story Blanecrofft is not hogging the entire story and his anger and comedy insults have veered away from the abusive to more standard outrageous but clever angry person who tends to win the day. This allows the wider cast to have something to do and flesh out the wider editorial team. I enjoyed the feel of modern Manchester McDonnell captures; the mystery is not as simple as it looks and indeed we start to see a larger arc begin to ascend. It rattles at a good pace and wraps itself up in an unusual way. That said there are still a few issues. The humour seems for me a little basic; the cultural references tend to stop at the beginning of the century and ultimately there is little here I have not seen before in various contemporary fantasy series.

Its a big step up in quality from the first story and I think feels settled down enough to have more stories to tell but for me I think I’ve seen enough to confirm this isn’t ever going to ever jump to the top of my future reading pile so I bid the series good luck but time to find something more to my own tastes.