This Charming Man is the second book in the Stranger Times series.  Everyone knows that vampires don't exist, except for the vampires that are popping up in Manchester!

On top of that, there's someone trying to kidnap one of the Stranger Times staff, the Assistant Editor, Hannah has returned after a messy divorce, and the editor, Vincent, is as unpleasant as ever.

This is an urban fantasy, all set in a newspaper that prints stories that seem to be ridiculous, but at least some of them are true!

I've enjoyed this series, and seeing urban fantasy from a slightly different point of view.  

This Charming Man was published on 17th February 2022, and is available from Amazon, Waterstones and Bookshop.org.

I was given this book in exchange for an unbiased review, so my thanks to NetGalley and to Random House, Transworld Publishers.

Got slightly sidetracked in reading this, hence the delayed review.
So this is apparently the second in a series which I didn't initially realise and to be perfectly honest this didn't matter too much as the story flows perfectly well without knowing the history. It may be assumed by the author that the reader is familiar with the events of book 1 however if there was anything which I was supposed to know, I didn't realise that I didn't know it and this didn't affect my enjoyment.
I wasn't gripped immediately by the story, hence the being sidetracked but I did upon returning to it find that I was enjoying it, the humour particularly as at that point wanted to keep reading. This may be as a result of not knowing about book 1 but I don't believe this to be the case. Very enjoyable and I will more than likely look to read book 1 and the further books in this series.

As I thought Stranger Times was fantastic I was looking forward to the follow up and this didn't disappoint. All the original characters are back and the plot carries you forward at a clip - loved it

Hard to get into and in some ways but still overall a good read. Loved the development and looking forward to the books to come

I really enjoyed the first book and loved this crazy story even more. It was funny and kept my interest from the start. Can't wait for next story.

After receiving an ARC of "Stranger Times" I couldn't wait to get my hands on the sequel! I'm pleased to say that it's just as funny and clever as its predecessor! Fans of Terry Pratchett will LOVE this, as I did. Thank you so much for the ARC!

An enjoyable follow up to a quirky story. There's lots of intrigue and mystery, murder and mayhem. For some reason it reminds me of Welcome to Night Vale, which is no bad thing.

I loved “The Stranger Times,” and was super excited to read the second part of this series. Sadly I have the memory of a particularly stupid fish and very much wished I had gone back to the first to re-read as this is very much a series that you need to read all and (if you're like me) take notes. There's a definite story arc that needs to be followed and absorbed. That may be why this one wasn't quite as much an instant hit with me. The first book had me in stitches, this one just chuckling. That said it's still a great story and I look forward to more instalments.

With thanks to C.K McDonnell and Random House for an advanced readers copy of this book.

5*

I utterly adore this series, it's joining the chronicles of St Mary's and Rivers of London among my absolute favourites!

We join the gang at the Stranger Times once again but this time.... there's vampires!

A fun new supernatural adventure for the Stranger Times crew, that adds depth to the characters established in the first book and adds some interesting new people as well. I really enjoyed this book. The vampire stuff was funny and engaging, well not over shadowing the characters themselves. There's some great stuff from Bancroft here and the deepening of the mystery of what exactly Stella is has me very excited for the next book.

I will start this by admitting that I requested this book on Netgalley without realising it was the second in a series (no ones fault but mine, it did say that I just wasn’t paying attention!) That said I had no problems at all jumping in to the story at this point. Anything I needed to know from book one was nicely slotted in, in a perfect way to keep me up to speed without too much detail if you had done the sensible thing and read book 1 first!

I enjoyed the irreverent tone of the writing and the sheer off the wall nature of the story. To enjoy this one I think you have to suspend disbelief a little bit – and there’s nothing wrong with that.

The characters were well written and likeable – Hannah was our gateway into the rather odd world of the Stranger Times Newspaper offices, almost everyone else working there had some sort of supernatural connection or are otherwise not what you expect in the everyday.

I loved how all these oddballs pulled together to work as a team, how they had each others backs when it really mattered.

The vampire element of the story was excellently done, we had both traditional vampire behaviour and a mystery to solve as to how they suddenly out of no where started to exist (when everyone agreed that they shouldn’t actually – even Cogs – a fascinating character who I think was my favourite, and he can’t tell a lie.

A romp of a read that was definitely enjoyable.

When bodies start to pile up drained of blood, things aren’t adding up and it’s down to a group whose belief in the supernatural is the key to working out what’s happening. A story of tolerance and friendship brings this story to the streets of Manchester. Great read.

Vampires in Manchester? The Stranger Times team is on the case! The first book was well-constructed, introducing the characters, background and world of The Stranger Times. The story (and world) built well through the book. It was also an excellent darkly comic fantasy.

This Charming Man picks up a few weeks later, with apparent vampires on the streets, unknown people attempting to kidnap Stella and staff continuing in their flawed and cantankerous ways.

The book is excellent, comic fantasy (or any comic fiction) is hard to get right; funny but also working as a coherent narrative, and a well-developed world. With intro's done in book one, This Charming Man benefits from being able to get straight into the story whilst still building the context of the 'world' and introducing new elements.

This has fast become the best series I have read in recent years, looking forward to part three!

I loved this book and I would recommend it to anyone! McDonnell is an amazing writer and I love their writing style.

Absolutely brilliant! I think the 2nd book was even better than the first! Can’t wait for the 3rd one!

Considering I didn't realise this was a sequel I really enjoyed it. The motley crew working at Stranger Times are more than equipped to sniff out a decent otherworldly story but now that they know a lot of the weird stuff is real it puts a new spin on things. Their newest story is a suicidal vampire. Except vampires aren't real.
Although Hannah is the main character we follow, it's her editor Bancroft who really steals the show. For someone so rude, tactless, thoughtless and nasty he is actually a bit of a hidden (well hidden) genius.
I thoroughly enjoyed this dark, funny, twisty urban fantasy and can't wait for the next book.

This was a very funny read, but since I hadn't read the previous one if was a bit hard to understand what was going on (my fault obviously!).

Hannah is a very interesting character and I loved meeting her – and all the others.

I will definitely read the first one and re-read this!

Thank you so much to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.

This is book two of the series. Yes, for the most part, it is a self contained story, however, you’ll find it less confusing if you have read book one beforehand. It is written in the third person and has a lot going on. I can see why it’s being likened to the great Terry Pratchett, it’s a clever book with funny observations. I thought the plot flowed well and it had me curious as to what was going on. I enjoyed the book and will definitely look out for future books from this author. I definitely recommend you read it. Thank you #netgalley

I said when I first found The Stranger Times that it was one newspaper that no one would ever accuse of being dull. The same holds true for its Newest installment.

Hannah having survived her frist adventure took a break to sort out her messy love life and work on self improvement. Three weeks later she's finally devoriced and re thinking the need for exercise. She returns to work to find the builders who were hired to build a decent bathroom with showering facilities decided to include a trapdoor to ,kidnap the youngest member of the stranger Times staff, which they left off the building plans....

On top of that there seems to ve a rash if deaths that have all the hallmarks of Vampire kills...and yet She and her Manger are all told the same thing Vampires don't exist!

So with bodys turning up and a desire to know why someone wants The newest and youngest staffer to themselves it's time to figure this out as well as make sure they put out an issue this week!

I’m always a bit wary about humorous fantasy. Far too often I’ve been assured that I’ll find a book absolutely hilarious when – as far as I’m concerned – it’s nothing of the sort. But on reading the first book of the series, I regularly laughed aloud as I inhaled the trials and tribulations of the staff working for a newspaper that features the weird and whacky. In amongst the adventure are also some delightful snippets featured in the paper – it’s these that mostly had me howling with laughter. The humour is very British, as this series is based in Manchester, a northern, industrial English city renowned for its soggy weather, which will give you an indication as to whether this is your type of thing.

This Charming Man is just as amusing and picks up more or less where The Stranger Times left off. That said, I don’t think you need to read the first book to fully appreciate this one, which is always an advantage with a series. I’ve seen this series compared with Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series – and for once, there is some mileage in that comparison. McDonnell also writes in third person semi-omniscient viewpoint – which means the author is actually telling the story, at least in places, rather than using the protagonists to do the task. I’m not a huge fan of this mode of narration in modern fiction, other than children’s books, as it’s easy to do badly and difficult to do well. But McDonnell is an experienced wordsmith – he also has written The Dublin Trilogy and the McGarry Stateside series under the pen-name Caimh McDonnell, which I haven’t yet read, but will be checking out very soon.

The mystery at the heart of the book has a nicely satisfying consequence of some thoroughly unpleasant behaviour. So there is a strong moral theme which comes through without being remotely finger-wagging – something else that Pratchett was adept at, particularly in the earlier books. While reading this offering, I enjoyed reacquainting myself with the characters, and was interested to discover why the ghastly Vincent Banecroft, editor of The Stranger Times, is quite so awful. As with most really funny books, there is light and shade within the story, so there are also moments of real poignancy.

All in all, this was a thoroughly enjoyable read and I look forward to checking out more of McDonnell’s writing – while oh-so-impatiently waiting for the next adventure featuring the eccentrics working for The Stranger Times. Very highly recommended. While I obtained an arc of This Charming Man from the publisher via Netgalley, the opinions I have expressed are unbiased and my own.
10/10