Returning to the Stranger Times series, this third instalment welcomes us back to the bizarre events happening around The Stranger Times magazine. Not too surprisingly, things have apparently spiralled drastically since we last saw them in This Charming Man. Hannah suddenly quit the job as the assistant editor at The Stranger Times and went back to her ex-husband for reasons unknown to all (spoiler alert: she will be back!); the new assistant editor Betty seems like a very eccentric person, which is not entirely surprising seeing as other team members of the newspaper have their own levels of strangeness; people are still going missing (another regular occurrence now I would say), and editor Vincent Banecroft is still being…you know, Vincent Banecroft.
The story focuses on different storylines since all our protagonists are doing separate things, and every single one of them has some interesting and fun events going on. There is never a normal boring day over here. Banecroft is now seeing his dead wife through Simon’s ghost, crying out to him for help! Yeah, just when you think things can’t go any weirder at The Stranger Things, McDonnell proves you wrong. Banecroft’s obsession with his dead wife grows increasingly hard to deal with and will definitely have a significant impact on future books in the franchise. Stella is preparing for ‘Loon Day’ which is a special day where the newspaper is open to everyone and people drop by to tell their most strange and quite frankly, outrageous tales that they saw or experienced in hopes of getting published in the magazine. We get to dive inside the minds of some minor characters from previous books, like Cogs and Zeke, Simon, and DI Tom Sturgess; but we still got our old gang back, Ox (my personal favourite), Reggie, Stella, and Grace are still holding down the fort!
It is quite hard to write about this book without revealing any spoilers, since the events are all interlinked with each other. The chapters are relatively short, and each chapter is told through a different character’s perspective, and they occasionally overlap. It is an easy read full of dark comedy that will leave you chuckling under your breath from time to time. One thing for sure is that nothing is what it seems, and everyone seems to have ulterior motives. Wonder what other mysteries will be revealed in the next one?!
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. I heard that the Founders are still somewhere out there (note: we do not say the ‘F-word’ around here).
Before I finish this review, I have to share my favourite piece of dialogue in the whole series that had me crying with laughter and might be that push for you to grab this book when it comes out next month. A short snippet for you to enjoy beforehand. For context, Ox is trying to explain ‘Bingo’ to Stella.
‘I don’t get what bingo is’
‘But…it’s bingo’
Stella brushed away the strand of hair that had fallen over her left eye and folded her arms. ‘Are you just going to keep saying the word repeatedly on the assumption that it’ll start making sense?’
Love Will Tear Us Apart is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore, as of February 9th.
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Synopsis | Goodreads
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.
