Relight My Fire (book 4) by CK McDonnell (book review).

‘Relight My Fire’ is the fourth book in the series set in the offices of a newspaper that chases the arcane and frankly unbelievable occurrences bordering on the supernatural or otherworldly.

Hannah is the deputy editor of Stranger Times. She answers to the shambolic editor, Vincent Bancroft, who has more than a whiff of Jackson Lamb and also probably Lamb’s Navy rum. He’s an old soak but used to be shit-hot editor in Fleet Street. The death of his wife has hit him hard but, despite outward appearances and odours, he has an unerring nose for news and unswerving loyalty to his staff whilst managing a very thick veneer of indifference.

Stella, the trainee, has had an interesting life already (see books 1-3) and now she’s enjoying student living unaware of the surreptitious stalking by the rest of the team trying to protect her from her newfound but seemingly incontrollable power. It’s Hannah who’s on hand to steer Stella away when a man unexpectedly drops out of the sky and smashes on the pavement in front of her.

In the next few minutes, Hannah meets a celebrity-has-been rock star she had a crush on when younger and turns into a blithering wreck. Her sort-of ex, DI Tom Sturgess, then turns up because it’s his area of ‘weird bollocks’ cementing Hannah’s terminal embarrassment. Thus follows dilemma mystery and mirth and a lot stuff relating to previous books so no more plot because spoilers!

We can only follow the Stranger Times team as once again off we go down the rabbit hole of improbability. I loved the dry and embedded humour of this book, its the stuff of life. Despite the strangeness of the various situations, we can all relate to the characters like Stella, Hannah, office manager Grace and the editor Vincent have all the quirks. Vincent also has his very own subplot that involves an entity presenting as a tall dark man invisible to everyone else who threatens Vincent with a permanent visit to Hell unless he does exactly as he’s told. Poor Vincent, he can’t catch a break despite going through a mill and a half in previous books.

To get up to speed I read the three books leading up to this and would recommend reading all of them. You can read this as you will be able to slot right into the story but why not spoil yourself and jump right into the action. The whole thing is great fun and I suspect I’ll be rereading them another time to enjoy the humour. I could see this as a TV series if that sort of thing ever got made which it doesn’t.

Sue Davies

January 2024

(pub: ‎ Bantam/Transworld/Penguin, 2024. 528 page hardback. Price: £14.99 (UK). ISBN:‎ 978-0-85750-535-4)

check out website: www.penguin.co.uk/books/457732/relight-my-fire-by-mcdonnell-c-k/9780857505354