Relight My Fire (Stranger Times book 4) by C.K. McDonnell (book review).
Humour is a strange creature. Not everyone finds the same things funny. This is particularly true in fiction. Some readers may find a humorous book appealing, while others may avoid it. I am one of those. Often, when a writer tries to produce something that is funny, it seems forced despite the blurb saying it is ‘laugh out loud hilarious.’.
Many good books contain humour that rises naturally out of a situation but doesn’t try to overwhelm the reader, as it is part of the lives of the characters. It can lighten a story that may have dark content. Occasionally, a writer will emerge from the pack with a book that contains the quirkiness of humour without trying to labour with it and can lay it alongside a serious story, taking the sting out of the dark corners. This series by C.K. McDonnell accomplishes this.
‘Relight My Fire’ is the fourth book in his ‘Stranger Times’ sequence. It is set in Manchester and The Stranger Times is a weekly newspaper that collects and reports on strange or unexplained events and is similar to a fictional version of the ‘Fortean Times’. The editorial team are a group of disparate and distinct personalities, led by the irascible Vincent Bancroft who, despite his tendency to shout and throw things, has acquired loyalty in his team. The business only runs smoothly because of Grace Yeboah, the office manager who mothers them all, including Banecroft, to the extent of telling them off when they do something she doesn’t approve of. They are all very protective of Stella, the trainee journalist who had some kind of eldritch power that has helped them out of trouble in the past. The problem is that there are some people who would like to feed on this power.
From the start of the series, it is clear that not all the stories featured in The Stranger Times are wishful thinking. Some of the rumours are true. Among others, there are two opposed groups: the Folk and the Founders. The latter need the blood of the former to stay young. Both groups are good at hiding from the public and each other. Occasionally, one of the Founders oversteps the mark.
The latest problem the team face is brought to their notice when a young man falls out of the sky at Stella’s feet. Witnesses swear that he was hovering in mid-air when he fell. It seems he was taking a new drug making the rounds called a merlin. His is not the first weird drug related death.
Stella has been taking classes at the local college and one of the tutors is Cillian Blake. During his career as a rock star, Hannah, assistant editor at The Stranger Times, was one of his fans. Cillian would like a return off his previous fame but his partner, Nigel Stay, was the song-writing talent of the duo. Nigel had died and it was rumoured that somewhere there was an unreleased stash of new music. Cillian will go to any lengths to get it. One of those is resurrecting Nigel and asking him what he did with them. To carry out the process properly, he is working with Emma Marsh, a doctor who was struck off for unorthodox experimentation on humans and she needs Stella for her illegal experiments.
Banecroft has another problem. He is told by an entity he refers to as the Pilgrim, a messenger from the Guardians of the Dead, that he has until Halloween to right an ‘unspeakable wrong’ or he will be consigned to Hell. Banecroft’s problem is that he is given very little to help him do that.
As the various strands weave together the offices of the newspaper are besieged by Marsh’s zombies.
This is a very enjoyable romp. It is not necessary to read previous volumes first even though there are some passing references to events in them.
Pauline Morgan
January 2025
(pub: Bantam, London, 2024. 509 page hardback. Price: £18.99 (UK). ISBN: 978-0-8575-0535-4)
check out website: www.penguin.co.uk/books/457732/relight-my-fire-by-mcdonnell-c-k/9781804993354