Take a magical colloquial ride through Manchester with the fourth instalment in the ‘Stranger Times’ darkly comic crime series, ‘Relight My Fire’, written in the abundant style of Irishman, C. K. McDonnell. C.K. is also known in his full attire as Caimh McDonnell, author of ‘The Dublin Trilogy’, which seems to wield at least six books.
Wit, wonder and weirdness continue to plague the hapless and sometime gifted journalistic endeavours of editor Vincent Banecroft, assistant editor Hannah, newcomer Stella and the rest of the Stranger Times newspaper team, Reggie, Ox, Grace and the Rastafarian Manny, easily one of the most vibrant characters in the novel and the team.
There are a lot of characters in the book, introduced in short chapters throughout the five-hundred-page yarn. Each person serves a practical plot purpose, in this pacy read, but you might need a pen and paper nearby to take down names. Some are dead, some alive, some have no idea which side of the grave they should be on, thanks to a world involving magic Folk and Founders.
An undisputed central protagonist is the city of Manchester, which runs through the novel like the Canal runs alongside Canal Street. Iconic areas like the Northern Quarter and arterial streets frequently pop up as Banecroft, Hannah and Stella seek out answers to their many problems, not the least of which is a 400 year old Pilgrim intent on seeing Banecroft’s demise via a one-way ticket to Hellscape. Â
The blurb threatens that ‘some comebacks can be murder’ and there is darkness alongside the humour, including an absolutely stellar description of the effect of dodgy drugs and the belief of disengaging with gravity from a multi-storey car park.
BAFTA-nominated writer McDonnell is an astute and enigmatic storyteller, across the chapters and within individual sentences, eliciting visceral reactions from this reader who was at times stunned and falling off the chair laughing. No surprise that McDonnell has been a professional stand-up comedian (opening for Sarah Millican and Gary Delaney) as well as a TV writer; ‘Relight My Fire’ has bountiful and quick-fire dialogue exchanges and insightful, driven monologues.
I thoroughly enjoyed the capers the cast found themselves following, particularly their interactions as they’re charging around the city. Absolutely no idea why they work for Banecroft, who at times would deserve a stern talking too, if he wouldn’t immediately have the equivalent verbal comeback of a metaphorical bull on a tea set shopping trip.
‘Relight My Fire’ can be read as a standalone novel, although it’s absolutely definitely worth going back through the back catalogue, to delight in adventures that include vampires in ‘This Charming Man’ and the joyfully matrimonially entitled ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’. Â
This series, and I suspect previous books by Caimh McDonnell, is perfect for fans of Colin Bateman’s Dan Starkey series and Carl Hiassen (if you prefer your weather warmer and Floridian) as well as witty books in general.
Published by: Bantam Release date: 25th January 2024 Buy ‘Relight My Fire’ now
