Love Will Tear Us Apart: (The Stranger Times 3)

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This third installment of what has quickly become my favorite Urban Fantasy series played with some of the narrative threads explored in the previous books and moved forward in a very intriguing and quite satisfactory way, offering the by now familiar mix of humor and drama while at the same time delving deeper into some of the main characters, bringing to the surface a few unexpected facets of their personalities.

Banecroft’s life revolves around waiting for ghosts to appear so he can talk to his deceased wife, convinced her spirit is in trouble. I was delighted to see that there is a multi-part Stranger Times series in development so get in early folks and catch up on your reading first. I can't elaborate because to talk about the events our characters have to deal with would absolutely spoil the previous two books.

In McDonnell’s third instalment following the journalists of The Stranger Times, we join the action after Hannah has abruptly left, and everyone is convinced Banecroft is responsible for it. is a former stand up comedian who has created a world (a slightly different Manchester) that I would love to visit but certainly not like to stay!

Look, if it will stop you all clucking like tedious hens, as it happens, I have the assistant-editor situation in hand. It remains just as strong, maybe even stronger, after the conclusion of this book, the third in the series. The characters are as quirky and endearing as ever, even as they are growing and changing; the dialogue is witty; the plot is gripping and a perfect balance of humour and pathos, intrigue and action.Then something hilarious happened or was said (I feel like I might have to borrow the expressions of tickling one's tonsils from the inside! Hannah has gone to investigate a retreat, known as the Pinter Institute, Stella and Betty try to find out what is going on with Banecroft and Sturgess involves Ox and Reggie in trying to find out who took a conspiracy theorist from his house and threw him in a van. There is a new assistant editor to replace Hannah who to Banecroft's disgust has been given the job by the owner over his head. The Institute is a strange place, to say the least, run by plastic-faced personnel that are just a half-step short of being robotic, and poor Hannah is subjected to the strangest remedies that go from hot yoga to other… ahem… intrusive therapies that should help her “find herself” but sound too weird even to someone used to the madness of the Stranger Times.

About ten years ago when the UF genre exploded I never lacked for anything to read but these days the genre seems to have dried up and I’m looking for something fresh and new! But with the shock resignation of his assistant editor, a new one being thrust on him and his newspaper potentially posting something close to the truth for once, Banecroft will need to decide the lengths he is willing to go to find his wife, and who he is willing to sacrifice in the process.And, if for no other reason, the dedication for the bonus short story at the end, makes it a solid five. For example, DI Tom Sturgess turns up a handful of times, querying the disappearance of an occasional contributor to the paper. In this book we pick up a short time after the events of Book 2 - and things have taken a bit of a turn at the paper. If you are a fan of the occasional article from the paper popping up in these books then I can thoroughly recommend the Stranger Times Podcast which features short stories from the same universe and starts with other articles from the papers archive! And happily lacking the “tormented past” of many UF protagonists: the characters have their troubles to deal with, but it’s done with such a good dose of tongue-in-cheek humor that it enlightens the story instead of darkening it.