However, for those who have read, and enjoyed, previous stories, we have all our old characters back. Original, fast-paced and funny…revolving around the investigations of The Stranger Times newspaper into the weird, the spooky and the supernatural’. Vincent Banecroft, the irascible editor of The Stranger Times, has never believed his wife died despite emphatic evidence to the contrary. I have to admit that I felt deep compassion for this loudmouthed, uncouth character whose manners are as inexcusable as his own personal hygiene, and I followed the narrative thread concerning his quest with great trepidation.

Hannah has left The Stranger Times for an exclusive retreat exploring the benefits of giving her marriage a second try. There is serious creativity here and if you are looking to escape the chaos of today’s society, then these books might just tick the right boxes for you. Nothing is as it seems and we’re never quite sure who to trust - previously likeable characters are behaving suspiciously, and some who disgusted us at first are becoming strangely sympathetic.

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. And if you've ever had to deal with company audits, there's a great moment in this book where Grace is having to haul in boxes of documents for an audit.

After being visited by the ghost of his dead wife (sort of) Vincent Banecroft becomes a man on a mission. It’s hard to talk about these books too much without giving away spoilers, but just know that McDonnell is slowly introducing us to the players in his world, whilst still keeping us on our toes, never quite sure who to trust. The book is a brilliant addition to the series and whilst it can be read as standalone I would start back at the beginning and meet these wonderful characters and follow their backstories in books one and two. Such things are not unusual when Vincent Banecroft is the editor of your paper, a broken shell of a monster with the empathy of a turkey twizzler.The Stranger Times is a newspaper under the stewardship of it’s editor-and-chief, the petulant and bitter Vincent Banecroft. I'm not writing a full review at this point - that will be posted closer to release date - the point of this is to whet your appetite. You need to know how the characters have developed and what has led them to this point and to the decisions they are making. There is something darker and much older behind the sudden ghostly meetings, something that has it’s eyes on a member of the paper and is willing to do whatever it takes to get their hands on them.