This is just the kind of book I love (in a guilty pleasure kind of way, although, there’s nothing to feel guilty about!). It’s set in a failing newspaper company that produces paranormal stories. The head editor is a grumpy Irishman (like your man in Black Books who owned the shop and shouted at customers) and we see things unfold through the eyes of a young woman who comes to work at the paper. There is humour, and magical realism and murder and mystery – a good British urban fantasy. I don’t think I realised when I bought it that C. K. McDonnell is in fact one and the same as Caimh McDonnell who wrote the Man With One of Those Faces Dublin Trilogy comic police murder mystery books. I liked it so much, I got my daughter to read it on my kindle when she came home at Christmas and she really liked it too. I can’t wait for the sequel which I have pre-ordered as an audiobook.
Sarah Wray Writer 