This is the second book in The Stranger Times series and the moment I had read this one (courtesy of #netgalley, thank you very much), I had to go and buy the first one, so that’s a rare accolade.

The Stranger Times is a Manchester-based newspaper which reports on paranormal, strange and otherwise peculiar goings on around the world, edited by the intermittently malevolent Vincent Banecroft, a stupendously vile person with few saving graces who reminded me of nobody so much as Jackson Lamb in Mick Herron’s equally brilliant but entirely different Slough House series.

In this book, vampires (which everyone knows don’t exist) start popping up, there are plumbing / kidnap complications and a running gag based on a swear-by-numbers board that I’m severely tempted to adopt just for the fun of it.  It’s clever, funny, unexpected and keeps you turning the pages. And, like I say, I enjoyed it so much I had to read the first book in the series and can’t wait for the next one to appear. Brilliant.