I definitely recommend reading this series from the beginning to understand the characters backgrounds. His debut novel, A Man With One of Those Faces - a comic crime novel - was published in 2016 and spawned The Dublin Trilogy books and the spin-off McGarry Stateside series. Love Will Tear Us Apart is as completely and wonderfully bonkers as the previous two books in this series.

I don't think I can recommend reading this as a standalone but you can definitely read it while not perfectly remembering what happend in the previous one. I originally read The Dublin Trilogy, an Irish based, extremely funny, crime series featuring Bunny McGarry, one of my all time favourite lead protagonists, and have been hooked since. Meanwhile Vincent is behaving oddly - even for him, as his obsession with finding his deceased wife consumes him, and Stella just wants to get on with the job - which means tackling her first Loon Day! We are introduced to new characters who also have this conversational style, and some who didn’t have it before have developed it.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. This is the third book in the Stranger Times series, following on from, ‘The Stranger Times,’ and ‘This Charming Man. Took me longer to get into than the first two, and I flipped and flopped between really enjoying it, and not being motivated to carry on reading. And, if for no other reason, the dedication for the bonus short story at the end, makes it a solid five.

As if that wasn't enough, one of the paper's ex-columnists has disappeared, a particularly impressive trick seeing as he never existed in the first place. And as far as the plot is concerned, I’m aware I said next to nothing about it, but to do so would run the risk of spoiling your enjoyment, so I will only say that some of the threads that started in the previous two books reach here their – quite satisfactory – fruition, and prepare the ground, or so I hope, for future stories set in the quirkiest newspaper I ever learned about. But I have to say authrs sending memebr of a team or crew their separate way to live other adventures is somthing I don’t like in books as I just want to know what will happen in the story when they are all together! Unbeknownst to most mere mortals, it is a source of vital information for certain inexplicable individuals whose job is to maintain the balance of society and to keep the status quo in check.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. We understand more about why the previous agreements that kept the magic hidden are breaking down and the threats posed to inhabitants of the city. He performed all around the world, had several well-received Edinburgh shows and supported acts such as Sarah Millican on tour before hanging up his clowning shoes to concentrate on writing. We dive straight in to the mysteries, as we find that Hannah has left The Stranger Times to go back to her ex-husband.

Only 4 stars this time because It took a little while to really get into it but I'd still recommend this series to anyone in need of a good laugh. It also had a lot of quite suspenseful chapters and brought the character development to a new level There where more storylines in this one and I missed the group dynamic of the Stranger Times, but the ensuing chaos made up for that. 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. In this time of crisis, is her decision to swan off to a fancy new-age retreat run by a celebrity cult really the best thing for anyone?The opening chapters show us a Banecroft in even worse shape than before, and his odd behaviour has only gotten worse. There was also nowhere near enough of a certain dashing policeman in evidence, with or without his live-in friend. I. tom Sturgess has an eyeball living in his head, or why there’s a talking dog on a barge, might slow down the plot. The only negatives were in the formatting of the ARC which made it hard to read in places, bur when this gets cleaned up for publication it'll be a great entry in the series.