Caimh (C.K.) McDonnell’s The Stranger Times series has been shortlisted for a Dead Good Reader Award.

The series, which features the books The Stranger Times and This Charming Man, has been nominated by readers for The New Kid on the Block Award category for Best New Crime Series.

The Stranger Times books are supernatural investigative thrillers centred around a struggling Manchester-based weekly newspaper dedicated to reporting weird and wonderful news from around the world.

Caimh said “I’m absolutely thrilled to have been nominated – for a crime award, no less, which The Stranger Times definitely is. Don’t listen to anybody who says otherwise, it’s definitely crime. Agatha Christy had loads of possessed toilets in her books, people have just forgotten. Please vote for me. I’m up against Richard Osman, which is like trying to fight King Kong although, obviously, King Kong wasn’t as tall or charming. Still, it was nice to be nominated.” 

The winner is decided by public vote here.

Also nominated are Val McDermid’s Allie Burns series, Richard Osman’s Thursday Murder Club series, Neil Lancaster’s Max Craigie series, Joy Kluver’s Bernadette Noel series and Glenda Young’s Helen Dexter series.

The winner will be announced on Friday 22 July during the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate.

Picture: Carla Speight