Ring the Bells

(The Stranger Times 5)

By: C. K. McDonnell

Narrated by: Brendan McDonald

Brought to you by Penguin.

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas . . .

For most people, that means a time of celebration, relaxation and inebriation, but not for the staff of The Stranger Times. While a book club meeting ending in a triple murder isn’t unprecedented, it is at least noteworthy. It quickly emerges that this is no ordinary book-club-triple-murder either, as it features a librarian possessed by a chaotic entity who has broken through from another dimension and is hellbent on vengeance. He’s made a list, but he’s not checking it twice as the whole of humanity is on it. Who would want to summon such a thing? And how is anyone going to be able to send it back?

As if that wasn’t enough to be dealing with, a shocking revelation about a member of The Stranger Times team’s past brings family together, but not in a way that’s ever going to make it into a Hallmark movie.

Featuring demonically possessed Santas, blood-thirsty books and the ghost of a legendary nightclub, it’s beginning to look a lot like a Christmas apocalypse . . .

Ring the Bells is the fifth book in the award-winning, critically acclaimed and laugh-out-loud funny The Stranger Times series.


'McDonnell's world is transgressively hilarious, grimly banal and beguilingly warm. Of course there's a story that the intrepid journalists of The Stranger Times have to tease out: grave-robbing, cryogenics, a very angry witch, and a washed-up indie legend looking for a lost album, but the real joy lies in the pitfalls and pratfalls of getting there.' DAILY MAIL

'An absolute riot of a read.' DAILY EXPRESS

'Laugh-out-loud funny and full of colourful characters.' DAILY MIRROR

© C. K. McDonnell 2025 (P) Penguin Audio 2025

Critic reviews

Fiendishly clever and monstrously funny, C K McDonnell's latest will steal your soul and eat your brain. In the nicest possible way, of course.

Crying

But in a good way. Best Christmas ending of endings, in one of those moments that sticks with you.

BEST ONE YET!

What did I like or dislike?
Liked; All of it!
Disliked; Can’t blame the book, the author or narrator as the only thing I disliked was my own inability to stretch it out even the tiniest bit and instead binged the entire book in one setting and ignored the add on to my sleep deficit while also abandoning, one after another of any self imposed “One more chapter and then I’ll stop”admonitions, instead, continuing on relentlessly. So am now left wanting until the next release.
I will say to anyone still reading this who also fits into the category of those lucky or unlucky enough to have never read/listened to any of the previous books in the series, this could be a stand alone but don’t try that. Go to the beginning you lucky sods so you can enjoy the entire series and then thoroughly enjoy this, THE BEST ONE YET!

Stranger Times Stays Strong

Gotta admit, I was worried this one wasn’t going to hit.
But it absolutely does. The author does a fantastic job of weaving together several stories that coalesce quite well by the end.
Also, there are several scenes where the tension, juxtaposed against absurdity, leads to hilarity in classic Stranger Times fashion.
I was happy to see book 5 did not disappoint.

Sooooo much Fun

Hmmmm, it is still sooooo much fun. Stranger Times is well…strange. In a good way! Say goodnight Bunny

Love this series!

I love these books, they always get me laughing out loud & this new one is no disappointment. The narrator does such a good job with many different and distinctive voices, a rare thing. I only wish there were more