This Charming Man

Vampires are, as everyone knows, the stuff of fiction, so it is a nuisance when they begin turning up around Manchester. Nobody welcomes the development. The Founders, a secret society that invented vampires as a symbolic allegory, are unhappy about it, as are the Folk, magical people who hide in plain sight and simply want a peaceful existence. The city's residents are the least pleased of all, since they are being murdered by a metaphor that has gotten out of control. With matters threatening to spiral into disaster, the job of sorting it out falls to the staff of The Stranger Times, a newspaper that covers the stories no one else will go near.

Assistant Editor Hannah returns from a bitter divorce to learn that someone is trying to kidnap a member of the team. Editor Vincent Banecroft would be glad to see any of his staff leave, but he does not tolerate anyone handling his belongings, and he treats that as a matter of principle. Meanwhile, a plumbing problem is getting worse, gambling debts are piling up, a brand new form of swearing is spreading, and a detective inspector carries a considerable amount of personal history.

It all makes for another busy week at a newspaper devoted to exposing the truth.