How To Send A Message - Deluxe Edition

This is a book which delivers on its intent - to introduce the reader to various characters and showcase the author's breadth in genres.

McDonnell's Bunny McGarry novels are perhaps his best known, all featuring this out of the ordinary policeman (Garda Síochána, as they are known in Ireland) as he breaks as many laws as he upholds. Bunny features in a novella (of 14 chapters) entitled Bloody Christmas, followed by much shorter stories Dog Day Afternoon and the titular story How to Send a Message.
I enjoyed these a lot, they were packed with action and suspense, but were hilarious the whole time, with a cleverly wise cracking main character, not shy of the rough stuff where required, and as mentioned above breaking more laws than those he is pursuing. These were 4.5/5 stars.

Next up were his Sisters of the Saint characters in a six chapter novella titled Sisters Gonna Work it Out about their engagement with a drug cartel in Colombia. Again cleverly woven and hilarious. This was a 4.5 star effort.

Rounding off Part One was another Bunny McGarry novella (or 10 chapters) titled Good Deeds Bad Intentions, which was again excellent. 4.5 stars.

Part Two moves on from the Bunnyverse to the Strangerverse.
Written under the pseudonym CK McDonnell, the Stranger Times series of books are urban fantasy, based in Manchester and revolve around a newspaper of the weird news stories. In this publication we are provided with the Prologue and first three chapters of the first novel of the series, and a standalone short story.
This didn't appeal to me as much as the previous section, although the short story was amusing enough - 3 stars.

Part Three, the author refers to as the Looniverse. A selection of short stories related to time travel and superhero/horror. These were not consistent enough for me, and I was continually thinking back to Part One, which was much more up my street. This section for me was 2 stars.

On balance, three different setups, with varying results. Should be something here for most people!

I will be generous and give it four stars.