Quite Ugly One Evening
Chris Brookmyre
359 pages
Published May 7th, 2026
Little, Brown Book Group
🛳️🛳️🛳️🛳️
Amazon | GoodReads
Quite Ugly One Evening is the ninth book in the Jack Parlabane series about a maverick Scottish investigative journalist who can’t stay out of trouble, by one of my favourite authors. The series now spans nearly thirty years, and it’s been about nine years since the last one, so I was excited to last one, so I was excited to be offered an advanced review copy and to find out what Jack’s been up to. Turns out he has not mellowed with age! You don’t need to have read the previous books to enjoy this one, although there are references to various events and characters from his past. This one felt more political than the previous instalments which I’m usually ok with but may deter some readers.
Jack is pushing 60 and struggling to stay relevant in a world where only clicks matter. When an attempted sting goes wrong, he needs a big story to save his job. Offered the opportunity to secretly investigate a decades old murder, he joins a convention cruise across the Atlantic for fans of a 1960s TV puppet show that has been triggering controversy on both sides of the “Culture War”. Going undercover, he starts befriending the large nepotistic family of the show’s creators – but then one of them is killed and he finds himself in the frame. How’s he going to get out this time?
I’ve been reading this series for over twenty years and always enjoyed the mix of black comedy, vicious social commentary and acerbic Scottish humour. Parlabane (and presumably Brookmyre) is unashamedly left wing, and this is all told from his first person present perspective, but I like that he’s got enough self-awareness to skewer the hypocrites on both sides of the political spectrum. Fans of the current leader of the supposedly free world will not appreciate his insights and should probably steer clear. This is in essence locked room mystery, but there’s a lot of digressing and long winded conversations between Jack and the various potential suspects which made it slower than it needed to be. By two thirds in I was getting restless, but then there’s a superb twist which changes everything.
This ends in a way that could mean the end of the series – and the way the title harks back to the first book, Quite Ugly One Morning, is probably a strong hint that this is the case. Brookmyre has been writing a variety of other types of novel, including the spectacular Ambrose Parry historical mystery books, so he may feel it’s time to say goodbye. If so, it’s a fitting send-off for a unique character.
Thanks to NetGalley and Little, Brown for the ARC. Quite Ugly One Evening is published today.
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