Quite Ugly One Evening: Jack Parlabane is back in this ingenious locked-room mystery
Chris Brookmyre
May 2026 · Hachette UK
Ebook
400
Pages
family_home
Eligible
info
infoThis book will become available on May 7, 2026. You will not be charged until it is released.
About this ebook
An Atlantic voyage. A family at war. A secret worth killing over.
Reporter Jack Parlabane thrives on chasing stories in unlikely places, and where could be less likely than a fan convention on a cruise liner celebrating a contentious Sixties TV series? But unlike the media family exploiting their show's renewed relevance, he's not there to stoke controversy: he's there to solve a murder.
Already in deep water with his employer, Jack desperately needs a win, and solving this decades-old mystery could be it. Problem is, he's in the middle of the Atlantic, and someone onboard has already killed once to keep their secret.
And that's not even the tricky part. No, the tricky part is definitely the dead body locked in a stateroom with him, covered in his blood. Now Jack has to solve two murders, otherwise the only way he's getting off this ship is in handcuffs - or in a body bag.
Quite Ugly One Evening is a zeitgesty locked-room mystery that sees the return of rogue journalist Jack Parlabane thirty years after his first appearance in Quite Ugly One Morning.
Praise for Chris Brookmyre:
'Chris Brookmyre is a genius' - Richard Osman
'In the pantheon of great crime writers' - Elly Griffiths
'There's nothing he can't do' - Mick Herron
'Chris Brookmyre is a storytelling mastermind' - Chris Whitaker
Reporter Jack Parlabane thrives on chasing stories in unlikely places, and where could be less likely than a fan convention on a cruise liner celebrating a contentious Sixties TV series? But unlike the media family exploiting their show's renewed relevance, he's not there to stoke controversy: he's there to solve a murder.
Already in deep water with his employer, Jack desperately needs a win, and solving this decades-old mystery could be it. Problem is, he's in the middle of the Atlantic, and someone onboard has already killed once to keep their secret.
And that's not even the tricky part. No, the tricky part is definitely the dead body locked in a stateroom with him, covered in his blood. Now Jack has to solve two murders, otherwise the only way he's getting off this ship is in handcuffs - or in a body bag.
Quite Ugly One Evening is a zeitgesty locked-room mystery that sees the return of rogue journalist Jack Parlabane thirty years after his first appearance in Quite Ugly One Morning.
Praise for Chris Brookmyre:
'Chris Brookmyre is a genius' - Richard Osman
'In the pantheon of great crime writers' - Elly Griffiths
'There's nothing he can't do' - Mick Herron
'Chris Brookmyre is a storytelling mastermind' - Chris Whitaker
Discover more
About the author
Chris Brookmyre was a journalist before becoming a full-time novelist with the publication of his award-winning debut Quite Ugly One Morning, which established him as one of Britain's leading crime writers. His 2006 novel All Fun And Games Until Somebody Loses An Eye won the Everyman Bollinger Wodehouse Prize, and his 2016 novel Black Widow won both the McIlvanney Prize and the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year award. He also co-writes historical crime fiction with his wife, Marisa Haetzman, under the pen name Ambrose Parry..
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