Quite Ugly One Evening: Jack Parlabane is back in this ingenious locked-room mystery

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Chris Brookmyre

Quite Ugly One Evening

Name: Quite Ugly One Evening
Price: 55 AUD
Availability: PreOrder
ISBN: 9780349145822

Jack Parlabane is back in this ingenious locked-room mystery

Chris Brookmyre

$55

Hardback

Forthcoming
Pre-Order now

QTY:

English

Abacus
07 May 2026

Thriller & suspense

Series: Jack Parlabane

'The plot is breathtaking, the setting beautiful and the characters are written with genuine depth. And smack bang in the middle of this Succession-meets-The Traitors novel is Brookmyre's most iconic character: the monumental Jack Parlabane. Irrepressible, acerbic and positively rubbing this hands with glee. Absolutely brilliant' M. W. Craven

'Brookmyre at his twisted best... Laugh out loud and perfectly conceived. What a bloody triumph' Helen Fields

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

By: Chris Brookmyre
Imprint: Abacus
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 238mm, Width: 162mm, Spine: 44mm
Weight: 620g
ISBN: 9780349145822
ISBN 10: 0349145822
Series: Jack Parlabane
Pages: 400
Publication Date: 07 May 2026
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Chris Brookmyre (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 2016 novel Black Widow won both the McIlvanney Prize and the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year award. Brookmyre's novels have sold more than two million copies in the UK alone.

Reviews for Quite Ugly One Evening: Jack Parlabane is back in this ingenious locked-room mystery

Quite Ugly One Evening is incredible. So many beautifully plotted twists and turns and a magnificent dissection of the whole tedious culture war. It would be a wonderful ending for Parlabane but I really hope it isn't as I'd miss him massively. -- C. K. McDonnell I don't use the term genius lightly, if at all, but Chris Brookmyre is one. The plot is breathtaking, the setting beautiful and the characters are written with genuine depth. And smack bang in the middle of this Succession-meets-The Traitors novel is Brookmyre's most iconic character: the monumental Jack Parlabane. Irrepressible, acerbic and positively rubbing this hands with glee. Absolutely brilliant. Brookmyre is often copied, but never equalled. -- M. W. Craven Quite Ugly One Evening is incredible. So many beautifully plotted twists and turns and a magnificent dissection of the whole tedious culture war. It would be a wonderful ending for Parlabane but I really hope it isn't as I'd miss him massively. -- C. K. McDonnell