Quite Ugly One Evening - Chris Brookmyre

Jack Parlabane, as anyone who has previously come across Chris Brookmyre’s most loved character (and something of an alter-ego, I suspect), has always been something of a cynic. Which is why we love him. First introduced in 1996 in Quite Ugly One Morning, Parlabane has aged along with the sporadic publication of the series and now, 30 years after being introduced to him, you'll find that happily he hasn't mellowed with age. Well, not that much anyway. He's just become an old embittered cynical journalist unable to fathom the latest trends of the modern age of social media influencers, to say nothing of his thoughts about how a certain US president has shown just how much further into the depths politics has sunk than he could ever have imagined even back in those heady post-Thatcherite years.

That said, while the world is in a sad state now, Parlabane is not one to look back fondly on (relatively) more innocent times, but a combination of occurrences, including going it alone and messing up a journalistic assignment using entrapment. he's starting to feel he's at an age where he no longer fits in and doesn't particularly want to either. While attending the funeral for his mother, he is offered a new assignment on a cross-Atlantic cruise ship. The downside to this is that he aboard ship with a convention of nerds celebrating 'The Imaginators', a Gerry Anderson type 60s action puppet adventure series that has become an unlikely target for a culture wars battle. It's a measure of whether he is in his life that he even feels a little tug of nostalgia himself. Don't worry it won't last long...

The other rather larger downside is that he has agreed to embark on the cruise as a favour for a MI5 operative he has had acquaintance with in a previous adventure. Well, it's not so much a favour as the prospect that it might turn up a juicy exclusive story, Parlabane's old hack instincts running deep not least because of the suggestion of conspiracy. The influential Maskyn family who have owned and curated the 'Imaginators' series down through the years - reinvented for a new generation to varying levels of success - are suspected of having Russian connections that may have led to the death of another British Intelligence agent investigating the family's connections. Despite being told that he will arouse few suspicions as a journalist, Parlabane knows playing an undercover operative is a dangerous game, but when has Parlabane ever let caution get in the way of a potential scoop?

The fictional 'Imaginators' series actually turns out to be a good issue on which to draw battle lines that sadly exist in our pathetic culture-wars society today - as if there weren't more serious issues to be concerned about. The children's show is a symbol of those who want to return to the past when they were free from woke and able to enjoy privileges of a bygone era, one dominated by the rich white upper classes. Or at least latch onto it as an excuse for continuing to hold racist, supremacist views, and use it as another dividing line for their own personal gains. It's also dividing the Maskyn family, who are considering a multimillion pound takeover bid by one such wealthy culture-war agitator.

The subject matter at least is very much classic Parlabane, using a thriller situation to have a good old rant at the state of the world and authoritarianism - and let's face it, with social media, culture wars and Donald Trump in charge in America, the world isn't getting a better place - but the overall difference in tone from those earlier works is noticeable. I would say it's more 'grown-up' but much as I love the earlier Brookmyre fire, that's not a criticism as such. It shouldn't be surprising as Chris Brookmyre has grown up and undoubtedly shares many of Jack's views, characteristics and behaviours and the title alone leads one to also draw comparisons between the younger and the older Brookmyre. The older Parlabane here has to reconsider his own place in the world, and certain events bring a few unexpected revelations to his personal life. 

There are noticeable differences but that's to be expected, the most obvious being lack of messy killings and the much lower body count. The earliest death in the book, and perhaps the one that is most significant in the long run, is of an elderly lady of natural causes, but considering the personalities that the author assembles here in an enclosed remote space far from civilisation and the authorities, approaching a 'line of death' where they will be out of emergency helicopter reach, you can expect there might be more deaths to come. It might not get the terrorist cell or military operation situation gone rogue, but having been forewarned in the prelude, don't expect the death toll to remain in single figures for too long. Many years have passed since Chris Brookmyre's first novel, but some things at least never change. Stay Ugly, Jack!

Reading notes: Quite Ugly One Evening by Chris Brookmyre is published by Abacus on the 7th May 2026. I received an advance uncorrected proof in Kindle format from NetGalley.