Abacus| 7 May 2026| 359 pages e-book| Review copy 4*

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 by Chris Brookmyre is the ninth book in the Jack Parlabane series. Jack, now 60, is an investigative journalist, who finds himself in competition with his younger colleagues, grateful that he still has a job.

The first book by Chris Brookmyre I read was Quite Ugly One Morning, the first in the series. That was in 2010 and since then I have read and enjoyed more of his books, including those he’s written under the pseudonym Ambrose Parry with his wife, Marisa Haetzman. But, I haven’t read the other Jack Parlabane books. However, it wasn’t a problem and I don’t think you need to have read the other books to enjoy this one, as it does read well as a standalone.

It is a ‘locked room’ type mystery as the action takes place on a cruise liner as it crosses the Atlantic. The ship is full of fans of the Maskyn family’s 1960s TV puppet series, The Imaginators, attending a convention, symposium and 60th anniversary celebration. They are also looking to update the series as sixty years later the series is not only dated but also obviously racist in some of the puppet designs. And the family are split over a takeover bid from a billionaire, with some wanting to accept his offer and others bitterly opposed to it.

It’s also complicated, with a large cast of characters and multiple layers. It took me a while to work out who is who, as I was reading a proof copy which does not have the Maskyn family tree included in the published edition – it would have been really helpful. Jack is onboard after being approached by MI5 who want him to act as an undercover agent investigating the death of an agent, Simeon Wickham forty years earlier. MI 5 had intelligence that the Maskyns had been infiltrated by an agent of a foreign power at that time. Just who was Simeon Wickham, what was his involvement with the Maskyns and who killed him?

Right from the start of the book it appears that Jack is the main suspect for killing the man found dead in suite 1114. The first half is slow going with detailed descriptions of the layout of the ship, with Jack getting lost in the different staircases that looked the same, confused by the position and direction of the ship and not sure which deck he was on. There is a great deal of description about the TV puppet show and about the current criticism it’s attracting. However, the pace begins to speed up at about 49%, and it was a race to the end.

I thoroughly enjoyed it, murder, onboard a luxury line in the middle of the Atlantic, with a complex plot, interesting characters, social commentary, told with humour and a hint back to the Golden Age of murder mysteries.