96: Chris Brookmyre on Quite Ugly One Evening, Satire, Family and Murder at Sea

This week on In My Good Books, I’m joined by bestselling Scottish crime writer Chris Brookmyre to discuss his brilliant new novel Quite Ugly One Evening. A darkly funny, sharply observed locked-room mystery set aboard a transatlantic cruise ship.Thirty years after the publication of Quite Ugly One Morning, Chris revisits iconic investigative journalist Jack Parlabane in a story packed with murder, family rivalry, satire and social commentary. We talk about the inspiration behind the novel, why the culture wars became such an important theme in the book, and how Chris wanted to explore the idea that we often have far more in common than we realise.In this episode we also discuss:Why Quite Ugly One Evening had to reconnect with the tone of the original Jack Parlabane novelsThe real-life cruise experience that inspired the book’s settingHow social media outrage and “footballified” politics influenced the storyReturning to recurring characters after nearly a decade awayThe challenges of writing satire in today’s climateThe appeal of shared fictional universesChris’s excellent recent book recommendationsFind Chris here: https://www.instagram.com/cbrookmyre/Buy Quite Ugly One Evening: https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/quite-ugly-one-evening-jack-parlabane-is-back-in-this-ingenious-locked-room-mystery-chris-brookmyre/2f80c5a47ea9ad58?ean=9780349145822&next=tBooks recommended in this episode:A Bad Bad Place: https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/a-bad-bad-place-frances-crawford/7876073?ean=9780857508003&next=tA Violent Masterpiece: https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/a-violent-masterpiece-jordan-harper/ad0944d31f7ac26d?ean=9780571394647&next=t