Review of Attack of the Unsinkable Rubber Ducks by Christopher Brookmyre

Another excellent book to add to the Brookmyre canon! It sat on the shelf for a while but the wait was worth it.

The books starts off on a disappointing note when it is revealed that Brookmyre’s cynical, journalist character, Jack Parlabane, is narrating the tale from the after life due to his recent demise. This is sad, but I suppose all writers have to move on sometimes. But all is not what it seems, don’t read on if you want the plot of the book spoiled.

The major subject of this book is that or spiritualism or woo as everyone seems to call it. Although it is a fiction it very clearly expresses the author’s own coruscating views towards the whole business of psychics.

The book is basically the tale of how an American psychic, Gabriel Lafayetter and his learned friend ‘Easy’ Mather set themselves up with a chair of spiritual learning at ‘Kelvin’ University to fleece rich businessman, Bryan Lemuel. Jack Parlabane becomes involved as the cynical journalist overseeing some tesing of Mr Lafayette which is being carried out to confirm his ‘psychic’ powers. As well as this he is unbelievably, rector of the same institution!

The story is told in turn by three of the main characters of the story. First, of course, there is Jack with his usual wit and aplomb. Then we have another journalist, Jillian Noble, who manages to get herself conned by Lafayette and Mather into believing and writing and selling a whole book about an experience she has with them. Thirdly, you have geeky student, Michael Loftus, who for various reasons, thinks his place in the world is to try and debunk spiritualists like Lafayette.

The book takes a while to get going but unlike one or two of his recent efforts, it is not weighed down by a lot of verbose prose making the tale unnecessarily longer. In fact, this one is a reasonable 351 pages. It is certainly more enjoyable than a Tale etched in… and poses some interesting questions about the place of psychics in our society and how seriously we should take them. I think we know what side of the fence Mr Brookmyre stands on!