Review: The Monkey's Mask
Editorial Review - Kirkus ReviewsAustralian poet/YA author Porter's first adult novel has a twist you won't soon forget: It unfolds entirely in poetry, from the moment lesbian Sydney p.i. Jill Fitzpatrick is hired to find missing university student Mickey Norris to the moment Jill realizes how Mickey died. Put off by the idea of crime in verse? Don't be. This doesn't require the heavy investment of The Ring and the Book: The cast--revolving mostly around Mickey's seductive poetry tutor, Diane Maitland, and the two male poets Mickey adored--is smaller and sparer, though in its own way equally intense; and the verse--variations on short, unrhymed couplets and singlets likely to remind American readers of Sylvia Plath--whether steamy or coolly appraising, is perfectly accessible. What's most interesting, of course, is what gets left out of the individual poems--almost all the accidents of color and manner and high-fiber description--reducing each scene to a few snatches of lapidary dialogue and the susurrus of Jill's reflections. Of course the story is simpler than in Ross Macdonald, but Porter manages a deft balance between nervously lyrical moments and an insinuating forward movement.
Review: The Monkey's Mask
User Review - Mathew - GoodreadsWonderful and cleverly constructed book! Read full review
Review: The Monkey's Mask
User Review - Katy - Goodreadssurprisingly fantastic. this book isn't so much about what it says as what it does: the plot isn't revolutionary, and the sexually deviant "twist" is a bit of a 90s cop-out imo, but that doesn't ... Read full review
Review: The Monkey's Mask
User Review - Goodreadssurprisingly fantastic. this book isn't so much about what it says as what it does: the plot isn't revolutionary, and the sexually deviant "twist" is a bit of a 90s cop-out imo, but that doesn't ...
Review: The Monkey's Mask
User Review - GoodreadsThis is an intriguingly conceived book: a crime thriller in poetry form. A colleague of Erik's teaches it at AU. The main character is a lesbian PI in Australia, and she falls hard for the femme ...
