Mickey is a sweet nineteen-year-old girl, who loves poetry and poets, but has just gone missing in suspicious circumstances. Private investigator Jill Fitzpatrick is hired to find her. In her search for the truth, in what becomes a murder hunt, Jill is seduced by the alluring Diana Mailand, Mickey's former poetry professor. Plunging deep into in a dark and sleazy web of corruption and deceit, Jill comes to learn how the truth isn't always so beautiful, and killers don't like to be caught. Fuelled by homicide, betrayal, and a femme fatale to go to hell for, The Monkey's Mask is an erotic mystery novel written in verse. But forget what you know about poetry. This is not a love sonnet. From one of Australia's most innovative writers, The Monkey's Mask drives headfirst into murder, manipulation, and the consuming power of sex, and is a thriller to make other whodunnits seem mild.
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About the Author
Dorothy Porter has established an international reputation as one of Australia's most exciting and innovative writers. Born in Sydney in 1954, she graduated from Sydney University in 1975, the same year as her first volume of poetry, Little Hoodlum, was published. Attaining a Diploma of Education, she supported her writing by part-time teaching for a number of years, before becoming a lecturer in Poetry and Writing at the University of Technology, Sydney. Her verse crime thriller, The Monkey's Mask, has become an international bestseller. She lives in Melbourne, Australia.
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"Jill" I challenge the mirror "how much guts have you got?" Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
"Jill" I challenge the mirror "how much guts have you got?" Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
This novel in the form of poems is amazing not only because of its unusual form but also because of its potency. The work is vibrant and exciting; you will be on the edge of your pillow. Porter's words leap off the page. The poems stand alone and yet hang together. Great performance poetry, especially if Porter herself is delivering. This book HAS to be experienced. Poetry erupts in this one!
Format:Paperback
I liked this book very much. Written in such an unusual style but still really accessible. Good to read some innovative Australian literature.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4.5 out of 5 stars
6 reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
An astoundingly readable mystery poem.
3 April 1998
By Rose Vines
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Dorothy Porter's The Monkey's Mask is stunning: a novel written entirely in poetry that is almost impossible to put down. Even if you usually run a mile at the sight of poetry, you're likely to find this book irresistable. Dorothy's heroine is a lesbian private detective, who uncovers as much about herself as the mystery as the novel progresses. Set in Sydney and the Blue Mountains, The Monkey's Mask is rich with Australian idioms and imagery. It's also, very simply, a great mystery tale and a great read.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A luscious thriller
30 July 2001
By "blissengine"
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
Jill Fitzpatrick is a private investigator hired to find a missing student. When the girl is found murdered, Jill promises the girl's parents that she'll find who did it. The girl's former poetry professor, Diana, weaves an intoxicating spell of seduction that overwhelms Jill. Is Diana just a simple, thoroughly enjoyable distraction to Jill's mission, or is there something darker hiding behind the woman? After another professor is killed, Jill finds that she herself might be next. Porter's saucy thriller, told through a series of poems, electrifies the senses and rockets the reader to its shocking end. Not only is it a spectacular mystery, but it's also a taut, dazzling story of obsessive, flooding desire.
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Questions stereotypes of genre and themes
20 Nov 2001
By sidneygrl
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
Dorothy Porter breaks the mold with 'The Monkey's Mask' - a lesbian detective poetry text which questions attitudes towards poetry, detective novels, gender, class and the myths of Australian society.
Interlaced with an investigation into the disappearance and later murder of Mickey, Jill the protagonist enters into unfamiliar terrority with her exploration into the world of poetry. She encounters people and situations which cause her to question her ideas about the identity of art as well as to begin to see beyond the surface in other aspects of life. Mixing Jill with characters of varying classes, Porter also asks the reader to examine their attitudes to the myths of Australian society, in particular the dominance of the idea that Australia is a classless egalitarian society. The much used themes of the Australian character as an unsophisticated, no-nonsense person in a society with limited acceptable roles available to it's people, (particularly in regards to gender)is questioned and the suggestion is that this view (or myth) may be outdated and overrepresented.
This text is a fast-paced, metatextual piece which captures the attention of the reader and takes the reader (well, this reader anyway) willingly along to emerge at the end with new ideas of current society, text genres and characters.
I highly recommend this text to anyone who is interested in delving into something innovative and thought-provoking.
Interlaced with an investigation into the disappearance and later murder of Mickey, Jill the protagonist enters into unfamiliar terrority with her exploration into the world of poetry. She encounters people and situations which cause her to question her ideas about the identity of art as well as to begin to see beyond the surface in other aspects of life. Mixing Jill with characters of varying classes, Porter also asks the reader to examine their attitudes to the myths of Australian society, in particular the dominance of the idea that Australia is a classless egalitarian society. The much used themes of the Australian character as an unsophisticated, no-nonsense person in a society with limited acceptable roles available to it's people, (particularly in regards to gender)is questioned and the suggestion is that this view (or myth) may be outdated and overrepresented.
This text is a fast-paced, metatextual piece which captures the attention of the reader and takes the reader (well, this reader anyway) willingly along to emerge at the end with new ideas of current society, text genres and characters.
I highly recommend this text to anyone who is interested in delving into something innovative and thought-provoking.
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4.5 out of 5 stars
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