Created by Dorothy Porter (1954-2008)"Christ, not more bloody poems." Subtitled "An Erotic Murder Mystery," The Monkey's Mask (1995) is more than just the story of JILL FITZPATRICK, an Australian lesbian private detective who dives head first into "murder, manipulation and the consuming power of sex." It's also some kind of literary tour-de-force, stunning in its audacity and awe-inspiring in its execution. It's an erotically-charged lesbian detective novel in angy, stacatto verse form, and that's something you don't see every day. And it's not just a gimmick. Beyond the literary fireworks and its growing cult status, it's very simply a great, kick-ass mystery tale, a fast-paced, yarn full of dark humor and wit that takes all the stand-bys of a million P.I. stories, and gives them a lesbian spin. And then sets it unapologetically in Sydney and Australia's Blue Mountains. Diminutive, pragmatic Fitzpatrick is hired to find Mickey, a missing student, a moody, angst-ridden poet, but when the girl is found murdered, the detective promises the girl's parents that she'll find the killer. Working her way through Sydney's thriving (and backstabbing) poetry scene, Jill eventually tracks down the the girl's former poetry professor, an apparently straight femme fatale; a blonde bombshell who towers over Jill, both physically and intellectually, and oozes enough raw is-she-or-isn't-she? sensuality to make Jill's head spin. Is the prof just a pleasant distraction ("a bit of all right," Jill says) or is she actually involved somehow? Suffice it to say that sparks fly. And talk about terse. Even Hammett never boiled his prose down this far: I want to say That it's no good abused children are crawling wives with hammer-shattered heads Mickey's skull whistles I've got the male violence DTs And amazingly, this weird hybrid of a book has gained a cult following, and was even made into a pretty decent film, a Japanese-French-Australian co-production involving Arenafilm, Asmik Ace Entertainment, Fandango, Le Studio Canal, the New South Wales Film & Television Office and TVA International. It's directed by Australian Samantha Landers, with Susie Porter as Jill and statuesque American Kelly McGillis (already something of a lesbian icon after her work with Jodie Foster in The Accused) as the prof. It's not perfect, but it's frank and unflinching, and little seems to have been toned down, although it does lag at the end. Dorothy Porter was considered one of Australia's most innovative writers, and wrote several other verse novels, including El Dorado (2007), about a serial child killer, which was nominated for a Ned Kelly Award. THE EVIDENCE
-- Diana, it turns out, really knows how to hurt a gal. UNDER OATH
-- Lindy Cameron, Crime Factory NOVELS
FILM
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