Jill Fitzpatrick
Created by Dorothy Porter
Subtitled "An Erotic
Murder Mystery," The Monkey's Mask 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 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 in Sydney and Australia's Blue Mountains.
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 poetry scene, Jill eventually tracks down the the girl's former poetry professor, a lesbian femme fatale who oozes enough sensuality to make Jill's head spin. Is the prof just a pleasant distraction, 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
when I'm in this moodabused children are crawling
through my hairwives with hammer-shattered heads
are smeared on my eyeball wallsMickey's skull whistles
Through its black holesI've got the male violence DTs
And amazingly, this weird hybrid of a book has gained a cult following, and has even recently been made into a 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 American Kelly McGillis (already something of a lesbian icon after her work with Jodie Foster in The Accused) as the prof.
Dorothy Porter is considered one of Australia's most innovative writers, but she's not the only one to try and tackle the detective novel in verse. Evidently, it's all the rage down under. Les Murray, Australia's poet laureate, has done one and so has Alan Wearne.
UNDER OATH
NOVELS
FILM
