Dorothy Porter
The Monkey's Mask
(Serpent's Tail)

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Synopsis

Mickey is a sweet nineteen 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 slezy 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 whodunits seem mild.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Dorothy Porter is the author of eight books, including a previous verse novel, Akenhaten. She lives in Melbourne, Australia.
Winner of the National Book Council Banjo Award (Australia's Pulitzer Prize)

Biography

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.

Contributors Testimonials

This unique thriller is composed entirely of verse – but not the type you need a translation for. It’s written in the dry-witted voice of Aussie private investigator, Jill Fitzpatrick, who doesn’t have a lot of time for smart arse poetry. She does however make a lot of time for poetry professor, Diana Maitland, who’s helping her track down missing student Mickey. The Monkey’s Mask audibly crackles with sexual tension and the hand-brake plot turns make it a fast read, but there are lots of individual poems I keep coming back to – pages I’d like to rip out and stick on the fridge as a reminder of how effortlessly good writing should read:

“In love I’ve got no style

my heart is decked out
in bright pink tracksuit pants

it weaves its huge bummed way
through the tables to Diana”

I think we’ve all been there!

Cathy Bolton