The title of this book refers to The Monkey’s Mask by Dorothy Porter, a hard-boiled detective book written in poetry rather than prose. I’m not saying this book is poetical as it’s written in prose but it’s just a nod to the Porter book. Having said that there’s a quote from a poet called Basho before the book actually starts and it refers to a monkey needing a raincoat in a winter downpour.
It’s a straight out hard-boiled detective story but written in the relatively modern era (1989!). There are all the elements we learned in class. The detective with an eye for the ladies, can handle himself in a fight, doesn’t want to admit it but tends to care for people etc, etc, etc.
I enjoyed it. It was easy to read. There was a lot of violence and I found myself sorry when they found the victim with some gunshot wounds, he wasn’t an entirely nice man but I was still sorry. A quick read, only about 200 pages in my book.
Yes, I do recommend it and here’s a link so you can buy it from Booktopia should you wish to help me with my coffee fun, at least click through so I can celebrate the click.