Monkey Puzzle

Rating:
Summary: Distastefully Homophobic, Tiresomely Stereotypical
Review: Published about 1985, Paula Gosling's MONKEY PUZZLE picked up a number of good reviews and even an award or two--but frankly, if this novel is indicative of the best that 1980s mystery fiction has to offer, then it is probably better to skip the genre entirely for that decade. For while it contains an occasionally interesting idea, MONKEY PUZZLE is rife with a host of stereotypes that range from tiresome to extremely distasteful.

The victim is English professor Adamson, who is seated at his office looking at hardcore gay pornography when he is first struck on the head, then repeatedly stabbed, and then mutilated. But detective Lt. Stryker is puzzled: Adamson was likely murdered by another homosexual, but if so, why wasn't he sexually mutilated? Gee Whiz! That's how they kill, you know! And indeed, the fact that Adamson wasn't sexually mutilated is one of several reasons that steer Stryker away from the "homosexual murder" theory.

Outrageous as this is, Gosling takes the whole thing quite a bit further. Adamson's apartment contains erotic art and has mirrors on the ceiling! It naturally follows that he is completely evil--and true to form, he is discovered to be a blackmailer, a student seducer, and all around nasty sort of person. Add to this portrait an equally stereotypical and distasteful portrait of a binge-drinking, not-to-be-trusted Vietnam vet and a cop-hating liberal professor who is still sexually turned on by the fact that Stryker spanked her naked bottom at a campus protest some twenty years ago... and you've got MONKEY PUZZLE.

Now, all of this might be tolerable, indeed deeply interesting if the characters seemed real or if the mystery was mysterious. But they aren't and it isn't. Gosling's characters are merely names on paper, without any spark of life, and if you can't figure out whodunit by the time the killer attacks again you need your head examined. So if you come across this novel at a rummage sale, do someone a favor: buy it for a dime, throw it in the trash, and speed MONKEY PUZZLE toward being completely out of print.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer


Rating:
Summary: Murder in Acadamia
Review: This book was a enjoyable read about how murder affects the English Department of a Midwestern University. Many possible suspects. Interesting relationship between the detective in charge of the case and one of the faculty members