Customer Reviews

Monkey Puzzle

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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

I read the rather puzzling review, giving this book only one star, and think he's way off base - almost as if we were reviewing completely different books!

I first read this book back in the Eighties, I own a copy - actually own copies of every one of Ms. Gosling's books, and I re-read The Monkey Puzzle whenever I'm in the mood for a great-escape, comfort read, and, yes, hot romance.

First of all, to rebut the previous person's analysis, this book is not homophobic; it's not against Vietnam veterans - other than commentary on effects of war; and it's characters are highly drawn. Lieutenant Stryker makes a very convincing homocide detective, living on the edge due to recent illness and his determination to keep going, and driving his supervisor and sometimes co-detectives a little crazy - whose intelligence and devotion to uphold the law is demonstrated even if it means spurning the woman he loves - making him an excellent protagonist. The murder victim is painted, not in homophobic terms but in anti-societal terms. It's not homosexuality or pornography that makes him the sleazeball that he is, but his immorality, his perversion, and his predation. Yet, for all the corrupt and disgusting character flaws unearthed about the victim, Lieutenant Stryker conducts the murder investigation until the case is resolved. Murder, afterall, is the ultimate act against a civilized society.

I would suggest reading Monkey Puzzle for yourself. Keep in mind it was written in the 1980's not in 2010, by a very brilliant and sensitive author who has written many other worthwhile mysteries. The solution is not obvious - it does keep one guessing and, yes, shivering with fear - even though it may be summer outside in your neck of the woods or desert - and not frigidly cold and wintery as it is in Ms. Gosling's excellently atmospheric setting for the murder. On the line of Agatha Christie, P.D. James, Martha Grimes, Ruth Rendell, and Peter Lovesey - Paula Gosling plots a damn good mystery that keeps all the balls in the air until the final chapter, and she populates them with characters who will stay with you long after you've reached the breathtakingly, fast-paced finish line.

I find her books extremely satisfying, and only wish there were more to her bibliographic list.

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