It's a room an uninspired playwright might conjure while staring at a blank page. White walls. White ceiling. White floor. Not featureless, but close enough to raise suspicion that its few contents are all crucial to the upcoming drama.
A woman sits in one of two chairs drawn up to a rectangular white table. Her hands are cuffed in front of her; she is dressed in an orange prison jumpsuit whose bright hue seems dull in the whiteness. A photograph of a smiling politician hangs on the wall above the table. Occasionally the woman glances up at the photo, or at the door that is the room's only exit, but mostly she stares at her hands, and waits.
That's a terrific opening, and it hooked me completely.
The woman is Jane Charlotte, and she knows why she's being held by the Las Vegas police. "I killed someone I wasn't supposed to," she says. But she has an explanation.
Jane explains that she works for a secret organization (which may or may not be associated with any particular government) devoted to eliminating evil from the world. Note: Not crime, not terrorism, not murder, but evil. Jane works for the Department for the Final Disposition of Irredeemable Persons -- the "Bad Monkeys," in the jargon of her organization -- and it is her job to identify and dispose of the world's Bad Monkeys.
Bad Monkeys alternates between scenes in that interview room, where Jane is being interviewed by Dr. Richard Vale, and flashbacks to the story she tells. She explains how she came to join the organization and what's happened in Las Vegas that led to her arrest. But there are hints from the beginning that Jane's story isn't entirely on the level. How likely is it, for instance, that a girl named Jane Charlotte would have a childhood best friend named Carlotta Juanita, or that their respective brothers would be Phil and Felipe? Between the odd coincidences and the obvious omissions and discrepancies, it's clear that something's wrong, but we can't quite tell whether Jane is lying, loony, or hiding another agenda entirely.
Ruff is one of my favorite novelists; I admire his three earlier novels immensely, and none of them are like any of the others. (If you've never read Ruff, I recommend Set This House In Order as the best starting point.) Bad Monkeys is cleverly plotted, and Jane is a memorable character; the writing moves crisply along, and is never less than entertaining.
So why am I just the tiniest bit disappointed? Maybe it's that the subject matter -- secret spy organizations, double-crosses, elaborate mental games -- feels relatively familiar; Ruff certainly handles it well, but none of the big twists at the end of the novel are quite as surprising as they ought to be. Bad Monkeys is a good novel, and I think people will enjoy it, but from Matt Ruff, I've come to expect something more than merely good.
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