Bad Monkeys – Matt Ruff

Jane Charlotte has been arrested for murder.  She explains to the police that the reason she’s there is not because she killed a man, but because she killed the wrong man.  One not slated to be killed.  You see, Jane is a member of a secret organisation and she is a member of the group Bad Monkeys.  This is her story: why she’s there, how she came to be a member and her life.

This is a compelling novel – short and very punchy.  The tone is light and the description is just enough to make you fill in your own blanks.  The paranoia levels in this book are extremely high; the organisation is watching everyone – the money, paintings, television, everything is bugged and they are watching everyone.  They kill evil people, but only those whose death will make the world a better place.  One of the chapters offers up the question: if you had to kill just one person, a 90 year old ex-concentration camp commander or a 25 year old man who has just killed his first person and likes doing it, which one of them would get the bullet?  And why?

The world is well plotted and realised and the characters feel real.  This won’t take more than a couple of hours to read and is well worth it.  If you liked the Matrix, Men in Black, Equilibrium, The Raw Shark Texts you will enjoy this book.  If you didn’t, try it anyway and see if you can be swayed.