Adrian Graham review of Dial M For Monkey

There is a strange and disturbing world where terrible things happen. Mundane existence is shattered. These random events are most likely to involve either a hand gun, extreme violence, a monkey or all of these. This is the world of ‘Dial M For Monkey’, by Adam Maxwell.

There’s a mixed bunch of stories on offer, some short, some very short. As with any collection some hit home while others don’t. I’m always left asking the question: do most of the readers like the same ones as me or does everyone have a different favourite?

I enjoyed, ‘I Almost Spanked a Monkey’ and ‘The Dangers of eBay’ most. They were short and sweet, and the close left me thinking, in the best way a short story can. Also he played it quite straight in these ones, didn’t overplay the plot turn. There were parts where I felt he was trying a bit too hard for a gag and could have underplayed it.

There’s a strong oral quality to the writing, like the author could have spoken out the text before putting it down. He does incidentally produce his own podcasts.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and like I mentioned in a previous post the title alone is worth £7.99. There’s a lot of hilarious stuff in there but it’s not for the squeamish. The short story has been tangoed.

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