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The latest book in Lee Goldberg's Mr. Monk Series is well-paced and exciting. The chapters speed by as though you are watching a good movie.
Monk is coping fairly well when Dr. Kroger announces that he is going to Germany for a weeklong conference. Within 24 hours Monk has turned into an emotional wreck fraught with abandonment issues. He is convinced that Dr. Kroger cares deeply about him and won't be annoyed about being followed overseas. He pays Natalie's way for her and with a bit of chemical help "The Monk" flies to Germany with his assistant.
The book is full of comedic moments as Natalie navigates their way to the village where the tale of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs originated. Picture Monk staying in a centuries old house built without any right angles! There is just enough description of the charming setting around Lohr, local customs, and people to make the book interesting, but it never becomes the focal point.
Naturally there is no such thing as a quiet vacation (including routine appointments with a less than pleased Dr. Kroger at the conference center) when Monk is around. The bodies start to show up almost immediately which puts the village's tiny police department into a tailspin. Again the writing is clever as we meet Commissioner Stoffmacher and Lt. Geshir who just happen to have a Skipper/Gilligan relationship like Stottlemeyer and Disher back home!
Monk spots a six-fingered man in the village, and immediately the detecting becomes very personal for him. Although the man is an upstanding citizen Monk is determined to find criminal evidence against him and works relentlessly to this end. There are many twists and turns to the plot as Monk with Natalie at his side digs for the truth. Natalie's voice as the narrator is funny and full of insight. She provides the normalcy that counterbalances all of Monk's unique perceptions. There are some unexpectedly dramatic scenes with Dr. Kroger. At this point the book is moving on fast forward with the reader along for a wild ride. Everything resolves itself in the end of course as Monk ingeniously solves the mystery. For me the book was over too soon!

I love the Adrian Monk TV show series with Tony Shaloub. I also love ready mystery stories. I was thrilled to see that a book series was beginning that involved this combination. I was very, very eager to enjoy it. I have to be honest and say that I was really disappointed when I was done. I handed the book to my boyfriend without giving him any indication of what I felt. When he was also very disappointed, I know it wasn't just a quirk. It just isn't a great translation of the stellar TV show.

The story is written from the point of view of Monk's assistant, Natalie. Monk's home is being fumigated, so Monk is living with Natalie for the time being. Natalie's daughter is sad because of the murder of a dalmatian at the nearby firehouse. Monk is enlisted to figure this out. Soon there are a few other murders, and Monk of course ties them all together and solves the case.

I normally am thrilled by a "female voice" in a book, and as I've said, I really enjoy the Monk character. On page 2 there was a typo, which of course Monk would have hated. I let it pass. After all, we're only 2 pages into the book. On page 3 is a HUGE issue - Stottlemeyer says his wife would leave him if Monk stayed with them. News flash - Stottlemeyer's wife HAS left him. This book was released in January 2006, and I read it in the first days of March 2006. It was a really "icky" feeling to have that sort of joke made. Surely the author was told what the upcoming series was going to hold.

On through the story we move. I've always admired Natalie in the TV show as being a reasonably honest, caring single mother with good morals. In this book she is completely inane. She is VERY obsessed with breast size and comments on them repeatedly. Either she is upset that another woman has big breasts or is criticizing herself for not having giant ones. By the second or third reference I was rolling my eyes. Enough already!! Next, pair this up with her shallow view of men. She says that the main reason she was with her husband was that he was good looking. She's obsessed with the "hunky" fireman and then is worried that he might have a high pitched voice or something else to "ruin" him. She's interviewing an overweight male person and when he talks about taking a bath she says that she felt like she would have to *vomit* because of the mental image. This goes way beyond "changing Natalie". Natalie has turned into the most shallow, body-obsessed brainless twit that I have encountered as a heroine in a story in many years. It really, really upset me.

It goes further. After having a self-righteous attitude against many people she runs into, they head out onto an island of the wealthy. Natalie is quick to mention that she does "not have anything against the rich." Oh, ok, it's fine to bash heavy people and people with not-great breasts, but we wouldn't want to upset any readers that have money. Of course, because those with money might buy the book. Heck, they might also buy the many products that are name-dropped here too.

There are other, smaller issues. Monk is drinking milk, when it's made clear in the series that he would never do that. Natalie makes some comments that Monk must solve EVERY single crime he's presented with or not be kept on by the police. That is a rather inane thought for anyone even slightly related to the police to have. Pretty much every clue is telegraphed, so that I always had a sense of what was a waste of time and what was going to happen before it did.

There's a gleam of hope here - she apparently owned an AMC Pacer as her first car. That was my first car too. I felt a momentary kinship with her because of that - but it didn't take long before her rambling self-absorbed commentary completely drove me away again.

I'm not saying I dislike Monk, the setting or the story at all. I really did enjoy the story and general plotting. However, the damage done to the main character (i.e. Natalie) was incredible. It was very disturbing to me. If there's any sort of lobbying I can do for the second book to get Natalie to be more true to the series, I will do it. I would love reading Monk series for years - but having a Natalie like this will be true torture. Having typos and egregious Monk-errors is just silly in a book about someone who is obsessive compulsive and who clearly would have picked these out in one reading.

The television series character MONK continues with his quirks and crime solving in book form with MR. MONK GOES TO HAWAII. Mr. Monk afraid to be alone, when Natalie, his assistant goes to Hawaii to be in her best friend's wedding follows her there. In order to fly he takes drugs that had been prescribed some time back that changes his personality from stiff and Obsessive Compulsive to a wild and crazy guy. A side effect of the medication is that it takes away his powers of deduction, but while on it, he's a regular human being. Of course it wears off, and he is appalled at his own behavior. Swimming in a pool and with other people? Shaking hands with no wipes. Mr. Monk needs hand wipes after shaking hands, must have everything even (number of cans, chairs, room numbers), separates his food, etc. He is germaphobic. He is also a brilliant detective.
After the medication wears off, Monk is Monk, seeing clues, liars, and cheaters. As sharp as ever, he sees a crime when the local police write a woman's death off as an accident by falling coconut. Monk is sure she was murdered.
A television psychic is filming his show at the same hotel but who is this psychic Dylan Swift? And why does Monk dislike him?
Is Mitch (Natalie's deceased husband) giving Dylan messages from the other side for Natalie? Does Trudy (Monk's deceased wife) have a message for Monk?
You don't have to be a fan of MONK or to have ever watched an episode on television to enjoy this fast paced, witty, quirky, yet charming suspense. Mr. Goldberg has once again captured the nuances and idiosyncrasies of Mr. Monk and of OC (obsessive compulsive) sufferers. Mr. Goldberg makes us laugh as he takes us on Monk's wild Hawaiian ride solving numerous crimes. Only Monk could find a paradise like Hawaii to be a health risk, and barbaric -- roasting a pig in the ground? Mr. Goldberg gives us just enough clues to let us be MONK if we dare....I read this book in one sitting and loved every moment of it. I felt the tug of heart strings with Mitch and Trudy. I laughed, I was sad, I plotted who done it, but mostly, I loved it! An excellent escape, a great read.