Customer Reviews

Mr. Monk in Trouble

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
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After reading Mr. Monk in Trouble, the newest Lee Goldberg mystery featuring television's smartest and funniest detective, I had to admit that I hoped it would never end. But like the saying goes all good things must come to an end, and when I flipped the final page, I felt satisfied that there had to be or should be another great adventure in store for Mr. Monk and Natalie. I only say that because apparently the tv show is now finished and I hope that Mr. Goldberg did not hear about that because I really enjoy his books based on the show and I hope he continues writing new adventures for Natalie and Monk.

In this adventure Monk is asked to investigate a murder in a small western mining town where a former police officer was murdered. After encounters with kamikaze butterflies and rogue donkeys, Natalie and Monk discover that there is something peculiar in the little town of Trouble, CA. The sheriff catches Natalie's eye and the whole town seems to really connect with a certain detective with a fondness for cleanliness and order that it seems to much of a coincidence with another citizen named Monk, over 150 years ago.

Long story short, if you like mysteries and you like humor, you have to read this book plus the other books in this series. Lee Goldberg transfers you into the lives of the world's greatest detective and his assistant better then the television show could itself. Once I started reading the book, I could not put it down.

You've just got to love a guy who is so obsessive about cleanliness that he hands out wet wipes as Halloween treats. Yep, Monk is back in Lee Goldberg's new novel, Mr. Monk in Trouble. This book is double the fun as it follows the life of gold rush era assayer, Artemis Monk as well as the modern day chaos brewing in the Gold Rush town of Trouble where Monk and his assistant Natalie find themselves investigating a murder and a decades old train robbery.

Goldberg has a knack for cooking up ingenious plots and this book is no exception. The book within a book idea adds a new element of fun to the novel which is already packed with laughs. Who wouldn't enjoy the mental gyrations of a man who believes that many of the world's problems could be solved by outlawing spitting?

"You get away with that and, before you know it, you're letting go of your sphincters willy -nilly, robbing trains and killing old ladies."

His assistant Natalie is just the right compliment, strong and practical, but with her own sense of humor, noted here when she's sizing up the Trouble Police Chief.

"I tried not to stare but couldn't help noticing that he had a nice body and just enough chest hair to suggest a healthy masculinity but not so much that I wanted to offer him a banana."

This book is a combination of satisfying mystery, hilarity and a shade of poignancy which is the flip side of Monk's OCD. The reader is made aware every so often, that Monk's gifts do not come without a price and at the core he is a lonely, frightened soul. Because he has Natalie, we can enjoy the fact that he cannot cut a pizza unless he's brought along his string, compass, T square and level.

Goldberg's next book is Mr. Monk is Cleaned Out where Monk is fired from his consulting job with SFPD. Natalie better get the T square ready and stock up on wet wipes because wherever Monk is, there's plenty of obsessively funny mystery to follow.

He has an intensive form of OCD and has more phobias than can be found in a medical text, but give Mr. Adrian Monk a homicide to solve and he will do it regardless of difficulty mostly caused by his disorders. His friend Captain Stottlemeyer of the San Francisco Police department asks Mr. Monk to come to his office where he informs him that retired cop Manny Feikeman was murdered at the Gold Rush Museum in Trouble, California. He asks Monk to solve the case.

Since his house is being renovated, Mr. Monk agrees to go to the mining town with his assistant and friend Natalie. While in town he finds out about a cold case he decides to solve in his spare time. The famous train The Golden Rail Express was robbed of its gold on its last run in 1962, but what happened to the loot or the mastermind was never revealed and a third robber never found. With brilliant insight and a nod to a gold rush era equivalent with phobias and an assistant Abigail Guthrie keeping diaries of Artemis Monk, Adrian works the train robbery, the murder, and assorted other inquiries until he vanishes leaving an injured Natalie to investigate the case of the missing sleuthing employer.

Nobody does novelizations of TV shows better than Lee Goldberg consistently does. His latest Mr. Monk tale is one of the best due to the intriguing tongue in cheek self mocking subplot involving Artemis who as the assayer who also worked cases in 1852; the local curator insists the two OCD Monks may be a century and a half apart but look like twins separated at birth. Fans will enjoy the stories of the two Mr. Monk's.

Harriet Klausner

They say people can't fly. You can when you read mr.monk in trouble [through the pages at least]!

If you love monk then you wll love this superb book!

Mr. Monk is in trouble with a capital T in the latest installment of Lee Goldberg's series of TV tie-ins. Adrian Monk and his assistant Natalie travel to Trouble, California, to investigate the murder of a retired San Francisco policeman. The ominously named town grew up during the gold rush, and nothing much has changed there since the Forty-niners' times: burros roam the unpaved streets, the sidewalks are made of wooden planks, and a handful of hopefuls still break their backs hoping to strike it rich. For Monk, who's not fond of nature and would prefer the whole world to be paved over, the assignment is a descent into hell.

The trip to Trouble spawns another mystery: the murdered man worked as a night watchman in the Gold Rush Museum, the centerpiece of which is an old locomotive, the Golden Rail Express, which used to run between Trouble and San Francisco. The train was robbed during its final run in 1962, two men were killed, and the crime was never solved. Monk, of course, is on the case.

More interesting than the crimes and their solution, however, is Natalie and Monk's discovery that Monk apparently has roots in Trouble: Mr. Monk in Trouble is laced with excerpts from a journal Natalie reads throughout the novel, stories written by a certain Abigail Guthrie, who was the assistant to Trouble's resident assayer and amateur sleuth during the Gold Rush era: Artemis Monk. Essentially, Artemis is Adrian Monk--with all of his genius and eccentricities--transplanted to a less hygenic era.

The Artemis Monk stories are as entertaining as any regular Monk chapters--though one has to suspend disbelief a bit to accept that Monk's forbear would be a virtual copy of him, or vice versa. I found myself missing the character of Stottlemeyer in this one: his role is much reduced because he's left behind in San Francisco, and there is correspondingly less banter in the book. But there are some sweet moments between Natalie and Monk that compensate.

-- Debra Hamel

I love all the monk books but this was the best one that Lee has written!! Can't wait for the next one.

I really enjoyed this novel. This novel will not disappointed true Monk fans. This time Monk is asked to solve a murder in the town of Trouble along with his trustworthy but long suffering assistant Natalie Teeger. Let's just say that things in town of Trouble will never be the same. I really like the mixing of the old and the new. Monk also gets help in solving the mystery from his ancestor Artemis Monk despite his hilarious protests that are nothing alike. There so many surprises in this novel you will finish this novel in no time flat. I will really miss when the Monk Series when it ends. Nevertheless you will love this novel.

The Monk stories are a quick and light read. This one juxtaposes an old unsolved train robbery with a current murder, and introduces a character who was likely Monk's ancestor.

Ive read and seen all the monks, and am a huge fan, so its no suprise this book was great! If your thinking of, buying it, do it. You wont regret it!!!

i enjoy reading the mr. monk novels very much, there isn't any profanity or sexual situations to put up with.