Monk’s house is being fumigated, and he has nowhere to go. Fortunately, his assistant Natalie and her daughter are kind enough to welcome him into their home. Unfortunately, their home is not quite up to Monk’s standards of cleanliness and order.But while Monk attempts to arrange his surroundings just so, something else needs to be put straight. The death of a dog at the local firehouse-on the … firehouse-on the same night as a fatal house fire-has led Monk into a puzzling mystery. And much to his horror, he’s going to have to dig through a lot of dirt to find the answer.
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When a firehouse dog is murdered, the defective detective Adrian Monk’s help is enlisted by his assistant’s daugher Julie. During the course of the investigation, Monk discovers that the dog’s death might be connected to a fatal house fire. His work is hampered, though, by the fact that he’s been displaced, due to his apartment building being fumigated. Though she knows it will be difficult, his assistant Natalie offers to take Monk into her home while they solve the murders.
Fans of the television show Monk will likely find this a good read. All of the characters we love are involved, the story seeming to take place not too long after Natalie becomes his assistant. It’s not directly tied to any episodes of the show, though, and is a brand new plot. It’s narrated by Natalie, and I enjoyed it as essentially a longer episode of the show. In a way, it seemed like a mash-up of 2 different episodes (“Mr. Monk Can’t See a Thing” and “Mr. Monk Stays in Bed”), but it’s unique enough to not just feel like a rip-off of one of those episodes.
The author does a pretty good job of capturing the feel of each of the characters with one execption–Monk himself. As someone who has seen the show in its entirety several times, I kept noticing things that just seemed very un-Monk-like. The most glaring was him holding a glass of milk, milk being high up on his list of fears. But he was also frankly a little too warm and tender toward Natalie and especially Julie. Though Monk can be kind, he is also often quite selfish, or at the very least, so wrapped up in his own issues that he doesn’t easily take others’ thoughts or feelings into consideration. He also called Julie “honey” at least once in the book, which just felt so wrong.
Overall, as a way to get more Monk in my life, the book was fun to listen to. The narrator was pretty good with the voices–I especially liked her Stottlemeyer. However, her depiction of Monk left a lot to be desired. I just kept putting it into Tony Shaloub’s voice as I listened. I’ll definitely keep reading this series.
“Defective” detectives are not new to mystery fiction. Decades ago, Baynard Kendrick wrote a number of novels about blind private detective Duncan Maclain, who was also featured in some “B” movies and who, allegedly, was the basis for the TV series “Longstreet.” Pulp magazines abounded with sleuths who suffered from physical and emotional ailments and impairments: amnesia, hemophilia, even literal facelessness. D.L. Champion’s legless Inspector Allhoff may have inspired TV’s paraplegic “Ironside.” More modern examples include Michael Collins’s one-armed Dan Fortune; George C. Chesbro’s dwarf detective, Dr. Robert “Mongo” Frederickson; and Jeffery Deaver’s paralyzed Lincoln Rhyme.
None has captured the public’s attention the way the USA Network’s Adrian Monk has.
The obsessive-compulsive, multi-phobic Monk combines Sherlock Holmes’ skill for observing the minute details of everyday life the rest of us miss with a childlike innocence and incomprehension of the way most of the world operates. A former San Francisco Police Department homicide detective whose tics became more extreme after his wife was murdered, he now works as a private detective and, most frequently, as a paid consultant to the SFPD, usually at the behest of his friend Captain Leland Stottlemeyer.
MR. MONK GOES TO THE FIREHOUSE is the first in a series of original paperbacks based on the TV series. Lee Goldberg was a writer for and executive producer of “Diagnosis Murder” and has written novels based on that program plus THE MAN WITH THE IRON-ON BADGE. He has written several episodes of “Monk,” and so is very familiar with the series’ format and recurring characters.
The novel is narrated by Monk’s assistant, Natalie Teeger, the widowed mother of a twelve-year-old daughter. Events begin when Monk’s apartment building is scheduled to be tented and fumigated for termites—that Monk himself discovered: “He spotted a pinprick-sized hole in a piece of siding and knew it was fresh. He knew because he keeps track of all the irregularities in the siding.” When Natalie asks him why, he answers, “Doesn’t everybody?”
Knowing he won’t be able to deal with staying at a hotel for the duration, Natalie invites him to move in with her and her daughter Julie, and Monk accepts. Julie is upset when she learns that Sparky, the local firehouse dog Firefighter Joe annually brings to school with him when he lectures on fire safety, has been brutally murdered by a person unknown. Monk promises Julie he’ll uncover the killer.
His investigation takes him to the scene of a house fire in which a chain-smoking woman named Esther Stoval has died, apparently the victim of her own carelessness. Monk quickly determines she was murdered, and soon after realizes that her death and Sparky’s are connected.
The “Monk” television mysteries usually fall into one of two types: the whodunit, in which there are multiple suspects and the viewer can compete with Monk to spot the clues that identify the culprit; and the inverted detective story, in which the viewer knows from the outset who the killer is and can compete with Monk to spot the clues that will lead to his or her arrest. A sub-category of both types is the case in which the murderer has a seemingly unbreakable alibi Monk must see through to effect an arrest.
Halfway through the novel, after interrogating a number of suspects who have solid reasons to want Esther Stoval dead, Monk determines which of them is the murderer. Breaking that person’s alibi proves harrowing if not impossible: the second half of the book requires him to track down the piece of damning physical evidence that will convict the murderer. He faces the daunting—and comical—task of wading through the city’s garbage dump to try to find it.
Along the way, with an unassuming brilliance and humility foreign to Sherlock Holmes, Monk solves a number of unrelated murders.
The “Monk” TV scripts, because of time constraints, often subordinate mystery to humor. In MR. MONK GOES TO THE FIREHOUSE, Lee Goldberg neatly balances conundrums and comedy in a dishy, informal, treat-the-reader-as-confidant style. The novel is far from the greatest detective story ever written, but fans of the TV series will probably enjoy it, and those who read it without ever having seen broadcast episodes may become regular viewers.
© 2006 Barry Ergang
Mr. Monk and the Dead Dog
Mr. Monk Goes to the Firehouse is the first novel in a series tying into the TV show Monk, which airs on the USA Network. The mystery series follows Adrian Monk as he solves crimes in San Francisco. A former police detective, Monk was kicked off the force after his phobias and obsessive compulsive disorder made it impossible for him to function on a normal basis. He still consults on some of their most difficult cases since his problems often help him find the one clue needed to solve the case.
Adrian Monk is about to be homeless. His apartment is being fumigated for termites, so he needs a place to stay. Fortunately, his assistant Natalie is willing, reluctantly at best, to take him in for the week.
Monk’s hardly started moving in when Natalie’s daughter gets a phone call. Sparky, the Dalmatian at the local firehouse, has been murdered. While not the type of case that Monk would normally take, he agrees to find the killer to make Julie feel better.
While trying to interview Fireman Joe, Sparky’s owner, Monk and Natalie go to the scene of a fatal fire. Monk hasn’t been there five minutes before he declares that the fire was not the accident it looks like but arson to cover up a murder. Is there a connection with the case of the murdered dog?
It’s no secret to anyone who knows me that I love this TV series. Knowing Lee Goldberg’s excellent work with the Diagnosis: Murder novels, my hopes were high for this book. They were met on every level.
Mr. Goldberg decided to write the book from Natalie’s point of view. Not only does this give us great insight into the character, but it also allows us to marvel, laugh, or be frustrated with Monk’s strange antics. The characters on the show are well rounded, and that holds true here as well. While we may be laughing at Monk in one scene, we sympathies with him in the next. Watching this from Natalie’s viewpoint allows us to see how she deals with the challenges of her job on a daily basis.
The plot stays true to the series as well. Even though it is rather obvious early on who did it, the real mystery becomes how will Monk prove it. Along the way, there are several false trails and a couple twists that put Monk into uncomfortable situations. Each chapter has a title, but even looking ahead, I couldn’t figure out what they might mean for the plot.
The story is told in an easy to read style that pulls you in and makes it hard to put down. I raced through the book to see what would happen next. And the humor of the series comes through as well. I started laughing on page two and a smile never left my face for the rest of the book.
While there are a couple inconsistencies with the TV show, only Monk wouldn’t be able to overlook them and enjoy this book. It easily captures the spirit of the TV show and will entertain fans and non-fans alike with its humor and warmth.
And as a note of trivia, six months later Mr. Monk Goes to the Firehouse was turned into the fifth season episode “Mr. Monk Can’t See a Thing.”