Based on the hit USA network series- from edgar(r) Award – nominated Monk screenwriter lee GoldbergAdrian Monk and his assistant Natalie are in Paris, touring the shadowy catacombs that wind beneath the city streets, lined with millions of centuries-old human bones. Of course, Monk notices one particular skull, declaring that the person was killed recently. With the delights of Paris overshadowed … delights of Paris overshadowed by murder, Monk will have to think fast-and see in the dark-if he’s going to catch a cunning killer.
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in the previous book in this series of original novels based on the television series “Monk,” the obsessive-compulsive detective Adrian Monk learns that Dr. Kroger plans to attend a conference in Germany. The idea of not having his three sessions a week with the doctor is overwhelming to Monk so, as his indispensable assistant Natalie Teeger explains in MR. MONK IS MISERABLE, “in an act of desperation and insanity that will probably go down in the annals of stalking history, Monk decided to follow his psychiatrist to Germany.” This, of course, led to him solving a couple of murders and nearly getting himself and Natalie killed in the process.
Determined to make a real vacation out of the trip, and because Paris, to which she has a sentimental attachment, isn’t that far away, Natalie blackmails Monk into making a trip there. The flight is comical for the reader, if not for Natalie and the other passengers—especially the one who is murdered, “It’s always murder. Nobody dies of natural causes around Adrian Monk.” Monk solves it, of course (in the novels there are always some murders unrelated to the primary one for Monk to solve in passing), and upon landing earns the respect and admiration of Chief Inspector Le Roux and his assistant, Inspector Gadois.
In Paris, Natalie and Monk do a lot of sightseeing, Monk often making a nuisance of himself in the course of things. But he stuns Natalie when he tells her he wants to visit the city’s famous sewers. This is the man who, after all, is “afraid of germs, splinters, coloring books, mixed nuts, lint, curly hair, sleeveless T-shirts, balls of yarn, dust bunnies, Neil Diamond, bird droppings, untucked shirts, granola, Chia Pets, and so many other things that he’s created a list of his phobias that spans several leather-bound volumes with footnotes, historical references, photographs, diagrams, and a detailed index.” The visit, which is not uneventful, prompts Natalie to take him for a visit to the catacombs beneath the city.
The catacombs have served for several centuries as a crypt for millions of bodies and have become a tourist attraction. Its passageways are lined with walls of different types of bones. It takes an Adrian Monk to spot, amidst thousands of others, the one skull that is out of place because the fillings in its teeth are only a decade or so old. And, of course, the man was murdered. An angry and frustrated Natalie knows her vacation has ended and Monk’s has just begun.
Nevertheless, she is determined to participate in more of the many delights Paris has to offer, and to that end makes a dinner reservation at Toujours Nuit, a restaurant she read about back in the States, a restaurant that provides a unique and sensual dining experience she can’t tell Monk about in advance lest he refuse to go. Shortly after they are seated, they are joined by a woman named Sandrine who is there unescorted. It is not long before she quietly tells Monk, “I know who you found.” It is not long after this that dinner ends with a thunk: Sandrine’s lifeless but not knifeless body hitting the floor.
Added to the need to determine the identity of the murder victim from the catacombs and an investigation of the circumstances that led to his death, suddenly Adrian Monk has an impossible murder, complete with locked-room conundrum, on his hands.
What makes it impossible? About this and other story factors I’ve been deliberately vague so as not to spoil the experience for readers. I must add, however, that any veteran reader/viewer of mystery/suspense/thriller stories will know immediately how one aspect of the “impossibility” was effected and thus subsequently have no trouble identifying the culprit the moment a particular item is mentioned. In this regard the book is no competition for the bafflers of John Dickson Carr, Hake Talbot, Clayton Rawson or Edward D. Hoch, among others.
Readers who are detective story purists, as well as those who are not fans of or who have never seen the television series, might complain, and not unjustly, that there are too many “travelogue” passages in MR. MONK IS MISERABLE that slow the story and detract from the investigative portions. Since I have always loved the program and have enjoyed the previous books in the series, I barreled through this one, occasionally chuckling out loud at Monk’s antics, of which there are many, and did not find the aforementioned passages objectionable.
As usual, Lee Goldberg does an outstanding job of capturing the voices and intonations of the recurrent characters. I can *hear* Traylor Howard as Natalie in both narrative and dialogue, and in dialogue Tony Shaloub as Monk, Ted Levine as Captain Leland Stottlemeyer, and Jason Gray-Stanford as Lieutenant Randy Disher.
It is far from the best in the series, but I give Goldberg points for attempting a less-than-stellar impossible crime story while providing a mystery that can stand alongside some of the works of Jonathan Latimer, Craig Rice, and Donald E. Westlake for its comedic value.
© 2013 Barry Ergang
Mr. Monk and the Skull in the Catacombs
Over it’s eight year run, the TV show Monk has picked up numerous fans. And for those who want a little bit more of the defective detective, there are the Monk tie in novels. Mr. Monk is Miserable is the seventh novel in the series. And it continues to expand on the franchise in entertaining ways.
If you aren’t familiar with the franchise, here’s a quite introduction. Monk is a former homicide detective for the San Francisco Police Department. After his wife was murdered, his obsessive compulsive disorder took over his life. But he still consults on some of their most difficult cases. He is aided in daily life by Natalie, his assistant and our narrator for this adventure.
This book opens immediately after the last book, Mr. Monk Goes to Germany, ends. While it isn’t essential you read it first, it does help. The more important thing to keep in mind is that this novel is still set in the midst of season six. Obsessive fans will want to note that bit of chronology as they delve into the story.
Natalie is ready for a vacation. Since she and Monk are already in Germany, she blackmails Monk into paying for them to visit Paris. She is looking for a few days of relaxation, which means she wants no murder investigation.
When they arrive, Monk surprises her by asking to tour the sewer system. Later that day, she insists they head to the catacombs. That was her mistake. See, in the middle of a pile of bones, Monk spots a skull that is only a few months old. Worse yet, the person was murdered. Despite Natalie’s insistence that they are on vacation, Monk begins to work on the case. Who was the victim? Why was he buried in the catacombs? And will Natalie ever get a real vacation?
The same complaint I had with the last book applies here as well. The book starts pretty slowly. In fact, there are a few chapters that are more travel log than anything else. While Monk’s problems were entertaining, they only went so far.
That doesn’t last for long, and once Monk finds the skull things really took off. Fortunately, I hadn’t read the teaser on the book, because I think it gives away too much. Since I hadn’t read it, I enjoyed several surprising twists that kept me wondering how things were going to turn out. The ending was, as always, perfectly logical but surprising at the same time.
Because there are more pages in a novel, author Lee Goldberg is able to explore the characters in greater depth. In this book, he really shows us several different sides of Natalie. There were times I was equally frustrated and sympathetic to her character. Of course, all the characters from the TV show are true to themselves. And we make some new friends as well. There wasn’t a weak moment as far as the characters were concerned.
Those familiar with the TV show know that it is as much comedy as mystery. That holds true here as well. I was laughing pretty hard at many things over the course of the book. There is a sub-plot introduced in the second half that fans of the TV show will especially find hilarious. It may have been my favorite part of the book, in fact.
As any fan of the TV series know, when Mr. Monk is Miserable, we benefit. That’s certainly the case here.