Goldberg, Lee: Mr. Monk Goes to Germany

Signet © 2008, 288 pages

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In this sixth installment in Lee Goldberg's series of TV tie-ins, Adrian Monk and his assistant Natalie Teeger travel to Lohr, Germany (home of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs) in pursuit of Monk's vacationing psychiatrist, Dr. Kroger. Naturally, while they're stalking Kroger, Monk and Natalie encounter a corpse or two, as well as the German equivalents of Captain Stottlemeyer and Lieutenant Disher. Monk also has a run-in with someone potentially more significant, the man who, Monk suspects, was responsible for his wife Trudy's death--the one murder he's never been able to solve.

Mr. Monk Goes to Germany is an unusually appealing addition to Goldberg's delightful series. In part this is because it advances the story of Monk's hunt for Trudy's killer. Mostly, though, it's because it's riddled with politically incorrect humor about people with physical abnormalities--the web-footed and six-fingered and fur-covered among us. For Monk, the trouble starts at home, when a one-legged man moves in upstairs. The poor man's suffering--he was compelled in the wild to saw off his own leg and eat it--is as nothing compared to Monk's horror at the man's asymmetry and the disquieting propinquity of a cannibal.

"'He's up there,' he said. 'I can hear him hopping around on one foot.'

'Good,' I said. 'You should feel securing knowing exactly where he is.'

'It's the incessant beat of imminent death,' Monk said. 'Hop. Hop. Hop.'

'I'm sure it's not that bad,' I said.

'Hop. Hop. Hop.'

'Try earplugs,' I said. 'Or cotton balls.'

'Hop. Hop. Hop.'

'Put a pillow over your head,' I said.

'Hop. Hop. Hop.'

'I get the point, Mr. Monk. I'm sure he'll sit down soon for dinner.'

'That's what I'm afraid of,' Monk said."

Great stuff. I'm very much looking forward to the next Mr. Monk novel.

Related articles by Zemanta:

• Goldberg, Lee: Mr. Monk in Outer Space
• Monk meets the Red Headed Stranger (October 11, 2002)
• Review: Monk - Mr. Monk and the Badge
• Review: Monk - Mr. Monk is the Best Man

Comments

[Lee Goldberg]

1.

Debra,

Thank you so much for another great review. I'm so glad you liked this book...I hope you find MR. MONK IS MISERABLE, which picks up moments after the end of GERMANY, as enjoyable.

Lee

[Debra Hamel]

2.

Hi, Lee. Thanks for stopping by. I guess I'm a sucker for cannibalistic amputee jokes.

Keep the books coming, please! :-)