Goldberg, Lee: Mr. Monk and the Blue Flu

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There's a serial killer on the loose in San Francisco, a foot fetishist who strangles women while they're jogging and absconds with their left shoes. That the victims are left unevenly shod is particularly irksome to Adrian Monk, the obsessive compulsive detective who is called in to help the SFPD solve the crimes. Before long, Monk becomes more than a consultant on the case. Contract negotiations between the police union and the City have broken down, and a great many police officers--for whom it is illegal to go on strike--have opted to call in sick with the "blue flu" of the book's title. To cope with the crisis the Mayor of San Francisco gives Monk his badge back (Monk lost it years before when his OCD rendered him incapable of performing adequately) and promotes him to Captain of the homicide division. At the same time, a handful of disturbed former police officers are temporarily reinstated on the force to work with Monk.

Mr. Monk and the Blue Flu is the third installment in Lee Goldberg's series of TV tie-ins. (See my reviews of Mr. Monk Goes to the Firehouse and Mr. Monk Goes to Hawaii.) The story is unusual not only because Monk is operating this time around from within the police department but, more importantly, because he is required to work with a team, delegating tasks he would rather undertake himself to his skeleton force of department rejects. This deviation from the usual formula of the series may be why the Blue Flu is not quite as successful as the previous Monk books. Goldberg needed to concentrate on Monk's responsibilities as acting Captain and focus less on Monk's interactions with Natalie Teeger, his personal assistant and the narrator of the books.

What has impressed me most about the Monk series is Goldberg's charming, sometimes laugh-out-loud funny dialogue. There is still some of this to be found in the Blue Flu:

"Mr. Monk helped you shop?" she said warily.

"Yes," I said.

"I already have enough first-aid supplies and disinfectant to open my own hospital," she said. "I really don't need any more."

"You know what they say," Monk said. "You can never have too much disinfectant."

"Who says that?" Julie said.

"The people without enough disinfectant," Monk said. "Shortly before their miserable, drooling deaths."

But Goldberg's latest simply isn't as funny as the series' previous books. I also had trouble swallowing the book's premise. However depleted the ranks of the SFPD, and however corrupt San Francisco's Mayor, I could not accept that Monk--and, even more so, the wackos returned to active duty to serve under him--would in fact have been reinstated for any length of time.

Mr. Monk and the Blue Flu is still a decent read, but it lacks the spark of Goldberg's previous Monk books.