Goldberg, Lee: Mr. Monk is Cleaned Out

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In the latest installment in Lee Goldberg's series of TV tie-ins, Adrian Monk faces two crises that threaten his life and livelihood. The more pressing is the disappearance of his preferred bottled water from supermarket shelves: Summit Creek, bottlers of the only water pristine enough to pass his lips, has gone out of business. Impending death from dehydration leads Monk to try to score some bottles on the black market, but his foray into the mean streets of San Francisco ends badly. The demise of Summit Creek is just one sign of a much larger economic downturn that impacts Monk and his assistant Natalie soon after the book opens: the San Francisco police department is forced once again (cf. the events of Mr. Monk and the Dirty Cop) to fire Monk as a consultant. Monk and Natalie are forced to seek employment elsewhere, with comical results. The murders Monk seeks to solve in this one are likewise related to the economy, a series of deaths connected to the upcoming trial of a Bernie Madoff-type character. The crimes are clever, as usual, but, as always, Monk is more clever.

Lee Goldberg's Monk books are always worth reading. The mysteries are good, often laugh-out-loud funny, and Monk is simply a wonderful character who comes across as well on the page as he does on the screen. Mr. Monk is Cleaned Out didn't make me laugh quite as much as some other books in the series, and while the relationship between Monk and Natalie advances a bit the two never quite have an emotionally satisfying scene in this one. But I must say that Mr. Goldberg has the conversation and mien of a petulant teenager down cold, and Natalie's interaction with her teenage daughter does make for some moving scenes. In short, Mr. Monk is Cleaned Out is another solid read in the series, if not one of my very favorites among the books.

Comments

[Brooke]

1.

I enjoyed the Monk series - really entertaining.. and now it's in a book? So going to buy it!

[Debra Hamel]

2.

Hi, Brooke. Thanks for commenting. Check out the author's site for the order of the books: http://www.leegoldberg.com/monk.html