Goldberg, Lee: Mr. Monk on Patrol

  Amazon  

Mr. Monk on Patrol is the 13th book in Lee Goldberg's series of TV tie-ins featuring obsessive compulsive detective Adrian Monk. Unlike its predecessors, this installment is not laugh-out-loud funny, but it's heavy in character development. Monk and his assistant Natalie travel to Summit, New Jersey, to help out Randy Disher, former San Francisco homicide detective turned small-town chief of police. Monk is also reunited with his first assistant, Sharona, since she and Randy are now married (a plot development I still have trouble wrapping my mind around). Monk and Natalie help Randy deal with a crime spree in Summit and find themselves paired as partners on the beat, a dramatic change from their usual employer-employee relationship. Even bigger changes are in store for the pair, but I won't give anything away here. Sadly, Goldberg has decided to stop writing Monk novels. The next book in the series, Mr. Monk is a Mess (due out in July, 2012), will be the last (or perhaps penultimate? Goldberg mentions Mess as leading to a finale: http://leegoldberg.typepad.com/a_writers_life/2012/01/behind-the-music-mr-monk-on-patrol.html). Mr. Monk on Patrol does a good job of moving the series toward a conclusion that, judging from the look of things, promises to be fitting. (I'm hoping there aren't any 19-years-later-on-Platform-9-3/4-type scenes--not that there was anything wrong with that particular epilog, really, but big time leaps are, I think, inherently depressing.) I'll be eager to see how Goldberg ties everything off, but I'm not happy at all to see the series end.

Comments

[Lee Goldberg]

1.

Thanks for the great review, Debra. There are two more MONK books coming from me...MR. MONK IS A MESS and MR. MONK GETS EVEN. And the series of books may continue with a different writer.

Lee

[Debra Hamel]

2.

Thanks, Lee. I'm glad to hear that there are two books to come, at least, instead of just one. It's good news too, I suppose, that the series may continue without you, but your shoes will be tough to fill.

[Billy]

3.

I'm glad I stumbled upon your great blog. I wasn't aware that there were still new Monk books coming out. I have a few of the old ones. I might have to drag them out and reread them.

[sydney white]

4.

very nice book

[Jesse]

5.

Really? Sharona married to Randy? As troubling as the conversion of book into film (or other media is), I find the conversion of other media (television, film, video games) into books just as jarring at times. I just can't imagine Monk as a book.