Mr. Monk books 1 to 4

 Over the last few days I’ve read the first three Mr. Monk books and I must say they were a riot. When I started them I’d never seen more than a few bits of an episode of Monk but I had an idea who the characters were. Since then I’ve had to try and watch the TV show to catch up with all of them. I will say he isn’t as obsessive in the first season as he is in the books and part of the fun is watching him try to control his impulses. It’s possible he gets worse later after Sharona leaves.

Mr. Monk goes to the Firehouse.

In the first book Monk is hired by Natalie’s daughter to solve the muster of a dog’s death. We are introduced to all the characters and get a good view of Monk`s problems. I’m glad it’s done in Natalie’s voice because a story from his perspective would be unnerving. Besides it’s fun to watch everyone react to him. I couldn’t stop laughing at his actions and read though the book within a day. It didn’t feel like a chore and I loved uncovering the murderer with Monk.

Mr. Monk goes to Hawaii

The second book continues the adventure of the two main characters as Natalie takes a vacation to Hawaii and Monk joins her. His drug induced normalcy was the highlight of the book. When he exposed Natalie’s friend’s fiancé because of his comment that July was sweltering I realized that coming from North America I too would have thought that was normal if I hadn’t already met some Australians and travelled around the world. Otherwise it was a very easy reveal. Uncovering the actual mystery was just as much fun as in the first book and I also read it in a day.

Mr. Monk and the Blue Flu

The third book was weaker than the other two. Monk finally got his dream of being reinstated to the police department after negotiations broke down with the city and the police officers came down sick. This one had several murders but they would have worked better if Lee Goldberg hadn’t manufactured a connection to each of them. It was too neat. The cast of wacky police officers however made if fun to read. I wish they had been able to do more. This one had too much plot manipulation and not enough story to make it more entertaining.

Mr. Monk and the Two Assistants.

This one started out with too big a coincidence but having Sharona show up at the hospital like that was surprising. Just as Natalie had gotten into the Monk groove this interloper came back into his life. The murders were a little better thought out than the last book and the red herring thrown into the mix shook it up. I will say that of the first four this one felt like it could belong on the TV series with its cast of silliness and camp. They`d have to leave the sex out though.