 |
| I love Monk. Watch episodes on TV all the time, sometimes twice a week. The books are the same. |
Lee Goldberg broke into television with a freelance script sale to Spenser: For Hire. Since then, his TV writing & producing credits have covered a wide variety of genres, including sci-fi (seaQuest), cop shows (Hunter, The Glades), martial arts (Martial Law), whodunits (Diagnosis Murder, Nero Wolfe), the occult (She-Wolf of London), kid's shows (R.L. Stine's The Nightmare Room), T&A (Baywatch, She Spies), comedy (Monk) clip shows (The Best TV Shows That Never Were) and total crap (The Highwayman, The New Adventures of Flipper).He's written and produced TV shows in Canada (Cobra, Missing), England (Stick With Me Kid) and Germany (Fast Track: No Limits). His mystery writing for television has earned him two Edgar Award nominations from the Mystery Writers of America.
His two careers, novelist and TV writer, merged when he wrote the eight books in the Diagnosis Murder series of original novels, based on the hit CBS TV mystery that he also wrote and produced. He followed that up by writing fifteen bestselling novels based on Monk, another TV show that he worked on. His Monk novels have been translated and published in Germany, Poland, Thailand, Japan, Turkey, and many other countries.
In addition to his writing, he's worked as an international TV development expert and consulting producer for production companies and major networks in Canada, France, Germany, Spain, Sweden, Belgium, and the Netherlands.
Monk is horrified when he learns there’s going to be a blue flu in San Francisco—until Capt. Stottlemeyer explains that it just means the police plan to call in “sick” until they get a better contract.
The good news is the labor dispute will give Monk a chance to get back on the force.
The bad news is it means he’ll be a “scab”—and he doesn’t like the sound of that either.
This location is discussed in "Mr. Monk and the Blue Flu."
"Mr. Monk Goes to Hawaii"
Some people think Hawaii is paradise. But Monk knows that danger—like dirt—lurks everywhere. Look at Helen Gruber, the rich tourist who took a fatal blow from a coconut.
The police say it fell from a tree, but Monk suspects otherwise. His assistant, Natalie, isn’t exactly thrilled about Monk’s latest investigation. It was bad enough that Monk followed her on vacation, and now it looks as though the vacation is over....
Smooth-talking TV psychic Dylan Swift is on the island and claims to have a message from beyond—from Helen Gruber. Monk has his doubts about Swift’s credibility.
But finding the killer and proving Swift a fraud—all while coping with geckos and the horror of unsynchronized ceiling fans—may prove a tough coconut to crack...
First in the all-new series of original mysteries starring Adrian Monk, the brilliant investigator who always knows when something’s out of place…
Monk’s house is being fumigated, and he has nowhere to go. Fortunately, his assistant, Natalie, and her daughter are kind enough to take him into their home. Unfortunately, their home is not quite up to Monk’s standards of cleanliness and order…
But while Monk attempts to arrange his surroundings just so, something else needs to be put straight. The death of a dog at the local firehouse—on the same night as a fatal house fire—leads Monk into a puzzling mystery.
And much to his horror, Monk is going to have to dig through a lot of dirt to find the answer…
"Mr. Monk and the Two Assistants"
The fourth novel in the series, and the latest, is "Mr. Monk and the Two Assistants." As the title suggests we get a visit from Monk’s former assistant Sharona Fleming, and she is a lively addition to the normal cast.
When her husband is accused of murder Sharona is heartbroken, and finds herself back in San Francisco working as a nurse. She doesn’t call on Monk to solve the murder because she thinks her husband is guilty, but as luck would have it, she and Monk find each other at the hospital where she works.
When her husband is accused of murder Sharona is heartbroken, and finds herself back in San Francisco working as a nurse. She doesn’t call on Monk to solve the murder because she thinks her husband is guilty, but as luck would have it, she and Monk find each other at the hospital where she works.
Monk is instantly awestruck—when he first sees Sharona he is speechless. Then as the realization dawns on him that she is truly back, Monk offers Sharona her old job as his assistant. Needless to say this doesn’t go over well with Natalie, and the rest of the novel unwinds to reveal not one murder, but three—and Monk is at his lovable best as he tries to figure out just who killed whom, and why, without getting dirty or into too many unpleasant germs.
"Mr. Monk and the Two Assistants" is a humorous whodunit. It is written in the voice of Natalie, who—in this novel especially—feels very much like Sherlock Holmes’ sidekick Dr. Watson, and it is great fun to watch her struggle through the twists and turns of the plot. She is often just as lost as the reader when confronted with the powerful deductive abilities of Adrian Monk, and the wonderfully outlandish murders he solves.
If you are in the mood for something light, quick and devilishly funny, give Mr. Monk and the Two Assistants a try. You won’t regret it.
"Mr. Monk Goe to Germany"
"Mr. Monk Goe to Germany"
Adrian Monk is actually doing well lately. He’s solving murders as fast as they come, and he’s been noticeably less compulsive—he doesn’t count his morning Wheat Chex until they’re in the bowl. Progress is progress, and Monk knows he owes it all to his therapist, Dr. Kroger.
So when Dr. Kroger attends a conference in Germany, Monk ends up in trouble. He can’t tie his shoes, forgets how to swallow, and loses track of his blinking. Desperate to regain his footing, Monk follows his shrink to Germany. And that’s where Monk sees the man across a crowded town square. The man he’s never stopped searching for.
The man with six fingers. The man responsible for his wife’s death.
Or did Monk imagine crossing paths with him?
