Mr. Monk Goes to Germany
by Lee Goldberg
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Book Summary Information
Author: Lee GoldbergEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2008-12-02
ISBN: 0451225635
Number of pages: 288
Publisher: Signet
Book Reviews of Mr. Monk Goes to Germany
Book Review: Mr. Monk's European Vacation
Summary: 3 Stars
This sixth `Monk' novel is a breeze of a read. It's very entertaining, the mystery elements are neatly handled and there's plenty of Monk madness to enjoy. And yet, for all that, I have to admit that I found this the least satisfying of the `Monk' novels so far published.
Monk is horrified when his psychiatrist, Dr. Kroger, suddenly announces that he is going to Germany for a week to attend a conference. How will Monk cope without his regular sessions with the good doctor? The answer to that soon becomes apparent when Dr. Kroger tries to pacify Monk by arranging for Dr. Jonah Sorenson, the one-armed psychiatrist who we first met in the television episode `Mr. Monk Gets a New Shrink'. Sorenson's lack of body symmetry has our obsessive compulsive detective in something of a cold sweat. Added to this is the fact that Monk's new neighbour only has one leg. Monk slips into a state of "tearless weeping" and "losing count of his blinking." He decides that the only course of action left open to him is to follow Dr. Kroger to Germany.
Monk's unease about people with physical anomalies is about to become even more pronounced because he suddenly notices a man who has six fingers on his right hand. This is especially significant to Monk because his wife's murderer was hired by an eleven-fingered man.
Where I have some difficulty with this novel is in some of the situations that Monk and Natalie get into and how they react to those situations. Obviously, with a television series as the basis for a novel, you can't help but refer back to the characters as they appear on screen. In the television episode, `Mr. Monk Takes His Medicine', as I remember it, when Monk is under the influence of the personality-altering drug, Dioxynl, his usefulness as a detective is non-existent. In this novel, Monk's detective skills are unimpaired after taking the drug. Also, Natalie's extreme reactions towards Dr. Kroger in this novel didn't ring true for me when compared to her screen persona, or even when compared to her ususal laid-back character in the novels.
When reading this novel, I kept asking myself why it was set in Germany as opposed to any other country. Why did the cast have to be transported out of San Francisco at all? There are even a couple of characters that mirror Stottlemeyer and Disher with similar sounding, if Germanic, names. All good comedy stuff, admittedly, but at times, things felt a little forced to me.
All this moaning is perhaps a bit harsh. I'd still recommend this novel to fans of the previous books in the series because it's a good, entertaining read. However, compared to the previous `Monk' novels, I do feel that this is the weakest entry in the series.
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