Hardcore
“Monk” fans know the back story: Adrian Monk’s photojournalist wife Trudy was
murdered in a car bombing by person or persons unknown. Devastated, Monk was
nearly catatonic for the next three years. When he was released from the
hospital, it was in the care of a nurse named Sharona Fleming, who functioned
as both his nurse and assistant for the next several years. When Sharona
remarried Trevor, the husband she’d previously divorced, and moved from San
Francisco back to New Jersey, Monk hired Natalie Teeger as his new assistant.
So when, in Mr. Monk and the Two Assistants, Natalie’s daughter Julie breaks her wrist during a soccer game, necessitating a trip to the emergency room, both Natalie and Monk are stunned to see Sharona working there. Monk is ecstatic as he imagines both women in his life; Natalie feels threatened by the prospect of losing her job to Sharona.
It
turns out that Trevor moved to Los Angeles after buying a landscaping company,
and is now in jail, charged with murdering one of his clients. Convinced he’s
guilty, Sharona would be happy to let him languish while she resumes working
for Monk. Natalie wants Monk to prove Trevor innocent so Sharona will get back
together with him, thus solidifying Natalie’s position as Monk’s sole
assistant.
After
Natalie takes it upon herself to visit Trevor, she persuades Monk to
investigate. She, Sharona and Monk drive to L.A., a place Monk quickly learns
to fear, to begin their probe of the events. There they meet, among others,
bestselling mystery novelist Ian Ludlow, who frequently acts as a consultant to
the LAPD.
When
they return to San Francisco, Captain Stottlemeyer tells Monk, who’s a paid
consultant to the SFPD, that he needs his help in the murder—on a nude beach,
to Monk‘s chagrined horror—of one Ronald Webster, a shoe store clerk.
Eventually
it becomes clear that the two apparently disparate cases are connected, and any
veteran mystery reader will easily guess the identity of the culprit. Proving
said culprit’s guilt is another matter entirely, because that person has
cleverly and convincingly developed seemingly airtight cases against Sharona
and Natalie as the perpetrators of the two murders.
This
is the fourth of Lee Goldberg’s Monk novels that I’ve read. I’ve enjoyed all of
them, but this one is the best to date, in no small measure because of its
fairly-clued solution. The clue, I might point out, is kept in front of the
reader throughout the book, but is nevertheless elusive—a sign of excellent
authorial misdirection.
Recommended
without reservations.
Barry
Ergang © 2008, 2021
Derringer Award-winner Barry Ergang’s written
work has appeared in numerous publications, print and electronic. Some of it is
available at Amazon and at Smashwords. His website is http://www.writetrack.yolasite.com/.
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