At the start of July this was one of the books that I chose to reboot my reading mojo, as by the end of June I was finding it hard to concentrate. The blurb interested me as it indicates that Natalia Teeger (narrator and Adrian Monk’s assistant) has her own case to pursue. Furthermore, it also mentions that Ambrose is involved which I was happy to discover, as I think he is a great character.
Synopsis
‘Natalie Teeger has picked up a few detective skills of her own during her years as Adrian Monk’s loyal assistant – and she’s eager to put them to use. But that’s not easy when you work with a deductive genius who can solve a murder in no time. But Natalie gets her chance when a man with no identify is found dead of natural causes, and neither Monk nor the police see any reason to get involved in the case. It also helps that Monk becomes distracted by a crime scene cleaning crew’s ability to clean up the worst messes imaginable. He gets plenty of opportunities to see them at work as he investigates several particularly brutal murders that seem to be tied to a worthless second-hand couch. With a little help from Monk’s agoraphobic brother, Natalie tackles her own investigation while also helping Monk track the couch by following a bloody trail that could lead them to the most ruthless killer they’ve ever encountered.’
Overall Thoughts
Mr Monk on the Couch begins with Natalie considering the realities of being an assistant to a police consultant. This is a theme her narration has explored before, but I like how the author is able to return to it without it feeling repetitive. In this instance the theme is looked at through the lens of how Natalie’s work affects her morning get-up routine: ‘There is never a day off from death […] starting my day with a corpse was as routine for me as a breakfast bagel.’
Natalie then goes on to talking about the emotions which come from encountering/experiencing a murder, as well as the way she felt like the odd one out at crime scenes when she first started working for Adrian Monk: ‘I didn’t belong there. I was extraneous, irrelevant, a tourist.’ But she then goes on to share how this has changed and about the skills she went on to develop. In some ways she sounds like a mystery reader: ‘I looked forward to the puzzle, to the challenge of solving a crime, and to the satisfaction of learning the solution, something Monk always discovered, even when it seemed like an impossible feat.’ I feel like this helps us to identify with her. But before you panic the first chapter is not just about Natalie and her sleuthing aspirations, as the peculiarities of Adrian’s cleaning rituals also make an appearance, unsurprisingly contrasting with Natalie’s. Shock horror, she hasn’t changed her broom in a year or two!
The cases come thick and fast in this novel and Natalie tries to flex her sleuthing muscles by attempting to analyse the crime scenes. However, she is not hugely successful in comparison to Adrian who takes it all in his stride. Natalie can spot things but is perhaps not yet proficient in interpreting their correct meaning. This again places her more in the position of the reader, who may have a similar issue, not being the “Great Detective” figure who can demonstrate this skill easily.
So, it is interesting to see what case Natalie decides to make her own, as looking back on it I feel like it is one which avoids the need for intuitive leaps or complex clue interpretation. Her investigation is not about discovering why someone died, as Jack Griffth died alone in a hotel room due to cancer. Instead, she decides to find out his real name and to uncover any kin he might have, to prevent him from having a state cremation as a John Doe. Neither Monk nor Captain Stottlemeyer is interested in doing this as Jack was not a murder victim. Natalie is curious why he came from Mexico to San Francisco, and she is even more keen to identify the woman and child in the photograph the dead man had.
We get to observe Natalie going through Jack Griffth’s possessions, identifying possible questions to answer and consequently she becomes the centre of attention for the reader. Very quickly she realises she cannot detect like Monk:
‘Monk never had to make up lists. He absorbed details that he saw and heard and then noticed the one thing that was missing, was out of place, or didn’t fit in where it was supposed to. and that’s how he solved his cases. But I wasn’t Monk. I’d have to develop my own detecting technique.’
Due to the way the plot is structured, the author can give Natalie some time to sleuth without Adrian present and during one of these sessions she spends hours on her computer trying to contact companies and niche blogs/websites to help her discover more information from the photo and the deceased’s binoculars. One thing this activity brings up is that it is one Adrian Monk’s sleuthing style avoids:
‘It was tedious, time-consuming work – the investigative drudgery that every detective has to slog through, except for Adrian Monk, who somehow managed to solve every case by relying on just his instinct, his powers of observation, and deductive reasoning. I was beginning to appreciate why Lieutenant Devlin resented that so much- and I’d been detecting in earnest for only a couple of hours.’
Yet, Natalie does not stay resentful for long, understanding the differences between herself and Adrian. Reflecting on Natalie’s sleuthing style, I think her key strength is being able to locate people who can answer her questions and use their specialist knowledge to narrow down search fields. This is where Ambrose and his new assistant, Yuki, come in, as in the end they pretty much do all the complicated work in identifying the house in the photo, as well as the make of child’s bike and the area in which the woman worked, based on her uniform.
Lieutenant Amy Devlin gets a more prominent role in this narrative, in comparison to her previous appearance. She is still irritated by the way Adrian is invited to solve cases before she gets to try and solve it herself. To her it feels like Monk and his friends ‘think the whole world revolves around him.’ This antagonism is interesting in how it lets you look at Adrian’s relationship with the police in a different light. Here is another reminder that it might not be a fully positive thing for everyone and this is a theme the series has touched upon in the past.
Regarding Monk’s cases in this book, I feel like he spends more time in the background, and he seems less proactive in his sleuthing. He is quite happy for the police to do the donkey work first:
‘There wasn’t much for Monk to do. As I’ve said before, performing the backaching, shoe-leather-grinding, butt-in-the-chair basics of investigative work wasn’t one of his skills. Though it was clear to me that his brother excelled at it.’
In addition, at times Adrian is more interested in helping the crime scene cleanup crew than in pursuing potential leads. I can see why this had to happened for the overall plot, not least because Natalie’s own case needs page time. Nevertheless, Monk does feel less central to the story and not on the page as much, which perhaps makes him a more frustrating detective to follow this time round. In the final third Adrian gets more crime focused when the murders keep happening and becoming more violent. Unsurprisingly it is Adrian Monk’s insensitivity which helps him break the case and find the connections between the deaths.
It is strange that Ambrose has an assistant of his own now (a development from the previous book). Ironically, it makes things symmetrical, but the newness of the assistant for me still had an unbalancing effect. In a way the new partnership detracts from the time we do get to spend with Ambrose, as we get less of him, which is aggravated by Natalie gravitating towards talking to the assistant more, as the plot progresses. The question does arise of whether making Ambrose more well-rounded/adjusted as a person, reduces the comedy his character offers. However, I am happy to admit to being a reader who can be resistant to major changes in a series I have read a lot of. Oh, dear is Monk rubbing off on me? lol Adrian is also uneasy about his brother’s new connection, but for different reasons.
The solution is interesting and without giving away any spoilers, I would say it is quite layered. It fits into a common trope of the books and the TV series, but it is not something you can identify until nearer the end. Adrian has a good theory but no proof, so they have to start rattling the cage of the guilty party. This leads to nothing, and Captain Stottlemeyer’s boss starts demanding a reinvestigation. However, success comes from an unexpected partnership, which sees Adrian out of the loop. Monk also must, like the reader, wait for Natalie to reveal the solution to her own case. This was a nice table-turning moment, but I feel like the way Natalie arrived at her conclusion was not wholly convincing. Nevertheless, this was an interesting book which sees many of the characters in this mystery stretching their muscles by expanding their roles.
Rating: 4/5