The previous book in this series had, unusually, ended on a cliff hanger, so I was interested to see how things were resolved in this next instalment. I was also looking forward to reading this novel, as the synopsis suggests a full compliment of series characters, including Ambrose, Adrian Monk’s brother, which is always a bonus.
Synopsis
‘No one likes to come home to a mess–least of all Monk and Natalie. But when they return briefly to San Francisco from an extended stay working as cops in New Jersey, Natalie discovers somebody has been sleeping in her bed. But this Goldilocks is not asleep. She’s dead. If that’s not bad enough, investigators find marked money from a Federal sting operation stuffed under Natalie’s mattress. Now her life is a real mess and she needs Monk’s help to clean it up. But Monk has problems of his own. His brother Ambrose is desperate to find Yuki, his missing lover, but his agoraphobia prevents him from leaving the house. Ambrose needs a man on the outside–and that man is Monk, who is torn, because he’s glad to see her go. As the two investigations begin, and the body count rises, it quickly becomes clear to Monk that Yuki has a dangerous past…and that they are pursuing a ruthless, cold-blooded killer that nobody would ever want to mess with…’
Overall Thoughts
The action begins in Summit, New Jersey and chapter one sees Adrian Monk and Natalie Teeger, working as patrol officers, rapidly going in pursuit of a murderer. One of the joys with these mini cases is waiting for that moment where Monk’s powerful skills of observation reveal a killing has occurred when no one else has realised this fact and the murderer thinks they have got away with it. Natalie, in keeping with other recent previous reads, notices some details but doesn’t quite have the knowledge/insight to come to the same conclusion as Monk. Nevertheless, her sleuthing skills have still come a long way and have developed over the series. This is something I have appreciated more because I have been reading the books mostly in chronological order and have been consistently reading about one a month, so Natalie’s progress is more visible. This mini case also demonstrates the awkwardness of Monk’s sleuthing style, (in this instance damage to a police car and the suspect’s) which to outsiders seems almost prophetic e.g. anticipating a corpse which has not been found yet. However, this is Monk so we can rely on him to deliver the goods, or in this case figure out where the body should be, based on details found on the suspect’s vehicle.
Before Adrian and Natalie head back to San Francisco, and fresh chaos ensues, we get to see how they are building a new life in Summit. This is not without its difficulties, as it requires adjustments in their relationship. For example, Adrian envisages sharing a house with Natalie if they move to Summit, but naturally this is something she vetoes. They are not just employer and employee, they’re not even just friends, and whilst there is nothing romantic between them, there remains an emotional dependency on both sides, which needs resolving before they can move on to the next stage of their lives. This is not something I had thought about until the last few reads in the series and I like how the author develops this aspect of the books.
When Natalie does return to her San Franciscan home, she has a great Goldilocks moment. There are the remains of a pizza she has not eaten and a beer she has not drunk. Several of her possessions are missing and breakfast dishes are laid out for two. Her bed has been slept in and only after that does she find the body in her bath. Adrian thinks the death is a suicide, which is unusual as normally he is the one saying an apparent suicide is really a murder, so this scenario raises more questions. The fact Adrian and Natalie are returning as fellow police officers causes tension for some of the San Franciscan police characters, with one officer saying to Natalie:
“You haven’t been through the Academy, you haven’t put in years walking a beat, you haven’t spent months at a time undercover where the slightest mistake could put you in the ground. You’re a dilettante.”
And when Natalie tries to challenge this, she is told that: “[…] you’re a patrol officer, and you’re thousands of miles outside of your itty-bitty jurisdiction. So, your badge might as well have come from a cereal box for all it’s worth here.”
When I reached the 75-pages mark I realised that actually a lot had been going on, and I would say this novel overall has great pace and plenty of action. It is hard to get bored when reading this one, as the action entails several mysteries to be solved, as well as some interesting developments for the characters too. I would have loved to have seen this plot as an episode in the Monk TV series. I like how different events impinge upon one another. For example, Adrian wants to tell Ambrose about his potential relocation to Summit, but he can’t because Yuki has disappeared. Yet he doesn’t want to bring Yuki back into Ambrose’s life because he disapproves of her. It is interesting to observe how Adrian and Ambrose have improved and developed in different areas. Yet in some ways Adrian has not changed a bit, such as his response to Natalie leaving him to make his own way home outside FBI quarters.
As the narrative progresses, we see Adrian and Natalie operating independently at times, relying less upon one another and this is something we also saw in Mr Monk on the Couch (2011), an earlier case. This story and the series as a whole series has a lot of separate narrative threads, and I like how the author brings them together at the denouement. The conclusion to this novel felt emotionally right and I would not have been surprised if this was the last book in the series. However, it is not! There is one more Monk book written by Goldberg to go (and some further continuations written by Hy Conrad). I wonder if Mr Monk is a Mess should have been the final story. But the only way to find out is to see what happens in the next book and given how things end in this story, I am curious to see how the plot will operate in Mr Monk Gets Even (2012).
Rating: 4.5/5