Trying to beat the summer heat? Get ready for Christmas in July. Read All I Want for Christmas (in July) is Clues.
Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme. Read the rules and more teasers at The Purple Booker. Anyone can play along.
I confess that I love the Monk TV series. I wasn’t sure how the book series would hold up to the TV show, but Monk Goes to the Firehouse, the first book in the series, turned out to be a satisfying read for this Monk fan.
The narrator doesn’t quite get the timing of the voices down, but it is still enjoyable and it is easy to tell the difference between the voices of the characters.
If you are looking for your “Mr. Monk fix” this is a good place to start. It did break with canon in one place that I noticed, and that is that Mr. Monk had a glass of milk. Of course, milk is very high on his list of fears, so that wouldn’t be likely to happen without comment.
Overall, Mr. Monk goes to the Firehouse engaging and entertaining read that is true to the characters of the series.
Warning: The dog dies. This book involves an investigation into the death of a dog killed violently during the commission of a crime.
“But most people don’t mean ‘perfect’ when they say ‘perfect.'”
Lee Goldberg, Monk Goes to the Firehouse
“Of course they do,” Monk said.
“No, they mean pleasant, or nice, or comfortable. They don’t actually mean perfect in the sense that everything will be, well, perfect. You do.”
Summary
Monk’s house is being fumigated, and he has nowhere to go. Fortunately, his assistant Natalie and her daughter are kind enough to welcome 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-has led Monk into a puzzling mystery. And much to his horror, he’s going to have to dig through a lot of dirt to find the answer.
