Mr. Monk in Trouble

Mr. Monk in Trouble is the ninth novel based on the television series Monk.^[1] It was written by Lee Goldberg,^[2] and was published by Signet Books on December 1, 2009. Like the other Monk novels, the story is narrated by Natalie Teeger, the assistant of the title character, Adrian Monk.

Plot summary

Adrian Monk and Natalie Teeger arrive in Trouble, California, a small town known for an unsolved train robbery that happened there in 1962. In the 1840s, Trouble was also home to one of Monk's distant relatives, an assayer who possessed skills invaluable to the small town, and exhibited many of the same obsessive compulsive traits as Adrian. Monk discovers that these seemingly uncorrelated historical facts are connected to the murder of a museum security guard in Trouble who was a retired San Francisco police officer.^[3]

The Case of the Piss-Poor Gold

The novel featured a short story entitled The Case of the Piss-Poor Gold, which was published before the novel was released in the November 2009 issue of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine.^[4] In the story, Artemis Monk, an assayer in the California gold rush town of Trouble in the 1840s, goes from determining the value of rocks to solving a murder.

Characters

Characters from the television show

• Adrian Monk, the titular detective, played on the series by Tony Shalhoub
• Natalie Teeger, Monk's assistant and the narrator, played on the series by Traylor Howard
• Captain Leland Stottlemeyer, Monk's police friend and ex-partner, played on the series by Ted Levine
• Lieutenant Randy Disher, Stottlemeyer's right-hand man, played on the series by Jason Gray-Stanford
• Julie Teeger, Natalie's daughter, played on the series by Emmy Clarke

Original characters

Present Day

• Clarence Lenihan, a character in the prologue
• Manny Feikema, an ex-SFPD cop and security guard at Trouble's history museum
• Bob Gorman, an auto mechanic in Trouble and Manny's replacement
• Chief Harley Kelton, Chief of Trouble's police and an ex-cop from Boston
• Doris Thurlo, Trouble's historian
• Ralph DeRosso, conductor and brakeman of the Golden Rail Express
• Crystal DeRosso, Ralph DeRosso's daughter
• Jake Slocum, one of two robbers hired by DeRosso to carry out the Golden Rail Express
• George Gilman, Jake Slocum's partner
• Gator Dunsen, a recently released ex-convict arrested by Manny
• Detective Lydia Wilder of the Amador County police
• Clifford Adams, the Golden Rail Express's boilerman
• Edward "Ed" Randisi, the history museum's director
• Leonard McElroy, the Golden Rail Express's engineer

19th century characters

• Artemis Monk, Monk's 19th century ancestor. He was Trouble's assayer and also helped the sheriff solve crimes that took place in the town. Artemis is known to be responsible for the grid-style layout that comprises Trouble today.
• Abigail Guthrie, Artemis Monk's assistant and Natalie's analogue.
• Sheriff Wheeler, the Sheriff of Trouble, and Stottlemeyer's analogue. The physical similarities that the sheriff bears to Stottlemeyer are very predominant, right down to Abigail's description of the fact that he wears a thick mustache.
• Deputy Parley Weaver, Sheriff Wheeler's right-hand man and Disher's analogue.
• Hank Guthrie, Abigail's late husband, and an analogue to Natalie's late husband

References