1. Mr. Monk Goes to the Firehouse 2. Mr. Monk Goes to Hawaii 3. Mr. Monk and the Blue Flu 4. Mr. Monk and the Two Assistants 5. Mr. Monk in Outer Space 6. Mr. Monk Goes to Germany 7. Mr. Monk is Miserable 8. Mr. Monk and the Dirty Cop 9. Mr. Monk in Trouble 10. Mr. Monk is Cleaned Out MR. MONK IN TROUBLE NOW AVAILABLE! ver since a 1962 unsolved train robbery made it famous, people have flocked to the town of Trouble in California's gold country, searching for the booty that train robbers supposedly dumped off the Golden Rail Express in a botched heist. When the museum watchman is murdered, Monk and his assistant, Natalie, are sent to investigate. Monk quickly becomes obsessed with the unsolved robbery—and discovers that Trouble's gold-rush-era assayer was a quirky fellow named Artemis Monk. But that might not be the only thing that ties the past to the present, and if Monk isn't careful, he'll learn how the town of Trouble can live up to its name. ORDER THE BOOK from Amazon. HIGH PRAISE "Yesterday, my teenager tried to bribe me, a noted chocoholic, with Reese's PB cups to get MR. MONK IN TROUBLE from my hands. He lost! Both of us love the television series "Monk," and often battle over who gets to read the latest Monk novel first. The past few times, he's beaten me to it, but he was in school when the new one arrived and I cozied up on the sofa and read it in one sitting. If you haven't seen Monk, I highly recommend hitting Netflix or the USA Web site and watching some episodes. Monk is extremely phobic, an excessive neat freak and completely charming. I keep saying I'd love to have Monk come clean my house. I imagine he'd do a fantastic job. Given that, however, I don't think you need to understand the character in order to enjoy the books. Lee Goldberg always captures Monk's nuances perfectly. He injects the mysteries with just the right amount of humor and tackles subjects I only wish I'd seen on television. Monk dealing with trick-or-treaters is a riot! In this latest, Monk and Natalie, Monk's assistant, head to Trouble, California, to investigate the murder of one of Captain Stottlemeyer's friends, a former San Francisco police officer. There, the town historian points out that Monk looks exactly like Artemis Monk, the town's assayer during the gold rush. Turns out Artemis was also a perfectionist with many phobias and a knack for solving baffling mysteries. The story weaves in and out between entries from diaries kept by Artemis Monk's assistant and Monk's mysteries. While he came to town to solve the murder of Stottlemeyer's friend, he's lured into a couple other mysteries too. The biggest being a train robbery. I'll admit to figuring out who one of the robbers was early on, but that didn't distract from the story at all. I was more intrigued with Monk's antics and the general storyline involving Artemis Monk. Once again, Lee Goldberg's created a story I think would make an exceptional show. This is Monk's final season. I'm not sure if Mr. Goldberg will continue the Monk series, or if it will be possible to when they end the show, but I like to think I'll always get that little dose of Monk to read up on. When I'm looking for a bit of escapism and a lot of laughs, Goldberg's Monk books get top billing."    —Roundtable Reviews "I read MR. MONK IN TROUBLE virtually nonstop and enjoyed every page. Lee Goldberg knows that the richest humor veers close to pathos, and that is one reason the novel succeeds so well. Who but Monk would hand out wet wipes to Trick-or-Treaters? Natalie is greatly put-upon by her boss, but responds with stoicism, humor—and love. Some of the fun here is that the book takes us into the past, where Monk's ancestor Artemis is an assayer in a mining district and deals with goldrush scalawags and swindlers with the usual Monkian genius. This is much more than entertainment."    —Richard S. Wheeler, legendary western author "A highly entertaining series...I get a big kick out of the Monk novels and I laughed aloud at this story."    —Mystery Scene "Once again, Goldberg expertly sails along the fine line of character quirks that make Monk so infuriating, and yet so endearing. His obsessions with order and cleanliness are on full display here. As usual, they are enough to make you want to give up on him completely and leave him to his scrubbing and reorganizing (as the long-suffering Natalie has often done). But, again as usual, Goldberg balances these irritations with enough reassuring humor and sheer crime-solving fun that you find yourself cheering for Monk by the conclusion."    —Bookgasm.com (read the full review) "For me this is the funniest Monk novel yet. Monk and his maladies have never before met so many insidious enemies. As usual it's up the the fetching, patient Natalie to push and pull him through the case but this time there's a point where she finds herself helpless—Monk vanishes. The Monk-Natalie relationship is the soul of these novels and here it's front and center... In the course of the novel you'll notice the surnames of certain mystery writers who are probably familiar to you. They just add to the spirit of witty fun that stretches from the first page to the last. A fine fine novel. I can't wait for the next installment."    —Ed Gorman Blog (read the full review) "I am impressed by how consistently enjoyable the Monk books are and lament only that I'm catching up to the author: as of January 2010, there are only two more books remaining in the series that I have yet to read, Mr. Monk and the Dirty Cop and Mr. Monk in Trouble, both published in 2009. I'll have to pace myself unless Mr. Goldberg and his publisher agree to ramp up production."    —Debra Hamel, Book-Blog.com (read the full review)