Mr. Monk is Miserable

I am a fan of the show Monk, and found the concept of a Monk novel enjoyable; it reminds me of a Gregory Maguire novel.

The story has a good rythm and pace in which envisionment of the characters and situations are clear.
The Humor in the book is very "Monk-ish".
I did notice, however, notice that the author has an obsession with the word "said" in "he said, she said" this made it a little hard to endure those talk back moments.
A better narrator could have been chosen, even with the volume on my Ipod on a lower setting her voice was a little harsh in a "third grade teacher scolding" type of way. I dealt with the narrator and listened to the whole novel. (try listening to the sample before purchasing)

Overall this is a must for Monk fans.

I enjoyed the novel very much and hope that Audible will carry more audio book versions of the Monk novels.

I must first confess a bias... I wrote the book and was delighted to learn that Laura Hicks performed the reading. She does a great job channeling Natalie and capturing all the other characters. She wisely doesn't try to imitate the actors from TV series and makes the characters her own. I especially enjoyed her, as Randy Disher, singing "I Don't Need A Badge." I was stunned that she actually did her homework and sang it to the tune from the episode where the song first appeared. That's dedication!

'Mr. Monk is Miserable' reads like a travelogue enhanced with low grade bickering throughout.

Monk's perseverative personality is rich with potential, (a la Running With Scissors, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time) however, it's squandered on flippancy and whining.

The boundaries of the relationship between Monk and his assistant are inconsistent: Is her role to ease his way socially or to bully him? Does he see the world in literal terms or is he just selfish? Does she interpret him to the community and vice versa or is she merely his handler?

I couldn't finish it. The lack of compassion and prose got to me.

In my opinion, the strength of the Monk TV series, like the series, "House", is the special skills the main character possesses. I don't want to here from the whiny assistant, nor do I care about her point of view. I expected hard core Monk, spotlighting his point of view and his many skills and special diagnostics of criminals and their acts, which were lacking, as far as I could see. I was so agitated and frustrated with the narrator's voice, as well as the lack of substance of the story, I could not finish. Perhaps if I'd gone further I'd be pleasantly surprised, but I found this to be too great a chore.

I liked reading a Monk tale where he is equally likeable and irritating as in the TV series. I especially liked the part of his using a city cleaning vehicle to do what he likes best.