Mr. Monk Goes to Hawaii

Mr. Monk Goes to Hawaii is a story by Lee Goldberg and is very similar to Mr. Monk Goes to Germany, which I previously reviewed and didn't like. This story was written before the Germany story and it is ten times better.

Natalie is invited to attend a friends wedding in Hawaii. This is one of the few vacations away from Monk she is able to take and she really looked forward to the time off. Problem is Monk couldn't bear to be away from Natalie for a full week and so he followed her. In order to endure a airplane ride for over 5 hours, Monk takes some prescribed mood-altering medications (the idea is introduced here which later shows up in Mr. Monk Goes to Germany). These medications depress Monk's detective abilities, so he would only take the medication in extreme circumstances. Once Monk is in Hawaii, he turns Natalie's vacation into a working vacation. He immediately begins investigating a murder that takes place at the resort. Monk-ish hilarity ensues with a fake tv psychic, a string of unsolved robberies, and more.

The story was enjoyable and I didn't mind the medication crutch to take Monk to Hawaii. It does get old in the Germany story though (and I think the author uses it in at least one other story). In some ways it is like drugging B.A. Baracus of the A-Team to get him on a plane. There must be some other way to get Monk out of his element and into a new location than to default to this every time.

Book Rating: 3 stars.