MR. MONK IS MISERABLE Monk Series, Book 7

Monk, the obsessive-compulsive detective created for TV, consults for the San Francisco police. Assistant Natalie is Watson to the phobic Monk's Holmes. Here she describes their latest caper in Paris, involving two murders and a group of "freegans," who live in the Catacombs on food and items scrounged from dumpsters. Laura Hicks wonderfully captures Monk's horrified reaction to this lifestyle as well as his reasoning powers, which eventually solve the crime. Natalie's near-saintly patience with him and her romantic feelings for one of the freegans also surface. It would be easy to adopt a farcical tone for this material, but Hicks doesn't; she just makes the most of the comic scenes. Add some spot-on French and French-accented English, and you have a thoroughly entertaining caper. J.B.G. © AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine [Published: MARCH 2009]