Mr. Monk Is Miserable -- Lee Goldberg

If Monk is miserable, you can be sure I'll be happy reading about it.  This book picks up just after the ending of the previous novel in the series, in which Natalie Teeger has blackmailed Monk into going to France, and one reason I liked this book so much is that I'm a big fan of stories that feature sewers and/or catacombs.  I think this all started when I read Thomas Pynchon's V., with Benny Profane hunting alligators in the NY sewers with a shotgun.  But I digress.  Goldberg gives me the sewers of Paris and the catacombs as well, but that's not all.  Since the city is undermined by limestone caverns, we also get a nice tour of a fantastical world populated by all kinds of people living off the grid.

There's murder, too, of course, including murder in a completely dark restaurant where the servers are blind and no one can see a thing.  The killing is connected to a skull that Monk finds in the catacombs, not that there aren't thousands of other skulls there.  You'll have to read the book to find out more.

And of course there's plenty of Monk's quirkiness, which I continue to find amusing.  This is where the title of the book is somewhat misleading because before it's over, Monk has found something approaching pure happiness driving a motocrotte.  Again, you'll have to read it for yourself, which is something I recommend the next time you need a good laugh, an entertaining mystery, and a tour of the Paris underground all for the same price.