Once more Lee Goldberg does a wonderful job of making MONK readable and laughable. Just as I enjoy the quirky personality of Monk on TV, I enjoy a laugh on him and his female sidekick in these books.

When the police department calls in sick with the blue flu, Monk is put in charge, and the fun begins. He is his usual OC personality, along with solving the murders going on around him. His reasoning is so right on (of course, it IS a novel) and I love to see if I beat him to the punch. So far, I haven't. On to the next book, which I know I will love as much as each one I've read so far.

“Mr. Monk and The Blue Flu” is my second favorite book in the series after “Mr. Monk and the Two Assistants”. In this book, most of the San Francisco police department calls in sick due to poor pay and the fact that police officers can not go on strike. The mayor is left without most of the city’s police force and is forced to rehire some of the officers that the city has had to let go in the past. Due to the high amount of cases that Monk has solved for the city as a private consultant, Monk is hired on as the acting captain of homicide, temporarily taking over Leland Stottlemeyer’s position. It’s great to see Monk back under the employ of the SFPD again. I would love to see this book adapted into an episode of the series, as “Mr. Monk Goes to the Firehouse” was adapted into “Mr. Monk Can’t See a Thing”. The book really does feel like a long episode of the television series. ( )

The pleasure in the books in this series of TV tie-in novels is not in the mysteries themselves but in the quirky character of Adrian Monk. I don't watch many mystery/detective type shows on TV but I do watch "Monk" because of the situations the characters (esp. Mr. Monk) get into. This is the same reason I read the Monk books.

In this one, the police force protest a bad contract with the city by coming down with the "Blue Flu" and calling in sick. The mayor decides to reinstate Mr. Monk as an officer -- and make him Captain of the homicide department. Since the regular detectives are "sick", the city also reinstates several other former detectives who probably shouldn't be allowed out on their own.

In the midst of the strike, Monk and his team manage to solve a series of murders that might or might not be related -- but not without a few laughs along the way for the reader. ( )

Wow. Plenty of murders here for Monk to solve, plus the entire upper echelon of the SFPD have come down with the blue flu. (Their contracts were up for negotiation and their union leaders could not get what they wanted.) Monk is reinlisted as Captain of the homicide department while labor negotiations are at a standstill. His team that is reinstated are not the level headed people you might want for your average homicide detective. There is the cop that needs his anger management counselor with him (he was kicked off the force for being a tad trigger happy, the paranoid ex-undercover cop (who has her psychiatrist with her), and the doddering senile grandpa (who has brought his granddaughter with him to remind him who he and everyone around him is). Tough as it might seem to get these people to work, they solve every homicide thrown at them.

Another exceptional showing from Mr. Goldberg. I have to say that I did not expect to enjoy this series and picked up my first one to see how bad it was or maybe for it's novelty value. But this series is true to the show and the characters and very enjoyable. It does not read like a script, but as a novel all in itself. Brava. ( )

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