“Mr. Monk Goes to Hawaii” is a fun book. With this book, Lee Goldberg takes Monk to an exotic locale that would not be possible to do on the television show. Natalie has to go to Hawaii to a wedding, and Mr. Monk tags along since he feels he can not handle himself at home alone without her. To avoid a situation like “Mr. Monk and the Airplane”, Adrian Monk once again takes the medicine that makes him less worried about phobias but, in the words of Dr. Kroger, “makes him a lousy detective”. It was fun to once again see Monk on medication, something he has not done since “Mr. Monk Takes His Medicine”. Monk acts like a completely different person when on the medicine. Once the medicine wears off though, that is where the fun begins. Monk stumbles onto an accident that he feels is a murder. He has to deal with his phobias in an environment to which he is not accustomed, and solve the case in the process. I laughed out loud when Monk is confronted with lizards in a restaurant. My sister lived in Guam for a while, and through her I know that those little green guys are everywhere over there. It was amusing to see how Monk handled himself in that situation, which suffice to say, was not very well. Mr. Goldberg is still coming to terms with the characters as this is only his second book in the series. So, there are some instances where Mr. Monk does things that he would not do in the show. Still, those instances are few and far between and it did not spoil my enjoyment of this book.

Monk follows Natalie on her vacation to Hawaii and winds up finding a crime scene. And solving some other crimes along the way.

Very funny and entertaining until the very last page.