“Mr. Monk and the two Assistants” is my favorite of the Monk books by Lee Goldberg, so far. In fact, it is one of the best stories to ever feature Mr. Monk, televised or in print. In this book, as he did with “Mr. Monk Goes to Hawaii”, Mr. Goldberg puts Monk in a situation that could not be done on the television series. This time, Natalie’s daughter Julie breaks her arm and Natalie has to take her to the hospital, with Monk in tow. There she meets a nurse who seems to know a lot about Monk. Monk stands speechless as soon as he hears her voice, since it turns out the nurse is Monk’s former nurse and assistant Sherona Fleming. It is great to be able to see the two assistants together. Sherona’s husband was arrested for murder. He claims he’s innocent, but due to his shady past Sherona does not believe him and leaves for San Francisco with her son Benjy. Natalie wants Monk to take on the case so that Sherona will move back to New Jersey, and Monk wants to let him stay in prison so Sherona will stay in San Francisco. The characters are portrayed brilliantly in this book. Each line of dialog is written in such a way that you can hear the voices of the actors from the show in your head as you read them. It’s great to see Sherona again. I liked her character a lot, but I have grown to like Natalie as well as the show has progressed. It’s great to see how the two women feel about each other. They have a lot of differences, but they have a lot of similarities as well, and it’s not just that they care for Mr. Monk.