This is from an email I received today from Lee Goldberg, author of Monk novels:
Today my third original MONK novel MR. MONK AND THE BLUE FLU will be appearing on shelves in bookstores nationwide.
Here's what the book is about: Monk is horrified when he learns there's going to be a blue flu in San Francisco” until Capt. Stottlemeyer explains that it just means the police plan to call in "sick" until they get a better contract. The good news is the labor dispute will give Monk a chance to get back on the force. The bad news is it means he'll be a "scab"—and he doesn't like the sound of that either.
But before he knows it, Monk has his badge back, and his own squad to command. Unfortunately, some of the squad members make Monk look like a paragon of mental health. But despite the challenges, they'll have to pull together to catch an astrologer's killer, solve a series of mysterious fatal assaults, and most importantly, clean up their desks. ...
Monk has been working for years to get his badge back, so I thought it would be fun to see what would happen if he finally got his wish...if only for a while....and to see him in an entirely different situation than he's ever been in before. I've been toying with the idea of a "Blue Flu" story ever since I was first approached to write original Monk novels...but somehow it didn't seem right to me as the way to kick-off the series of books.
Part of the fun of doing these books for me is the chance to explore aspects of Monk's character that haven't been dealt with yet on the TV series or, as is the case with MR. MONK GOES TO HAWAII, go places and do things that the TV series can't for various logistical and production reasons. I'm thinking about sending Monk to Europe for an upcoming book, but we'll see what happens.
If you would like a signed, personalized copy of MR. MONK AND THE BLUE FLU, they are available through Mysteries To Die For in Thousand Oaks, California. They will be glad to take your order online and send books almost anywhere in the world.
By the way, this is the last original MONK novel to premiere in paperback...with the next book, MR. MONK AND THE TWO ASSISTANTS, the series is jumping to hardcover. That book comes out in July 2007 and, as you can probably guess from the title, is about the surprising return of Sharona, Monk's first assistant. You can find a teaser chapter for TWO ASSISTANTS in the back of MR. MONK AND THE BLUE FLU.