Imagine going on a vacation to Hawaii to get away from your boss. Now imagine your boss sneaking on your plane and following you from place to place on your “ relaxing vacation.” If you have Natalie Teeger’s luck, this may happen to you.

Mr. Monk Goes to Hawaii by Lee Goldberg is by far my favorite book in this new mystery series. Adrian Monk is a brilliant detective in San Francisco who has every phobia you can think of…and then many more. Natalie, his personal assistant, decides to travel to Hawaii in an attempt to get away from Monk. As I said before, this idea backfires. Instead, Monk follows her on the plane and she didn’t realize what had happened until it was too late. And then, of course, there was the murder in Hawaii waiting for him.

I personally like how in his books, Goldberg adds in a mini-mystery. This is where Monk solves a secondary mystery aside from the main one. Monk always solves these at the scene of the crime, which he does almost seventy percent of the time. In comparison to other mystery writers, I would put Lee Goldberg on the top because of how he keeps me flipping the pages one after another when I read his novels. I usually get tired of reading after a while, but not ones written by him. I always read these books faster than others that I read. Goldberg really made me feel like I was in Natalie’s shoes, unfortunately. In this story, the author was trying to teach the reader to take the good out of things instead of the bad, even if most of the bad events occur on your vacation.

I would recommend this novel to any teen or adult who enjoys mystery and humor. I rate this one a five out of five, thanks to Lee Goldberg.