Mr. Monk Gets on Board is the 17th book in the Mr. Monk book series. It was released on January 7, 2014 by NAL.
Synopsis[]
Obsessive. Compulsive. Detective.
An all-new original mystery starring Adrian Monk, the brilliant investigator who always knows when something's out of place...
Of all the things that make Adrian Monk uneasy, change ranks high on the list. So when Natalie completes her P.I. license—and technically becomes Monk's boss—it's not easy for him to accept. Nor can he accept Natalie attending a business seminar at sea without him, even if it means spending a week with her on a cruise ship.
Between choppy waters and obnoxious kids, Monk finds himself in a perfect storm of anxiety. Luckily, Mariah, the cruise director, is always able to smooth things over... until someone pulls the man overboard alarm, the ship drops anchor—and the crew fishes Mariah's dead body out of the water.
Finding alcohol in Mariah's system, the ship's doctor declares her death an accident, but Monk isn't convinced. He knows that Mariah and the captain were having an affair. Could someone have pushed her overboard?
When the captain hires Monk and Natalie to look into a mysterious rash of vandalism onboard, Monk steers the investigation toward murder...[1]
Plot[]
Trivia[]
The book was originally planned to be an episode of Monk, taking place sometime during Season 3. Titled Mr. Monk Is At Sea, it would have involved Monk and Sharona investigating a murder on a cruise liner. Although the episode itself was approved by USA Network, the episode was scrapped because various ocean liners were reluctant to shoot an episode on their ships due to both the main plotline of the episode involving a murder onboard as well as one of the characters being thrown overboard. They wouldn't budge even after changing the identity of the murderer and reducing the bodycount. They also tried to use the Queen Mary at Long Beach for shooting, though talks fell through. It was then locked up in a vault until 2013, when Hy Conrad contacted Dan Dratch to make a novel based on the episode. The only changes were replacing Sharona with Natalie Teeger (due to Sharona having left Monk and being replaced by Natalie by this time), some new subplots, as well as including a visit to Mexico to allow Captain Alameda from Mr. Monk Goes to Mexico to get involved.