Mr. Monk Goes to the Firehouse

Mr. Monk Goes to the Firehouse

1st edition 2006 paperback cover
Author	Lee Goldberg
Country	United States
Language	English
Series	Monk mystery novel series
Genre	Mystery novel
Publisher	Signet Books
Publication date	January 3, 2006
Media type	Print (Paperback)
Pages	304 pp
ISBN
OCLC	62760915
Followed by	Mr. Monk Goes to Hawaii

Mr. Monk Goes to the Firehouse (2006) is a mystery novel by Lee Goldberg, based on the popular TV series Monk.

Adrian Monk temporarily moves in with his reluctant assistant, Natalie Teeger, while his home is being fumigated. Following this, her teenage daughter Julie "hires" him to investigate the death of Sparky, a popular firehouse guard dog who was struck with an axe on the same night that a suspicious house inferno was occupying its owners. Meanwhile, Natalie begins dating the animal's chief guardian, hunky fireman Joseph Cochran.

Adrian Monk, the obsessive-compulsive modern-day Sherlock Holmes, is forced to move in with his assistant Natalie Teeger, who is the narrator of the novel, while his apartment is being fumigated. After laying down certain laws (namely, turning away the moving men bringing Monk’s refrigerator and bed into her house), Natalie finds her daughter Julie crying in her room. Julie tells her that Sparky, a firehouse dalmatian who visited her school during Fire Safety Week, was found murdered the previous night. Monk can’t bear to see Julie cry, and promises to check into the matter.

Monk and Natalie head down to Fire Station #28 in North Beach, Sparky's firehouse, to speak with Captain Mantooth, the commander of the engine company in question. Monk has a boyish fascination with firefighting – that is, with the rules requiring everything in the firehouse to be spotlessly clean and in perfect order. While he is lovingly polishing the already shining ladder truck, Natalie questions Mantooth, who tells her that Sparky belonged to one of their best men, Joseph 'Joe' Cochran, and always slept in the firehouse while Joe was on duty.

According to Mantooth, the crew was called to a multiple alarm house fire about four blocks from the firehouse around 10:00 PM in which an old woman was killed, having fallen asleep while smoking a cigarette in front of her television set. Sometime in the four hours between when they left and when they returned, someone sneaked into the firehouse and killed Sparky with a pickaxe. Monk examines the crime scene, and he explains what he believe happened: the intruder walked into the firehouse through the open garage doors, probably looking for something to steal (although oddly, for a burglary, nothing seems to be missing), and grabbed a pickaxe off the rack when Sparky ran at him. Since the killer didn't bring the weapon, Monk guesses that the attack was probably spur-of-the-moment. The only question is who, or why, would someone kill a firehouse dog, and what was it the killer might have been looking for? When Monk asks Mantooth if anything was missing or disturbed when they got back, Mantooth says the only thing he noticed missing were two towels; he doesn't think it’s important, but Monk is impressed to meet someone else who would notice that kind of detail.