History Literature / MrMonkGoesToHawaii

* PetTheDog: For all of Monk's unwitting tendencies to ruin Natalie's stay in Hawaii, there is one glimmer of kindness that reminds her and the reader that there's a heart underneath all those neurosis. When Natalie gets sunburned and injures herself on some coral, Monk's first instinct is to get his personal first-aid kit and treat both injuries. All the while, he shows genuine concern for Natalie's well-being.

* WorstWeddingEver: Natalie attends her friend Candace's wedding, only for Monk to tag along. At the SpeakNowOrForeverHoldYourPeace moment, he spills that various lies and minor things about the groom indicate that he's already married. This ends in Candace storming out. Natalie tries to take it in stride, despite her frustration; after all, Monk's deductive skills did save her friend from a disingenuous groom.

* BusmansHoliday: Monk takes Dioxnyl to follow Natalie to Hawaii. After the drug wears off and he's back to being himself, he ruins Natalie's friend's wedding by exposing her groom-to-be as a bigamist, stumbles upon a homicide and drags Natalie along, while trying to find evidence to arrest a television medium for fraud, and solving a rash of mysterious burglaries and car accidents on the way.

* LostMyAppetite: Natalie feels unenthusiastic about the luau after the workers dig up a murder victim's body from the roasting pit, commenting that she may never eat meat again.

* BusmansHoliday: Monk takes Dioxinyl to follow Natalie to Hawaii. After the drug wears off and he's back to being himself, he ruins Natalie's friend's wedding by exposing her groom-to-be as a bigamist, stumbles upon a homicide and drags Natalie along, while trying to find evidence to arrest a television medium for fraud, and solving a rash of mysterious burglaries and car accidents on the way.
* ChekhovsGunman: Dylan Swift is a TV medium that Monk suspects of fraud. Monk is also investigating a double homicide that happens around the same time he and Natalie are in Hawaii. Turns out Swift is also their murderer.

* EasilyCondemned: It doesn't take much to convince his audience that Swift is a fraud ''and'' a murderer. When Swift claims that it will take considerable proof to convince the world he's a fake, Stottelmeyer [[LampshadeHanging points out]] that if his fans so easily believed he was psychic without proof, no doubt they'll believe the truth just as easily.
* FeedTheMole: How Monk ultimately ousts Swift as a fraud. Under suspicion that Swift relies on [[BigBrotherIsWatchingYou spying on his guests]], Monk tells Natalie an anecdote about how Trudy once had a SecurityBlanket called a "night-night" and was buried with it. But according to the letter he sent to Stottelmeyer ahead of time, this was just something he made up from the top of his head.
* FreshClue: Monk comes to the conclusion that Lance murdered Helen Gruber, then faked an alibi by stuffing her in the bungalow fridge overnight to screw with her body temperature. In reality, Dylan Swift did stuff her in the fridge, but only long enough for evidence of her being in it to be clear.

-->''"...the wedding part I could almost forgive him for, since he saved Candace from marrying a pathological liar and would-be bigamist, but I deeply resented the corpse.''
-->''"Most people can go their whole lives without getting involved with a murder. Monk is lucky if he can go outside and get his morning paper off his stoop without tripping over a dead body. Murders happen around him with such astonishing frequency that it's long since gone beyond coincidental and borders on supernatural.''
-->''"I guess on some level I knew the moment Monk showed up on the plane that it was inevitable that, one way or another, I'd get dragged into a homicide investigation in Hawaii."''

* StagingTheEavesdrop: While they're alone at the hotel Monk tells Natalie a story about a baby blanket Trudy had, knowing that Swift's bugs will hear it. Monk then arranges to appear on Swift's show, knowing that Swift will bring up this story, claiming to have heard it from Trudy's ghost. Monk has a signed and dated affidavit he made form the hotel describing the story he told Natalie and affirming that it is false (there really was a blanket but it was his mother's, not Trudy's). This catches Swift (and on live TV no less) revealing something that proves he bugged the room, because no one but Natalie was there when Monk told that story and since the story is fake Swift can't really have conjured it from the dead.

** Lt. Ben Kealoha returns from Goldberg's Diagnosis: Murder novel "The Death Merchant".

* BolivianArmyEnding: Towards the end, after their innocence has been proven, Vance and Roxanne sue the Kauai Police Department for false allegations and the like. According to Natalie, "the case is still in litigation and probably will be for years to come".

* DramaticallyMissingThePoint: After hearing about Candace's wedding disaster, Natalie's mother feels that it really would've been better if Monk hadn't been there to spoil the whole thing. It's not lost on Natalie that if it had been so, Candace would've gone into a doomed marriage to a compulsive liar who would've cheated on her and his legal wife. Her mother begs to differ, saying that at least Candace would've been better off learning the truth in private than in front of a bunch of people.

* FeedingTheMole: How Monk ultimately ousts Swift as a fraud. He tells a story about how Trudy once had a SecurityBlanket called a "night-night" and was buried with it. But according to the letter he sent to Stottelmeyer ahead of time, this was just something he made up from the top of his head.

** The opening chapter has the a heart surgeon poisoned mid-surgery, with the reveal that the patient was the killer by tampering with the doctor's equipment. This was the plot of the Season 4 episode "[[Recap/DiagnosisMurderS4E20PhysicianMurderThyself Physician, Murder Thyself]]".
** Lt. Ben Kealoha returns for Goldberg's Diagnosis: Murder novel "The Death Merchant".

* NotImportantToThisEpisodeCamp: Stottlemeyer and Disher only appear at the very beginning, and also show up to arrest Dylan Swift at the end, but aside from a phone call from Stottlemeyer to Natalie, that's the only times they appear. The rest of the time, Monk and Natalie are in Hawaii working with Lt. Ben Kealoha.

* WorstWeddingEver: Natalie attends her friend's wedding, only for Monk to tag along. At the SpeakNowOrForeverHoldYourPeace moment, he spills that various lies and minor things about the groom indicate that he's already married.

* VacationEpisode: Monk and Natalie go to Hawaii (the latter ostensibly for vacation) and uncover a bunch of criminal activities going on around Kauai.

* AlohaHawaii: Monk and Natalie go to Hawaii and uncover a bunch of criminal activities going on around Kauai.

* StagingTheEavesdrop: While they're alone at the hotel Monk tells Natalie a story about a baby blanket Trudy had, knowing that Swift's bugs will hear it. Monk then arranges to appear on Swift's show, knowing that Swift will bring up this story, claiming to have heard it from Trudy's ghost. Monk has a signed and dated affidavit he made form the hotel describing the story he told Natalie and affirming that it is false (there really was a blanket but it was his mother's, not Trudy's). This catches Swift (and on live TV no less) revealing something that proves he bugged the room, because no one but Natalie was there when Monk told that story and since the story is fake Swift can't really have conjured it from the dead.

* BigBrotherIsWatchingYou: It seems that TV medium Dylan Swift is capable of delivering information from peoples' deceased relatives. Monk initially suspects he's actually a cold reader who looks at a person, makes educated guesses, and then uses these guesses to draw broader conclusions. Toward the end, Monk privately tells Natalie a moving story about Trudy and one of her keepsake items. Later, this is used to prove Swift guilty of fraud and murder. After Swift brings the details of the item in question (a security blanket) up on a taping in San Francisco despite not being there for the conversation, Monk reveals that the story was false. Swift had bugged every room of the resort to eavesdrop on potential victims, and killed an elderly woman whose hearing aids were picking up the signals, thus threatening his operation.

* BigBrotherIsWatchingYou: It seems that TV medium Dylan Swift is capable of delivering information from peoples' deceased relatives. Monk initially determines he is actually a cold reader who looks at a person, makes educated guesses, then uses these guesses to draw broader conclusions from. Toward the end of the story, Monk privately tells Natalie a moving conversation about Trudy and one of her keepsake items. Later, this is used to prove Swift guilty of fraud and murder, after Swift brings the details of the item in question (a security blanket) up on a taping in San Francisco despite not being there for the conversation, because, as Monk reveals, Swift has bugged every room of the resort to eavesdrop on potential victims, and killed an elderly woman who was about to discover this.

* DetectivePatsy: TV medium Dylan Swift uses Monk's investigation. He needs to kill a woman named Helen Gruber so that she doesn't find out that Swift has wiretapped an entire hotel to mine information he needs for his shows. He then sees Monk at the resort and decides that if he helps Monk solve the murder, he can get extra publicity for himself. He therefore manipulates Monk into thinking Helen's trophy husband Lance Vaughan is the killer by planting evidence at the scene. However, Monk has been suspicious of Swift from the beginning and figures it out.
* HulaAndLuaus: Monk and Natalie travel to Kauai. They go to a luau - where the main course is supposed to be a pig buried in a pit covered with banana leaves to trap in heat, but the workers instead dig up a murder victim's body.

* StagingTheEavesdrop: While their alone at the hotel Monk tells Natalie a story about a baby blanket Trudy had, knowing that Swift's bugs will hear it. Monk then arranges to appear on Swift's show, knowing that Swift will bring up this story, claiming to have heard it from Trudy's ghost. Monk has a signed and dated affidavit he made form the hotel describing the story he told Natalie and affirming that it is false (there really was a blanket but it was his mother's, not Trudy's). This catches Swift (and on live TV no less) revealing something that proves he bugged the room, because no one but Natalie was there when Monk told that store,y and since the story is fake Swift can't really have conjured it from the dead.

* StagingTheEavesdrop: While their alone at the hotel Monk tells Natalie a story about a baby blanket Trudy had, knowing that Swift's bugs will hear it. Monk then arranges to appear on Swift's show, knowing that Swift will bring up this story, calming to have heard it from Trudy's ghost. Monk has a signed and dated affidavit he made form the hotel describing the story he told Natalie and affirming that it is false (there really was a blanket but it was his mothers, not Trudy's). This catches Swift (and on live TV no less) revealing something that proves he bugged the room, because no one but Natalie was there when Monk told that store,y and since the story is fake Swift can't really have conjured it from the dead.

* PeekABooCorpse: The hotel manager's body is dug up at a luau.