History Literature / MrMonkInOuterSpace

** Burgerville, a fast-food company going through a financial scandal that is practically a ripoff of the one that led to the downfall of the Enron oil company[[note]]Namely, the use of various illegal practices in order to hide financial losses and steal money from the pension fund[[/note]]. But Burgerville's past has some cases that actually happened to UsefulNotes/McDonalds, as Randy brings up a twofer in one scene where he's discussing possible motives about Brandon Lorber's death with Monk, Natalie and Stottlemeyer:
*** First, Randy mentions discovering that a consumers group revealed that Burgerville secretly added beef extract to add flavor to their fries, outraging vegans who'd been eating these fries for years, a controversy that had hit [=McDonald's=] in 2000.
*** Then Randy brings up an incident at another Burgerville (in Pleasanton) when a guy spilled a cup of coffee at a drive-thru and burned his crotch, and sued the company (he lost the case). This is a clear nod to ''Liebeck v. [=McDonald's=] Restaurants'', aka the "Hot Coffee Case", in which a woman in Albuquerque spilled her cup of coffee while in her car and suffered extensive third degree burns to her crotch. Unlike the fictitious example in the book, the plaintiff in the real case actually won (she had sued only because [=McDonald's=] only contributed a meager sum to her medical bills).

* AssholeVictim: Brandon Lorber was far from a saint.

* ConspicuouslyPublicAssassination: The hitman deliberately orchestrates the Conrad Stipe shooting to take place in public, and most importantly, in a place where he could be seen by four different surveillance cameras all at once, to make dead sure everyone thinks it was a ''Beyond Earth'' fan who did it. His attention to detail comes into hand after Kingston Mills is killed, as Adrian notices that Mills' shooter wasn't all that focused on making sure all the cameras caught him.

** The novel has Burgerville, a fast-food company going through a financial scandal that is practically a ripoff of the one that led to the downfall of the Enron oil company[[note]]Namely, the use of various illegal practices in order to hide financial losses and steal money from the pension fund[[/note]]. But Burgerville's past has some cases that actually happened to UsefulNotes/McDonalds, as Randy brings up a twofer in one scene where he's discussing possible motives about Brandon Lorber's death with Monk, Natalie and Stottlemeyer:
###First, Randy mentions discovering that a consumers group revealed that Burgerville secretly added beef extract to add flavor to their fries, outraging vegans who'd been eating these fries for years. In 2000, a large amount of controversy surrounded UsefulNotes/McDonalds under the same circumstances.
###Then Randy brings up an incident at another Burgerville (in Pleasanton) when a guy spilled a cup of coffee at a drive-thru and burned his crotch, and sued the company (he lost the case). This appears to be a take on ''Liebeck v. UsefulNotes/McDonalds Restaurants'', aka the "Hot Coffee Case", in which a woman in Albuquerque, New Mexico spilled her cup of coffee while in her car and suffered extensive third degree burns to her crotch. Unlike the fictitious example in the book, the plaintiff in the real case actually won (she had sued only because UsefulNotes/McDonalds only contributed a meager sum to her medical bills).

** More glaring on ''Mr. Monk in Outer Space'' is ''Beyond Earth'', a sci-fi show that is in legal disputes that it's like ''Franchise/StarTrek'' with a new name slapped on:

*** The name of Mr. Snork's species and fictional language, "Dratch," is taken from ''Monk'' series writer and producer Daniel Dratch, as a series in-joke, but the language's concept. creation and use is a reference to the Klingon constructed language.
*** Arianna Stipe, Conrad Stipe's ex-wife, is said to be suing her dead husband's estate for a share of his profits from the new ''Beyond Earth'' series, even though it is being produced after they divorced. Similarly, Eileen Roddenberry, first wife of ''Star Trek'' creator Gene Roddenberry, sued her ex-husband's estate after his death, claiming rights to a share of his profits from the making of the original ''[[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries Star Trek]]'' series, and the subsequent spin-off series and films.
*** Although "Mr. Monk in Outer Space" was released approximately two years before Creator/JJAbrams' [[Film/StarTrek2009 2009 alternate universe reboot]] film, it is possible for Trekkies who read this book to see a striking parallel in Conrad Stipe and Kingston Mills' visionary conflict of the new ''Beyond Earth'', and its subsequent effect on fans, with the many creative differences between Gene Roddenberry and J.J. Abrams' own visions of ''Star Trek''; pitting the ''Original Motion Picture Collection (Star Trek I-VI)'' that featured Creator/WilliamShatner against J.J. Abrams' reboot.

* RedHerring: The hit man killed Conrad Stipe while dressed as Mr. Snork to mislead the police.

* WorkingTheSameCase: Monk is brought in to investigate the death of Burgerville CEO Brandon Lorber, whose shooting death he quickly realizes was actually a heart attack - and the shooter passed off the death as a murder. The next day, he is brought in to consult on an apparently unrelated incident, the shooting of Beyond Earth creator Conrad Stipe at a convention. The day after that, a cab driver named Phil Bisson is shot and killed in what Monk deduces as being a staged robbery. It is this third murder that causes Monk to deduce that Lorber and Stipe were shot by the same person - he finds a piece of chewing gum that is the same brand as a piece that Stipe was chewing before he was killed, and a wrapper from a coffee candy in Lorber's office. The shooter was a hired hit man. Bisson was the cab driver who drove the hit man away after he shot Lorber's body. During the ride to the airport, the hit man lost his Blackberry, which had incriminating messages between him and his employer and information on Lorber. Stipe answered it when the hit man called it from an airport payphone. The hit man killed Stipe and the cabbie as he couldn't risk that either of them had browsed his messages.

* CruelAndUnusualDeath: Seeing as how he was shot by an amateur, not a professional like the hitman who killed Conrad Stipe, Kingston Mills' death takes more bullets and is much more drawn out and painful than Conrad's.

* WorkingTheSameCase: Monk is brought in to investigate the death of Burgerville CEO Brandon Lorber, whose shooting death he quickly realizes was actually a heart attack - and the shooter passed off the death as a murder. The next day, he is brought in to consult on an apparently unrelated incident, the shooting of Beyond Earth creator Conrad Stipe at a convention. The day after that, a cab driver named Phil Bisson is shot and killed in what Monk deduces as being a staged robbery. It is this third murder that causes Monk to deduce that Lorber and Stipe were shot by the same person - he finds a piece of chewing gum that is the same brand as a piece that Stipe was chewing before he was killed, and a wrapper from a coffee candy in Lorber's office. The shooter was a hired hit man. Bisson was the cab driver who drove the hit man away after he shot Lorber's body. During the ride to the airport, the hit man lost his Blackberry, which had incriminating messages between him and his employer and information on Lorber. Stipe answered it when the hit man called it from an airport payphone. The hit man killed Stipe and the cabby as he couldn't risk that either of them had browsed his messages.

* NotSoDifferent: Monk points this out to the police after they've accused Ernest Pinchuk of both of the murders -- both he and Pinchuk act in ways that may seem irrational but to them are the only way of putting the world back to rights. He then points out that Pinchuk wouldn't have killed Conrad Stipe because it goes against his personal code. Natalie is thrilled that Monk has finally had a breakthrough; the police are less impressed.

** Adrian observes that Conrad Stipe's killer is a sharpshooter who doesn't show any emotion when he pulls the trigger. Then he determines that a hit man hired to kill Brandon Lorber killed Stipe because the hit man left something in the taxicab he took while fleeing the scene.
** The Star Trek ripoff costume that Conrad Stipe's shooter wears. Ambrose notices discrepancies in the shooter's outfit that Adrian dismisses as insignificant at first, until he realizes that it means the shooter was not a Beyond Earther because a proper fan would not have mismatched the parts of the outfit. Thus, when producer Kingston Mills is killed, Adrian uses his newfound knowledge to determine that the shooting is a copycat crime, because the tape shows the shooter ''is'' wearing his uniform correctly.
** Speaking of which, Adrian and Natalie meet a man named Ernest Pinchuk at the Beyond Earth convention. Pinchuk only speaks in the fictitious Dratch language (which a casual viewer might misinterpret as choking and coughing). When Ambrose is shown the Kingston Mills surveillance tape, his lipreading skills allow him to identify that the killer, who apparently has a coughing fit, is actually speaking Dratch, allowing Adrian to instantly pin the crime on Pinchuk.

* JustGivingOrders: A man kills an assassin just in time to stop him from killing Monk and Natalie (who were getting too close to the truth). When Natalie questions if he means to kill them himself, he says he's not a killer; he only hired one to kill his crooked boss.

* BadGuysDoTheDirtyWork: