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Monk Buttman Mystery #4
In the Service of Others: A Monk Buttman Mystery
Adjusting to his newfound wealth, Monk meets his youngest brother, Jacob, a Marine. Withdrawn and anxious, Jacob joins Monk in LA only to run off after an accusation of sexual assault from a dead comrade's mother. Jacob is found dead from an apparent suicide. Trying to understand what drove Jacob to kill himself, Monk learns that many of Jacob's fellow Marines have died from suicide or murder.
Joined by his father, Moses, Monk does what can to discover what happened to the Marines on their last tour in Afghanistan, and what led so many of them to take their own lives., Monk and Moses find themselves targets, with Monk coming to believe that he's dealing with murder, not suicide.
Joined by his father, Moses, Monk does what can to discover what happened to the Marines on their last tour in Afghanistan, and what led so many of them to take their own lives., Monk and Moses find themselves targets, with Monk coming to believe that he's dealing with murder, not suicide.
284 pages, Paperback
Published October 7, 2021
About the author
David William Pearce
38 books49 followersAn engineer for 40 years, Mr. Pearce, following open heart surgery, decided to pursue his muse and write. After completing a debut novel, Mr. Pearce so enjoyed the experience that he began writing the Monk Buttman series. When not writing, Mr. Pearce is the accomplished recording artist, Mr. Primitive. He and his wife live in Kenmore Washington.
The true unabridged tale of how I came to write the Monk Buttman story.
Originally, I had planned to write a relationship story.
Fresh off the success of actually finishing a book, I dove right into the next one. Having always been fascinated by the idea of true love, love at first sight, soul mates; all that sort of bunk, I was raring to go. And I had characters and a broad plot outline bouncing around inside my head. Yet, when I sat down at the computer to begin writing, staring at the methodical cursor blinking at me, I had that quintessential writer's moment...
I got nothing.
Now it is a writing shibboleth, that ye shall write every day even if you ultimately end up sending it to deletion hell. With that in mind, I remembered that one of the main character's friends at work wanted to be a writer and had come up with a great idea. "I'm going to write gritty detectives novels, you know, pulp fiction, and I've got the perfect title: Monk Butman, hard-boiled private dick!" he says.
"That's terrible. Nobody's going to read that!" the main character replies.
Which made me laugh, but it also got me thinking. How would that go if one was actually going to write about a guy named Monk Buttman?
First, it would be serious, I'd write it straight up, no gimmicks or jokes. Monk was someone just doing a job. In this case, doing side work for a large LA law firm. People might laugh at the name, but Monk wouldn't care: it's just a name. And he was ok being a nobody doing grunt work. The rest of the world could kill themselves trying to make it, Monk was happy with just enough to afford him a simple hand-me-down life with no pressure, no commitments, no unhappy wives, uncommunicative daughters, any of it.
The fun in writing it, naturally, is that, no matter how Monk tries, trouble finds him.
Second, nothing about Monk would recommend him for detective work. That's the fun of the above title. And he knows this. He's not a former cop or agent, he didn't learn multiple ways to kill a guy in an elite branch of the military. He was a farmer. He's not a tough physical guy.
Monk has to get by on his wits.
I started writing...and I'm writing still.
The true unabridged tale of how I came to write the Monk Buttman story.
Originally, I had planned to write a relationship story.
Fresh off the success of actually finishing a book, I dove right into the next one. Having always been fascinated by the idea of true love, love at first sight, soul mates; all that sort of bunk, I was raring to go. And I had characters and a broad plot outline bouncing around inside my head. Yet, when I sat down at the computer to begin writing, staring at the methodical cursor blinking at me, I had that quintessential writer's moment...
I got nothing.
Now it is a writing shibboleth, that ye shall write every day even if you ultimately end up sending it to deletion hell. With that in mind, I remembered that one of the main character's friends at work wanted to be a writer and had come up with a great idea. "I'm going to write gritty detectives novels, you know, pulp fiction, and I've got the perfect title: Monk Butman, hard-boiled private dick!" he says.
"That's terrible. Nobody's going to read that!" the main character replies.
Which made me laugh, but it also got me thinking. How would that go if one was actually going to write about a guy named Monk Buttman?
First, it would be serious, I'd write it straight up, no gimmicks or jokes. Monk was someone just doing a job. In this case, doing side work for a large LA law firm. People might laugh at the name, but Monk wouldn't care: it's just a name. And he was ok being a nobody doing grunt work. The rest of the world could kill themselves trying to make it, Monk was happy with just enough to afford him a simple hand-me-down life with no pressure, no commitments, no unhappy wives, uncommunicative daughters, any of it.
The fun in writing it, naturally, is that, no matter how Monk tries, trouble finds him.
Second, nothing about Monk would recommend him for detective work. That's the fun of the above title. And he knows this. He's not a former cop or agent, he didn't learn multiple ways to kill a guy in an elite branch of the military. He was a farmer. He's not a tough physical guy.
Monk has to get by on his wits.
I started writing...and I'm writing still.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
December 6, 2021
Another interesting and thought-provoking mystery in the Monk Buttman series. Like the other books in this series, Pearce has a central theme (in this case service, both military and otherwise) and wraps the mystery around that theme. Monk Buttman considers himself an "everyday man" and he's definitely not a hard-boiled detective of any sort. He finds himself in strange situations and surrounds himself with people who can help and because of his wisecracking personality, they sometimes even want to help.
I couldn't give this edition 5 stars as I didn't think the mystery was as well described as the ones in earlier books. It took a long time to realize what the issue was, and when we got there, all Monk could say was "something was off" about the situation.
There was one exciting scene which I enjoyed. I was expecting more, based on the pace of the earlier books, so having Monk held at gunpoint only once was a letdown. And the final explanation of the mystery felt rushed.
But all-in-all it was an enjoyable quick read, and I'm looking forward to seeing what trouble Buttman can get up to in future books.
I couldn't give this edition 5 stars as I didn't think the mystery was as well described as the ones in earlier books. It took a long time to realize what the issue was, and when we got there, all Monk could say was "something was off" about the situation.
There was one exciting scene which I enjoyed. I was expecting more, based on the pace of the earlier books, so having Monk held at gunpoint only once was a letdown. And the final explanation of the mystery felt rushed.
But all-in-all it was an enjoyable quick read, and I'm looking forward to seeing what trouble Buttman can get up to in future books.
August 5, 2022
Final review below original.
Original:
Just 5% read. So many characters w/no relationship or messily explained connections to main character…and questions about the past….I feel as if this book definitely required a few prequels. Basically disjointed. Also, no mystery yet. Will read further & update review if the storyline clarifies & improves.
Final Review:
I didn’t read much more of the book. Begins with too many characters in unclear relationships. Reads from the egotistical viewpoint/diary of a newly wealthy man, while attempting to be humble & declare he didn’t really want the inheritance. I never read to the point of a mystery or murder. I just couldn’t deal with the disjointed present vs past, the various characters thrown in haphazardly, and the main character’s undesirable seeming personality. If dialogue at. certain points was meant to be sarcastic in jest, the emotional mark was undiagnosed.
Original:
Just 5% read. So many characters w/no relationship or messily explained connections to main character…and questions about the past….I feel as if this book definitely required a few prequels. Basically disjointed. Also, no mystery yet. Will read further & update review if the storyline clarifies & improves.
Final Review:
I didn’t read much more of the book. Begins with too many characters in unclear relationships. Reads from the egotistical viewpoint/diary of a newly wealthy man, while attempting to be humble & declare he didn’t really want the inheritance. I never read to the point of a mystery or murder. I just couldn’t deal with the disjointed present vs past, the various characters thrown in haphazardly, and the main character’s undesirable seeming personality. If dialogue at. certain points was meant to be sarcastic in jest, the emotional mark was undiagnosed.
January 4, 2022
Monk at his best or worst. Just follow along
Monk is just being Monk and trying to come to grips with having money. Agnes and the family are still giving him a bad time and he loves every second of it. It is all the other bull crap that gets in the way and he has trouble handling all that and that is what makes life interesting. Follow along and have a great read
Monk is just being Monk and trying to come to grips with having money. Agnes and the family are still giving him a bad time and he loves every second of it. It is all the other bull crap that gets in the way and he has trouble handling all that and that is what makes life interesting. Follow along and have a great read
July 21, 2022
War is indeed ugly, isn’t it??? I now know more about what went on during the Viet Nam War than I ever wanted to know!!! My brother was there and even when he got back to the States, I worried that something would happen to him until he finally got home!!! I enjoyed this story and recommend the book.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews