Author: Richard Castle (but really?)
A bit over a year ago, I read the first Richard Castle "Nikki Heat" novel, Heat Wave. The second came out in time for Christmas, but I had to hold off reading it, in case it was a gift. It was not, so it got stuck behind a couple of other books in my queue. But a month ago, I finally got to start it. Now, I've finished it. Verdict?
Another winner.
The characters in the Nikki Heat books are not quite the same as the characters in the Castle TV show -- I like Castle and Beckett better than I like Heat and Rook -- but they are similar enough to make viewers of the show comfortable with them almost immediately. The supporting cast is, for all intents and purposes, the same. So, reading a book written by Richard Castle is very much like watching a super-sized episode of one of the most fun TV shows on the air today. With a bit more swearing. And sex. But that makes sense -- it's Castle's imagination, you see.
Anyway, the story. A well-known gossip columnist for a New York newspaper is murdered in her home. Nikki Heat, of course, is called in. She has gained some unwanted notoriety from Jameson Rook's article on her -- written as a result of his background research involvement in the case detailed in Heat Wave -- but she is still the best detective in the precinct, so she is on the case. Who happens to have been shadowing the columnist for yet another article? Right. Rook.
So, they must solve this murder. Along the way, each and both are put in danger, follow confusing leads, meet criminals and celebrities, and have to deal with the tension caused by the backlash from Detective Heat's sudden notoriety.
{Side note: I loved, loved, loved the Firefly reference hidden in the middle of the book. I mean, how many layers can we get? The Naked Heat characters, obliquely referring to a role played by the person who plays the role of the fictional author of their story. Classic.]
Like a good mystery book, and like a typical Castle episode, there are red herrings, views inside police work, relationship tensions, heroics, danger. And, like a good mystery and typical Castle episode, the denouement makes sense once you get there. Along the way, you get to live inside a relationship almost as interesting as the Castle/Beckett relationship. And it's hard to get better than that.
Until they start writing books with Castle and Beckett as characters. Which I hope they do. But not until the show is done. Which should not be for a very, very long time.
[I know, I said I would have reruns this week, but hey I finished the book and had time to write the review. Why wait? Reprints can wait a day or two.]
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