Espionage

Ending a bit over the top but good in general ( )

If you follow the ABC TV show 'Castle' then you're aware that in the first episode our fictitious author, Richard Castle, has killed off his hero of multiple books, Derrick Storm. But NOT REALLY! Turns out Storm was merely PRETENDING to be dead for four years to root out his enemies. Storm can out-Bond Bond, yet he's not cartoonish. Okay, bigger than life but you expect that sort of thing from a super spy.

Someone is killing bankers with worldwide influence toward an unknown end. Along the way Storm picks up a partner, and after consulting with an economics professor, the explanation is amazing and yet understandable and believable. Exciting and just plain fun as we bounce around the world with Storm.

We still don't know who is actually writing the Richard Castle books, as the TV show is still pretending that the actor, Nathan Fillion, is the author. ( )

Great story with a character that you like immediately. A new character a chapter made it easy to follow and kept making you want to read what would happen next, with a cameo of Det. Nikki Heat and Rook from the Heat series. ( )

If a fictional bestselling author writes a bestselling book that refers to a fictionalised version of his fictional character, at what point does reality start gurgling down the drain?

Derek Storm and Xiangbang have uncovered a plot by a hedge-fund manager to ruin the world economy for financial gain. The hedge-fund manager has hired Storm's presumed dead nemesis Gregor Volkov to aid his plans, i.e. Volkov is hired to kill the right people. Can Storm and Xiangbang stop the carnage and global economic meltdown?

Derek Storm is the super id and hero of the Richard Castle novels. Richard is the fictional author and lead character in the Castle TV show. Rather than have a novel tie-in for the show, Tom Straw has written a series of novels as though he was Richard Castle writing them. This entire series - of which I've only read a couple of instalments of - is written with tongue firmly planted in cheek.

Case in point: there is one scene in this novel that has a crossover between the Nikki Heat and Derek Storm characters that then references the fictionalised versions of the Castle TV show. The exchange of "ruggedly handsome" compliments that flows between the various representations of Richard Castle is something Nathan Fillion's character would definitely do.

It is hard to recommend this novel or any of the Richard Castle books without the caveat that they are meant to be cheesy to fit with the meta-humour and references to the TV show. If you aren't a fan of Castle, or aren't prepared for the style, this book and series would come off as hackneyed; I've seen other reviews suggest as much. So make sure you have your life-sized poster of Captain Mal (or is that Captain Hammer?) next to your reading chair to remind you that this is meant to be stupid-fun. ( )