Heat Wave

I put off reading this for awhile because I knew it wasn't going to be as good as the show. It's based more on the books in the show, but if the show's Richard Castle wrote this poorly, he wouldn't be the best selling author he's portrayed as. It wasn't the worse thing I've ever read, and some of the banter was fun. The story just wasn't all that gripping.

The background of this series is a little unusual. But if you have watched the television show, then you know that Richard Castle is a fictional character, not an author. So you have a made-up character writing a story about fictional characters based on “real” people who aren’t really real. But someone had to write this story, and he or she did a pretty good job of it. The audio version is especially nice, because as Johnny Heller does his excellent narration, you can picture the actors you know in the roles they’ve created. An exciting detective story with just enough of the chemistry between the main characters to keep everything interesting.

First of all, I am a big fan of the “Castle” television show that [Heat Wave] and [Naked Heat] spun from. That said, I think that the books suffer from the television show’s popularity and quality.

Jameson Rook, an internationally acclaimed journalist, has called in a favor with the mayor and gotten a ride along with one of NYPD’s best homicide detectives, Nikki Heat. Rook watches, and sometimes participates, as Heat tries to solve the murder of a millionaire real estate agent. Was it the victim’s philandering trophy wife who killed him? Or was it the Russian bookie’s muscle that killed the millionaire? Things only get more complicated as the body count rises and the sparks begin to fly between Rook and Heat.

The characters show more are slightly different versions of the television show: Rook=Castle and Heat=Beckett. The trouble for any fan of the show is that the book version of the characters feels watered down, and the story is frustrating because you’re covering ground that is too familiar as Rook and Heat banter and flirt.

As a stand-alone, without any reference to the television show, the book is an average police procedural and crime thriller, nothing special but not awful.

Bottom Line: Read this if you are both a fan and a completist – not bad but nothing special in the world of police procedurals.

3 bones!!! show less

The first time I saw Nikki Heat books on the shelf at the bookstore I'm sure I did a double/triple/quadruple take. "Wait, the series was based on actual books?" Then I saw the author photo was Nathan Fillion as Richard Castle and did the whole multiple take thing over again. "Wait, what the what?" Several times I almost bought one, mainly out of curiosity. But mystery/crime is not so much my genre, so I didn't. Then I finally ran into it at the library. And why not?

This was a fun, diverting, fast read for a fan of the Castle series. It almost made me want to go back and watch the first season again, but I've got way too many things on that list already. I probably won't read any of the other books of this series, but it was a good show more summer read. show less

Definitely not fine literature by any standards, but if you like Castle, you'll love this book. Just knowing it's written by "Castle" makes it really sweet - all the things his character in the book feels for Nikki Heat and what he wants for them, you can see him wanting that in the show. It reads like a very long episode. My only complaint is that having watched Castle for several seasons already, I wanted to get to the meat of the book and was bored by the character introductions and the step by step descriptions at the beginning. It's written as if you've never seen an episode, and as appropriate as that is in theory, it did get a little tiresome.

As a rule, I watch very little TV that isn't about science, on PBS, or revoltingly prurient. Outside of that, why bother? So the other year, there came on this little show called "Castle" that had a promising premise: Bestselling author strongarms NYC mayor into giving him access to a working homicide team to research a character for some novels. (Yeah, right.) Sorta like being an embedded journalist in Afghanistan.

I heard about it, I watched a few, I liked it fine. I forgot all about it after a few episodes, which is pretty much Standard Operating Procedure for me, unless the show is revoltingly prurient in which case its entire schedule is permanently etched in my brain (need to know when another episode of "Spartacus: Blood and Sand" show more is coming on? Me or the website, either one can tell you).

Then this slender volume assaults my eyes in the Buns and Nubile I patronize in Carle Place. I mean, what? A book by a fictional author in a real bookstore? And it's not soap opera related?! (Charm! by "Kendall Hart" - go look it up, and yes I watch "All My Children" I already said I like revoltingly prurient TV so leave it.) So I got...oh the shame...curious. I couldn't bring myself to plunk down twenty United States dollars for the little marvy, but the liberry saved me.

Sort of saved me, anyway. I read the book, a competently written tale of love gone bad, greed, revenge, and a dash of silly sex tossed (!) in for good measure. I wouldn't recommend it on its literary merits.

But I was struck by something interesting...the TV network that runs the show is owned by the same corporation that owns the publishing house, and that corporation owns several companies whose products figure into the story. The story itself isn't the usual "this is a script we couldn't find a way to budget so now it's a hit-series-companion-volume" type of thing...this is the book the fictional author in the series is said to be researching and writing, featuring the thinly disguised fictionalization of the sexy homicide detective he's following around. So for fans of the show, there are in-jokes and throwaways that add a level of insiderness to the read.

And it makes me feel a little queasy, frankly. It's all so...arch, manipulative, packaged that it just comes across as...cynical. It reeks of editorial committee meetings wherein the Corporate Parent's Wishes are acceded to. Possibly even applauded. Whatever, it just isn't natcherl, like a blue rose isn't. Recommended? Oh...on balance, not; if you're interested in plumbing the depths of commercialization, this is a good case study, though. show less

HEAT WAVE suffers from spinoff-itis. It assumes that its readers know the TV show Castle and the story behind its books, and thus assumes that it doesn’t have to bother with the usual writing techniques such as character development. Because Nikki Heat is (a much sexier) Kate Beckett; Jameson Rook is (a much more boring) Richard Castle (I mean, really, just look at the last names); Roach is Eposito and Ryan; and so on down the line.

The upside of this is that it does read like an extra episode of Castle, and the mystery is plenty good, with a nice amount of twists, red herrings, and unexpected revelations. The downside is that this book cannot and should not stand on its own. If it were a novel written by a real person, instead of by show more the fictional character Castle, it would probably be reamed by an editor for its lack of character development and the lack of developing chemistry between Heat and Rook.

For that was what disappointed me most of all: if HEAT WAVE were the manifestation of Castle’s imagination of a relationship between himself and Beckett (which, uh, in a sense, it is), then it was really poorly done, because the spark that Castle and Beckett have on the show is not apparent between Rook and Heat. On the show, sexual tension crackles between Castle and Beckett, a tension that is enhanced by their banter. In HEAT WAVE, Rook and Heat have just about zero banter. Any banter that they might have falls flat in about two lines, which is not really banter at all, but just the clumsy insertion of one-line quips. Rook comes across as an incompetent and bumbling reporter with not even a quarter of the appeal that Castle has, making the romance between him and Heat very unconvincing. If this were really the book that Richard Castle wrote on the TV show, then I struggle to understand how he ever made it as a bestselling mystery writer.

Still, I understand that this book was penned and published because it wanted to draw on the popularity of the TV show. I gave in and bought a copy, after all. For Castle fans, it’s a great indulgence. However, for more discerning readers, particularly discerning readers of mysteries and thrillers, HEAT WAVE will most likely disappoint. Don’t open this book expecting great—or, admittedly, even decent—writing. show less