Some Thoughts: Driving Heat

Driving Heat

by Richard Castle
Book 7 of Nikki Heat

~ Goodreads ~

Rating:  3.0 Stars

Richard Castle, New York Times mega-bestselling mystery writer and star of ABC's hit primetime show Castle is back.  In the seventh novel of his popular Nikki Heat series, the NYPD's top homicide detective has been promoted to captain just in time to face a thrilling case with a very personal twist.  Captain Heat's fiancé, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Jameson Rook, is deep in an investigation. Professionally for Heat, Rook's meddling in the case compromises her new job.  Privately, it becomes an early test of their engagement when Rook becomes a distraction at best, and an obstacle at worst, as their parallel lives not only cross, but collide.

One of the things that bugged me the most about these Nikki Heat books has always been the summary blurbs--they always try so hard to be exclamation point, and "Big Awesome Words!" worthy, that it just sounds super lame.  If the ghost writers for Richard Castle put as much effort into the actual crime thriller story outline and plot as they did being meta about the television series, or making the book out to be like it was written by "New York Times Bestselling Author," the books might be more than just serviceably enjoyable.

Well, make it two things:  I also don't like how over-the-top the writing styles sometimes get.  Too deliberate in making out the main character, Nikki Heat, to seem like a super perfect super detective, and too deliberate in singling her out as the only super perfect super detective who ever does anything right.  It can get annoying pretty quickly.

Driving Heat is another installment of the Nikki Heat series that is decently entertaining, but can get a bit tedious in how long it takes to outline a scene, or a few actions that should ideally only require a few words.  It also doesn't help that I found the characters and their actions all frustrating, as if everyone was deliberately being difficult to each other just to piss each other off.  It made for a lot of unnecessary drama that almost felt childish.

I will give the book props on the insights of Nikki's new development in how much more complicated it is to be promoted to a higher position of power than one would have thought.  Becoming Captain of the precinct brought to light all the banal, menial work that a leader also has to deal with, like little complaints from all the staff, and mountains of paperwork, tedious meetings, signing service contracts with the vending machine company, and very little time for actual crime fighting.  It makes me wonder if Nikki understands how different her role will be now that she's not simply in charge of a small homicide detective squad--it DID get me frustrated each time she would rush off to investigate the murder when what she really needed to be doing was delegating tasks to her team, rather than trying to do everything by herself.


The beginning of the book was not a strong start, and the build up was also a bit lackluster.  The second half of the book, after the entire NYPD's computer network got hacked, was actually a bit more interesting, but only because it does a pretty good job of putting into perspective how much we, as a society, depend on computer technology and the ease of access thanks to internet resources.

I actually found it pretty amusing to see Captain Heat rushing off to the library for some of her sources.

HOWEVER, what didn't make sense to me was why everyone made it seem like they were transported back into the pre-internet age when really only the functioning government organizations had been hacked in New York.  Apparently all personal cell phones, personal internet, non-government computers were still workable.  While understanding that crucial, confidential police investigation evidence and documents couldn't be sent via non-encrypted channels, it seemed a bit extreme that none of our homicide detectives had their own personal laptops or hot spots of which to conduct some of their online researches.

Sure, there was no accessing police network documents, but did Nikki really have to rush off to the library to research some of the information she needed to find?

Anyway, as I'd stated somewhere, this book actually felt like it was a lot longer than it really is.  It even felt like there were more than one story line taking place as the book progressed.  And to be honest, without having much interest in watching anymore of the television series, I don't know if I'll be interested in continuing this book series either.  Driving Heat is entertaining in some aspects, and if you're a fan of the series (television or book), then it will still be right up your alley.

There are continued, and fleeting meta references to the television show, Castle, and even a drop about Firefly and Nathan Fillion every so often.  But if you've grown tired of these things and find them more wearisome than amusing... well, this book won't really do much for you.


***

Booklikes-opoly

Roll #25:
This book is tagged 'thriller' on GR.

Page Count:  336
Cash Award:  +$6.00

Updated Bank Balance:  $153.00

Brief Thoughts: Raging Heat

Raging Heat

by Richard Castle
Book 6 of Nikki Heat

~ Goodreads ~

Rating:  3.75 Stars

An illegal immigrant falls from the sky, and NYPD Homicide Detective Nikki Heat's investigation into his death quickly captures the imagination of her boyfriend, the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Jameson Rook.  When he decides to work the case with Heat as his next big story, Nikki is at first happy to have him ride-along.  Yes, she must endure Rook's usual wild conspiracy speculations and adolescent wisecracks, but after reuniting following his recent assignment abroad, she's glad for the entertainment, the chance to bounce ideas, and just to be close to him again and feel the old spark rekindle.  But when Rook's inquiry concludes that Detective Heat has arrested the wrong man for the murder, everything changes.

Balancing her high stakes job with a complicated romance has been a challenge ever since Nikki fell for the famous reporter.  Now, her relationship lurches from mere complexity into sharp conflict over the most high-risk case of her career.  Set against the raging force of Hurricane Sandy as it pounds New York, Heat battles an ambitious power broker, fights a platoon of urban mercenaries, and clashes with the man she loves.  Detective Heat knows her job is to solve murders.  She just worries that solving this one will be the death of her relationship.

Because I don't really, REALLY love this book, but I DID like it enough to mentally give it a 4 Star rating while I was reading it, it actually gets the final 3.75 Stars.  Because then some other things happened that bugged me a bit and made me think: "The detectives on Castle wouldn't act like that!" or "Detective Beckett would have handled this situation differently!" or some other nonsensical exclamation...

But to be totally honest, if you look at this book in a non-Castle-comparison way, it was a very well written crime thriller.  But then it would drop meta-details here and there, with that continuous subliminal message to "Watch Castle the television series on ABC", and I'm back to making my comparisons.

All-in-all, I am actually very pleased with this installment of the Nikki Heat series--it may even be the better written, personally most favorite book of this series to date.  I haven't yet read the newest release, Driving Heat, but I am very much hoping for some of the same kind of writing, narration, and story progression.

Raging Heat may not have had as many funny quips as previous installments (which I missed, because I love one-liners and you can't have a meta-fictional Richard Castle as Jameson Rook without those subtle, yet ingenious one-liners of which Jameson Rook actually kind of fails at), but Raging Heat DID have an engaging story plot with a introductory that started with a literal bang.  It did not drag out action sequences or simple scenes, it moved smoothly from Point A to Point B without inserting useless side tangents...

Simply put, I am very much pleasantly surprised.  And while the meta-references to Castle can get a little tedious, I actually DO like those extremely rare references to Firefly.

***

This book is a pre-chosen participant in the following Reading Challenge(s):

• 2015 Reading Assignment Challenge hosted by Because Reading and Fantasy is More Fun

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This review was originally posted at Ani's Book Abyss / BookLikes in October 2015.

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Thoughts: Deadly Heat

Deadly Heat

by Richard Castle
Book 5 of Nikki Heat

~ Goodreads ~

Rating:  2.5 Stars

Side Note:  Deadly Heat is a continuation of the events from Frozen Heat, detailing the second half of the story arc.  Information in this review may give away pertinent information that could spoil events from the previous book.

Please proceed with caution.

Picking up where Frozen Heat left off, top NYPD Homicide Detective Nikki Heat pursues the elusive former CIA station chief who ordered the execution of her mother over a decade ago.  For the hunt, Nikki teams once again with her romantic partner, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Jameson Rook, and their quest for the old spy and the motive behind the past murder unearths an alarming terror plot-which is anything but ancient history.  It is lethal. It is now.  And it has already entered its countdown phase.

Complicating Heat's mission to bring the rogue spy to justice and thwart the looming terror event, a serial killer begins menacing the Twentieth Precinct and her homicide squad is under pressure to stop him, and soon.  The frightening murderer, known for his chilling stealth, not only has singled out Nikki as the exclusive recipient of his taunting messages, he then boldly names his next victim: Detective Heat.

It's not that I didn't like it, per se; however, it's not like I really liked it or anything.  To be honest, these past two Nikki Heat novels felt like they were trying way too hard to convince me that they are written by the infamous "New York Times Bestselling author."  While it's fine and dandy to parallel the television series, maybe there comes a time when the books should try to feel more like books than advertising devices.

At the very least, there are certain good points I can come up with even if there were more negatives that managed to exasperate me.  The humor is still top notch and I appreciate it a lot.  The detective team is cohesive and I'm glad they work together as a unit very well--I certainly love seeing the Roach team (the book version of Ryan and Esposito) doing their work and throwing in their quips.

And then there's another random Firefly shout-out that put a grin on my face.

The plot of this book could have been solid if only it didn't spend so much time trying to be big and bad and awesome.  And if only it didn't hold an almost jokey, comedic narrative tone that made the seriousness of the situations feel like they were hard to take seriously.


The Story picks right up from Frozen Heat where we left Nikki's mother's murder solved, but not quite resolved.  The espionage plot gets more intense as a bigger, more sinister plot begins to come into focus, and a set of Homeland Security agents seem to be doing whatever they can to either undermine or sidetrack Nikki's investigation into the bigger picture of her mother's murder.  Mainly, one agent wants her to join their team, the other one wants her to get out of their way--either way, they don't want her investigating this case on her own.

Meanwhile, a serial killer has surfaced picking off random victims who may not be so random after all when Detective Heat and her team find what the connection may be.

And then, on top of that, there's more alpha-detective posturing, secrets coming to light, secrets being kept, betrayals, global repercussions of espionage...


And to be totally honest, the book had it's enjoyable moments and the conclusion actually twisted together (even if it felt a little forced) in a rather clever way.  I welcomed the conclusion of this book and this story arc for two reasons: 1) It brought closure to Nikki Heat's mother's murder case and DID manage to tie up loose ends, and 2) I spent the latter half of the book wondering how much longer it would take to get there.

While the Nikki Heat books prove to be rather entertaining, it doesn't escape my notice that, as I stated before, they try way too hard to be "bestselling" material that they end up reading in a rather stilted way.  And it also doesn't escape my notice that this book includes only one, singular strong female character... and one competent female side character (for television parallel-sake)... and that's it.  There are no other female detectives who can do their job competently (as presented by the fictional Detective Sharon Hinesburg); all the other strong female characters in this book are either evil or bitchy, creating a massive case of girl-on-girl hate, which created for an unnecessarily awkward and tense atmosphere.

And all that is probably for the sole reason of making Nikki Heat seem much more kickbutt and much more awesome than she already is.  Except that we don't need to beat down other female characters just to make our super special, super cop look awesome since she does so on her own merit anyway.

In the actual television series, Castle, I can count one other female detective who does her job properly and competently without removing the limelight from Detective Kate Beckett.  And I can count at least one female FBI agent who may have swooped in on a power play, but ended up getting along really well with Detective Beckett for a common cause--and rather than coming off as "the other woman" or a jealous ex or something else petty like that, we get to see the more common side of her as a mother, a family woman, who happens to have a demanding job in law enforcement who is in a leadership position, no less (which was actually kind of nice, by the way).

Anyway, ranting soap box over...

While this book had its entertaining moments, by the latter half of the story, things felt like they started dragging out.  I'm not sure how a book managed to include so much detail, so much forward progress, and so many happenings while still feeling like it took forever to get from point A to point B.  I swear, scenes seemed to drag out into forever and one particular scene about Nikki Heat coming upon a murder victim managed to draw out by two pages when one or two paragraphs probably would have sufficed.

I know I shouldn't keep making these comparisons between the book series and the T.V. series, but it's hard not to do.  The characters in the book really DON'T do the television series character any justice.  Granted, I'm a couple seasons behind in parallel with the book series, so I don't know if things have changed.  Hopefully the next book in this series picks up a little bit now that a significant parallel story arc has come to a close.

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This review was originally posted at Ani's Book Abyss / BookLikes in October 2015.

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Brief Thoughts: Frozen Heat

Frozen Heat

by Richard Castle
Book 4 of Nikki Heat

~ Goodreads ~

Rating:  3.5 Stars

Nikki Heat and Jameson Rook are together again, facing an unsolved murder mystery that has haunted Nikki for ten years.

NYPD Homicide Detective Nikki Heat arrives at her latest crime scene to find an unidentified woman stabbed to death and stuffed inside a suitcase left on a Manhattan street.  Nikki is in for a big shock when this new homicide connects to the unsolved murder of her own mother.  Paired once again with her romantic and investigative partner, top journalist Jameson Rook, Heat works to solve the mystery of the body in the suitcase while she is forced to confront unexplored areas of her mother's background.

Facing relentless danger as someone targets her for the next kill, Nikki's search will unearth painful family truths, expose a startling hidden life, and cause Nikki to reexamine her own past.  Heat's passionate quest takes her and Rook from the back alleys of Manhattan to the avenues of Paris, trying to catch a ruthless killer.  The question is, now that her mother's cold case has unexpectedly thawed, will Nikki Heat finally be able to solve the dark mystery that has been her demon for ten years?

I give the book credit for being better written with a smoother narration and story progression than previous books in this series.  It even has a fairly good premise to spring the crime thriller from, which was pretty intriguing.  Characters' development and interactions are still quite bland and some of the jokes managed to start getting a little tacky, though.

And, unfortunately, the book's story itself starts to feel stunted at certain scenes, and you can absolutely feel the book's attempts at being "bigger and badder" than previous books.  And so, in the end, you end up getting a story-line that feels like a long drawn out made-for-TV-movie with lots of twisty turns and over-the-top devices that just didn't seem to mesh well with the simple murder mystery that Frozen Heat had started out with.  Instead, every newly revealed secret and every additional twist made me wince and think "Wow, aren't we trying a little too hard to make this book something of a New York Times' bestsellers level?"


The basic story-line begins with the dead woman in a suitcase belonging to Nikki Heat; which leads to the resurfacing of the murder of Cynthia Heat, Nikki's mother.  And as Heat and her team (plus one Jameson Rook, writer extraordinaire) dig further into both murders from the present and the past, secrets are revealed that connect to something much bigger than Heat could have anticipated.


And then the next thing we know, we're dealing with assassination attempts, international espionage, U.S. governmental alphabet soup connections, things of betrayal, and more police politics to top everything else off.  It just all ended up being much bigger than it needed to be, but I have a feeling that the particular Richard Castle ghostwriter who took up this installment of Nikki Heat had been aiming for something grand and larger than life.

It almost felt comedic, sort of like one of Jameson Rook's out-of-this-world conspiracy theories that he likes to throw out there as jokes.  The ideas are entirely plausible, they all tie together in the end, but they honestly are hard to take seriously.

I get that this book is supposed to be a TV tie-in for Castle, and I get that during this installment, we're also coinciding with Kate Beckett's own investigation into her mother's death.  But I also get that, in the end, the Nikki Heat novels are little more than advertising gimmicks for the TV series.  I give the books a bit of leeway mainly because I know the purpose for their existence; in that sense, I don't mind the underlying gimmick.

Nonetheless, Frozen Heat is, so far, the much better written (in prose and style) of the Nikki Heat books I've read.  The story might have gotten a little out of control, but I can't deny that I still continue to find enjoyment in this series.  And also, I need to be catching up with the rest of the Castle series while I'm at it...

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This review was originally posted at Ani's Book Abyss / BookLikes in August 2015.

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Brief Thoughts: Heat Rises

Heat Rises

by Richard Castle
Book 3 of Nikki Heat

~ Goodreads ~

Rating:  3.0 Stars

The bizarre murder of a parish priest at a New York bondage club opens Nikki Heat's most thrilling and dangerous case so far, pitting her against New York's most vicious drug lord, an arrogant CIA contractor, and a shadowy death squad out to gun her down.  And that is just the tip of an iceberg that leads to a dark conspiracy reaching all the way to the highest level of the NYPD.

But when she gets too close to the truth, Nikki finds herself disgraced, stripped of her badge, and out on her own as a target for killers with nobody she can trust.  Except maybe the one man in her life who's not a cop.  Reporter Jameson Rook.

In the midst of New York's coldest winter in a hundred years, there's one thing Nikki is determined to prove: Heat Rises.

I had issues keeping up with this book because it started off being a little flat at the beginning.  I especially had trouble believing in the credibility of Nikki Heat being roadblocked in her investigation so easily--somehow, I had the distinct feeling that Kate Beckett wouldn't have been cowed so easily like that, even at the expense of pissing off her Captain.  Then again, I was also under the impression that Captain Montrose was definitely very un-Montgomery-like in this book and it irked me a little bit.

All that Kate Beckett spunk seemed to have evaporated.

No matter though.  It was quite interesting trying to find all the parallels between the book and the television series, even if things didn't seem to fit in quite right.

I liked the previous book more so than I liked Heat Rises, and it could be because the investigation felt stalled in several moments throughout this book.  Nevertheless, it's still a vast improvement from the first book in the series, and we get to see more development in the characters, even if they still don't quite compare with the television series' characters.

The murder case was a more conspiratorial one, starting with the death of a priest with connections to an old murder case that was blown off as related to gang violence, and then finally the danger of Nikki Heat being targeted because of her dogged investigation of the murders.

It's fairly standard crime thriller fare, but it had its moments of intrigue and excitement.  I'll give it that much.

You can see where this book might have taken a page from Castle with the ending of Season 3.  And also, it borrows the idea of a murder being blown off as gang-related violence, via Detective Beckett's mother's murder... which may or may not have more conspiratorial possibilities lingering in the background as well.


Overall:  Enjoyable as enjoyable does.

And really, the only reason I decided to even write a sloppy, short thoughts piece for this book was because I wanted to give a shout out to the very brief Firefly reference in the last 25% stretch of this book.  Really, it was only a sentence, but it was there and it made me giddy.

And also, there was a scene of dialogue that really tickled my funny bone and had me guffawing... for whatever reason:

"Oh, very cold.  Be glad you not have goldfish," he said.  "Mrs. Nathan, she have to move her goldfish to Flushing."

Rook said, "Is it me or is there something sad about hearing goldfish and Flushing in the same breath?"

Obviously, I'm easily amused...

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This review was originally posted at Ani's Book Abyss / BookLikes in January 2015.

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Review and other Thoughts: Naked Heat

Naked Heat

by Richard Castle
Book 2 of Nikki Heat

~ Goodreads ~

Rating:  3.5 Stars

An infamous gossip columnist is fatally stabbed in the back.  The story circles a Yankees pitcher, a pop star, and an actor's apparently accidental overdose.  Nikki Heat and hotshot reporter Jameson Rook trade barbs and innuendos while on the trail of a murderer.

While I was in the middle of reading Naked Heat, I suddenly had the urge to finally pick up Castle and see what it was all about.  After marathoning the first three seasons, I’m delighted to report that I thoroughly enjoyed the television series that this Nikki Heat book series is based off of.  And I can see all the parallels as well as why many people love the television series more so than they like the Nikki Heat book series.

There is a line in one of the episodes of Castle where Kate Beckett quips that maybe there’s a little bit more of Nikki Heat in her than one might have thought after all.  Well, that’s all fine and good, is what I was thinking; because unfortunately, despite being based off of Kate Beckett, I feel like there isn’t enough of Kate Beckett in Nikki Heat.

This, unfortunately, is one of the downfalls of the Nikki Heat series, if we must split hairs.  In comparison to the television series, the characters just don’t hold up very well.

Naked Heat was written a whole lot better than the previous book, Heat Wave.  While the concept and the murder mystery were acceptable in the first book, I found the writing hard to appreciate.  In contrast, the writing in Naked Heat was a lot more progressive, smoother, better edited…  The characters were a bit better developed.

And had I not gone ahead and watched Castle, I might have thought that Naked Heat managed to build its characters in a better manner.

But alas, having seen the television series, there is one definite trait that the television series has over the book series.  The characters of the Nikki Heat books, despite being based off of the Castle television series, just do not compare.

There isn’t enough of Kate Beckett in Nikki Heat to bring the detective to life.  There are layers and layers to Beckett’s life, history, and personality.  She’s a tough cop with a cool attitude, but she also has her moments of vulnerability and girlish glee that just doesn’t seem to translate through to Nikki Heat.  She’s realistic and down-to-earth, and not at all hard to relate with.  Nikki Heat, in contrast, is the tough cop with a cool attitude and some sarcastic quips… but ultimately, she just doesn’t show much human emotion and comes off more distant and kind of a bitch than anything else.

And the character of Jameson Rook is simply too simple to even compare with Richard Castle.  Despite having the same personality traits--childish, easily excitable, has no sense of boundaries, annoyingly arrogant--Rook is more of a surface scraping of Richard Castle’s true persona.  Like Beckett, there are also many more layers to Richard Castle, and one of the unfortunate things about Jameson Rook’s character when set up against Richard Castle, is that Rook has no back history that helps you understand his personality.  The only thing we know about Jameson Rook is that he has a diva mother… but otherwise, that’s about it.

Castle’s individual and family history (with his mother and his daughter and his previous marriages) does miles of good in turning Richard Castle into more than just the immature, childish, too excitable for his own good, arrogant Jameson Rook persona.  He’s charming as a man, loving as a father, and amazing as a loving son.  Having these traits to color his background makes Richard Castle a much more complex and likable person; in contrast, Jameson Rook merely comes off as an immature and annoying brat of a man-child.

I’ve also grown to love Lanie Parrish, Javier Esposito, and Kevin Ryan.  Even Captain Roy Montgomery has a place in my heart.  But on paper, in the Nikki Heat books, these people just don’t stand out.

So while written well with good story flow and progression (much better than the first book), the ultimate thing missing from the Nikki Heat series are the characters and their underlying lives that are supposed to make them shine.  In the books, they just fall kind of flat.


Now... Onto the actual book...

Naked Heat is another high scale murder mystery with layers of secrets unraveling as the story progresses.  A big name journalist is tortured and killed, and Jameson Rook turns out to have his connections in this case because he’d been shadowing said journalist.  On top of that, thanks to Rook’s other connections, he once again manages to help Heat and her detectives by providing his networking skills to get them interviews with celebrities and their ilk.

Along the way, Rook and Heat reconcile their relationship that had been strained at the beginning of this book due to Rook’s inconsiderate publishing of a “Nikki Heat”-centric article that, while casts her in a nice Tomb Raider-esque kickass light, also puts her name out for scrutiny by the rest of the NYPD who didn’t get mentioned.

So we have some drama and the requisite murder mystery, and once again, I do appreciate the character interactions, the humor, and the investigative process that propels the story-line.


The mystery in this book is certainly more intriguing than the last, and the story progression and wit and humor were also at a higher notch.  Still, the book itself comes off mediocre and uninspiring.  And in a sense, it still reeks of “Now you’ve read another book, be sure to watch the television series” all over it.

And, in a way, if marketing for the television series is what this book sets out to do, then it is definitely doing its job.

As for the parallels, you can find them throughout the book.  Except that this second book seems to correlate more with the second season and the third season of Castle.  And I can’t help but wonder if these parallels are being thrown into the book on purpose to stimulate thought… because sometimes they come off as being a little awkwardly incorporated.  But they are present--such as the dead body snatching, or finding Castle/Rook at the scene of a murder, or even Rook/Castle introducing a famous professional thief of ye olden days to Heat/Beckett… though in a different context.

One thing I will say, however, is that I can’t fault the book too much on the underdeveloped characterizations.  It’s probably not easy to compete with the crew of great actors and actresses who really manage to bring their own characters to life, and then trying to infuse a few tenths of that charm into a paper bio of a character.


Final Thoughts:  A step up from book one, entertaining and enjoyable, better character developments, better story progression and writing.  Enjoyable.

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This review was originally posted at Ani's Book Abyss / BookLikes in January 2015.

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Thoughts On: Heat Wave

Heat Wave

by Richard Castle
Book 1 of Nikki Heat

~ Goodreads ~

Rating:  2.5 Stars

Tough, sexy, professional, Nikki Heat carries a passion for justice as she leads one of New York City's top homicide squads.  She's hit with an unexpected challenge when the commissioner assigns superstar magazine journalist Jameson Rook to ride along with her to research an article on New York's Finest.  Pulitzer Prize-winning Rook is as much a handful as he is handsome.  His wise-cracking and meddling aren't her only problems.  As she works to unravel the secrets of the murdered real estate tycoon, she must also confront the spark between them.

There’s no mistaking that this book definitely had a “this is like a television series episode type of feel... but choppier and a little amateurish... like fan-fiction written by someone with no knowledge of literature prose... who is trying too hard to narrate the book in an extremely flippant fashion... and so isn’t really doing such a good job.”  Or something like that.

There are a lot of reasons why this book doesn’t work for me, but ultimately I managed to stick with it--kind of like watching the pilot episode of some television series with a good premise, and not quite knowing how I feel about continuing the rest of the series even though I managed to finish that first episode merely out of curiosity for what it will bring.

One thing is for sure, though: I am becoming increasingly curious about the television series behind the T.V. tie in.  If the reviews for this book are any indication, the Castle television series is apparently multiple times more enjoyable than this first book written by fictional author Richard Castle.  So if I ever get that hankering to watch television again, I might just see to picking up Castle and giving it the ol’ marathon go since it’s into seven seasons and might be marathon worthy.

Again… I DO like Nathan Fillion--I was quite the Firefly fan during it’s short-lived television run so many years ago.

Back to the book...

The blurbs for Heat Wave seem more focused on touting the whole Richard Castle as “blockbuster author” and “mystery sensation;” or Heat Wave as TV tie in to Castle... so we know where this book’s marketing lays--there's even a little stamp on the book cover that says "Watch CASTLE abc."  The rest of the blurb is also more concerned with being vague about the plot, with it’s “tough, sexy, professional Nikki Heat” who is assigned a ride along journalist in “Pulitzer Prize-winning” Jameson Rook to research “New York’s Finest.”

I feel like I can’t keep up with this “Best of the Best Characters” deal going on here, but whatever.

In summary, a New York real estate tycoon named Matthew Starr falls to his death.  Everyone around him has secrets and motive to kill; no one appears as he or she seems.  A murder investigation begins and the typical action ensues.

Ya know, I think I’m starting to understand why so many words are used to describe such a mundane plot.  Because, to be totally honest, this is a stock-standard everyday murder mystery with few twists and few surprises.  In TV terms, this is just the standard "murder of the week" formula, hopefully to keep viewers interested without getting too deep into the characters yet--it's actually not bad for a pilot episode... er... I mean first book.  Even though a lot seems to happen in this book, however--murders, secrets, character history groundwork being laid, character interactions and developments being somewhat progressed--very little of it feels significant.

The blurb sounds so much more exciting than the actual events in the book itself.


My thoughts in a nutshell:

What Didn’t Work For Me:

• The prose was disjointed and too deliberate in it’s delivery, and kind of tacky at times.
• Scenes of action felt like they dragged on for much longer than it would have taken for the action to actually take place in real life, because of all the unnecessary and wordy details of the action that I can only assume was included to make said action seem more credible as an action.  The urgency of situations can still be construed in writing if done properly, but in this book, a quick suspect raid and chase managed to feel like a flow chart process being discussed in the office rather than simply “just happening.”
• The characters feel unnatural.  I haven’t seen the television series, but I couldn’t help but keep picturing the main characters of Castle and wondering if this was a script that required the actors’ touch to infuse some personality and life into them.
• The characters are pretty much unrelatable.  The way they are presented makes them feel like they're these famous people somewhere out there that I can't get to know in a story.  Like I'm just reading some magazine story article about the "Day in the life of..."
• The “hot sex scene” that everyone is squeeing about didn't feel all that hot--obviously this book wasn’t written by or read by regulars of the Romantic Suspense/Erotica genre.  The sex scene was a typical formulaic “kissing, making out, getting naked, limbs are flailing… then fade to black.”  I’ve read hotter sex scenes… then again, I’ve read more explicit sex scenes not suitable for television audience, and I’m sure Heat Wave wouldn’t try to cross those lines as a TV tie in.

What DID Work For Me:

• The dialogue could be clever and witty sometimes.  Little things like the short meetings in front of the investigation white board, or the jokey interactions between the detectives and the journalist brought a flicker of amusement to my mind.  It gave the story and the characters a nice down-to-earth feeling that I very much enjoyed in spite of some of the tacky dialogue at other times.
• This scene stood out to me, and I have no idea why: When Nikki Heat was microwaving the leftover Chinese take-out belonging to Raley as she studied the murder case, and then leaving the “Thank You” note to “Raley!!!” along with post-it with orders for what he’s to do for the investigation, I found myself liking the little foursome a little more and chuckling a little bit.
• The characters are fabulous on paper... as character bios.  The book does them little justice (see above for my take on the characters) and just seems to be riding the coattails of Castle’s fame, assuming the reader already has a working knowledge of what kinds of people the characters in the book should be; ideally, if written better, I wouldn’t mind continuing to follow this team throughout the series.

My Overall Thoughts:
Heat Wave definitely works for a bored, rainy day read.  It’s not atrocious in execution, but it could’ve been better if the writers cared to actually sell a real book, and were less concerned about marketing their television series.  Although one thing is certain: Their marketing ploy is much more effective than their attempt at presenting a “New York Time’s Bestseller” written by a “mystery sensation” and “blockbuster author.”

I am fully curious and onboard with considering watching Castle if I can make time and get my hands on the series in full.

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This review was originally posted at Ani's Book Abyss / BookLikes in November 2014.

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A First Impression (originally posted on November 9, 2014)


Well I haven't seen Castle, but I've read the synopsis and some friends might have mentioned the series to me.  But the fact that this book is a tie-in with a TV series written by the fictional Richard Castle was enough to draw my curiosity.

I can't comment on the similarities to the series, but some reviewers are saying that the book reads like an episode of Castle presents.  I'm not surprised since the first chapter is quite fast paced and I'm slightly conflicted about the narration, not sure how I like it because it feels disjointed at some points.

The sarcasm and quips are quick and witty, so at least there will be THAT aspect to look forward to as well as some entertainment concerning the characters.  Since the book ties in with the series, I've got hopes that the crime thriller aspect will be done well.

At least for once I've got an easy imagery of what the characters are supposed to look like since, as some sources on the interwebz has pointed out that the characters are parallel to the main characters in Castle.

And now I'm kind of curious about the TV series... I do like Nathan Fillion...

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This update was originally posted at Ani's Book Abyss / BookLikes in November 2014.

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