Review: Naked Heat, Richard Castle (USA)

Title: Naked Heat
Author: Richard Castle
Publication: 201?/New York: Hyperion Books
ISBN #: 978-0-7868-9136-8
# of pages: 404
Discovered because I watch the TV show!
Read in paper format
Also available in e-book and audio
Link to author’s website: http://www.richardcastle.net/

Her morning call to a crime scene is not going well for Detective Nikki Heat. Her coffee lid broke in half, she then slammed on her brakes and spilled the coffee onto her lap, now she is staring at ……a coyote….in New York City. Not an auspicious start to her day.

But it gets worse when she is unsettled at the crime scene by none other than high-profile journalist and her ex-lover Jameson Rook. It was bad enough that his article on the NYPD turned into the “Nikki Heat” story, causing some dissension amongst her team. Now she is about to be saddled with him as a ride-along partner again. And the victim is a notorious gossip columnist so the list of possible murder suspects is bound to be lengthy.

This story is what I would describe as a great beach book – light, fluffy and fun, much like the TV show “Castle”. For show fans, it takes some effort to remember that this is not about the show but in fact the book Castle refers to writing while on the show. Jameson is of course Castle and Nikki is Kate Beckett. Her side kicks Esposito and Ryan are there as Ochoa and Raley, as is pathologist Lanie Parish (Lauren Parry). His mother and daughter are not. Guess you have to watch the show for this to make sense! But it is still a fun book for anyone. A plot with lots of twists and turns, and helpful contacts that only a high-powered journalist could reach out to.                            Rating: (°_°)      Worth reading

Notable sentence: “If a man is willing to ride with a corpse just to be with you, that’s more effort than you get from most.”

The author….well, that is a whole other story! According to the book cover and the website, it is Richard Castle. Of course, Richard Castle is really actor Nathan Fillion. So who is the real author? That remains a mystery. It is intriguing that Castle’s poker buddies on the show are real life mystery authors such as Michael Connelly. However, the evidence would seem to point to author Tom Straw as the actual writer. It’s fun to read the “in character” book acknowledgements and website though. This book is the second one in the Nikki Heat series. There is also a Derrick Storm series and several non-series books.