We all read books to satisfy our guilty pleasures, and for me, one of the series I read is the Nikki Heat series written by the TV characters on the TV show, Castle.  Richard Castle is a fictional character that writes a book about a fictional character named Nikki Heat, and Jameson Rook, a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning author.  "Crashing Heat" is the 10th book in the Nikki Heat series.  I really used to enjoy that series but it seams Castle jumped the shark tank when he separated from Kate Beckett, a fictional detective on the NYPD.  But this is about the book series, not the TV series.

Tom Straw is the ghostwriter of the Richard Castle novels.  These novels are sometimes over the top about a ruggedly handsome writer and yes, in this book he refers to himself that way about a half a dozen times.  These books are hammy, lovey-dovey and the police almost always get there man or woman, sometimes it might take the next book but they're like the Canadian Mounties, they do get the bad guy.

"Crashing Heat" starts out a little slow but 4 or 5 chapters later Jameson has become the lead person of interest in a murder case where a student where Rook was recruited to teach a semester at his old Alma Mater, is found naked in his bed and naturally she is dead.  This book has probably the least amount of action out of the other 9 books in the series but because of my guilty pleasure, I really enjoy the series.  ABC canceled the series after season 8, but the books keep coming.  If the books keep coming I'll still read them.

Crashing Heat by Richard Castle,

Book 10 in the Nikki Heat Series

This is fan fiction of a sort for the TV show Castle. I have only seen 1 episode of the show so I wasn’t sure what to expect when I got into this book. Heat Wave is a fun, fast-paced murder mystery. Detective Nikki Heat is brought onto a case that involves the murder of Matthew Starr, a real estate baron of New York. Jameson Rook, a reporter, manages to get himself attached to the investigation.

The action keeps the story moving along at a fast clip. There’s a little romance between Heat and Rook but it didn’t distract from the murder mystery. The plot itself was pretty straight forward, the mystery being fairly easy to unravel by the reader if not the main characters.

There are several sidekicks in the story, like detectives Ochoa and Raley and the medical examiner Lauren Parry. Mostly, they fade into the background and go unnoticed. Lauren has a few moments where her personality shows through. The cast of characters attempts various quips and jokes but much of it comes off flat. I was much more into the serious scenes. The action scenes were usually well done.

Over all, I liked Nikki Heat as a character. I will enjoy getting to know more about her in future books. While it was a quick, easy read, it had it’s charms. 3.5/5 stars

Driving Heat
by Richard Castle
Book 7 of Nikki Heat

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

I included a few at top of this post but see the entire list at https://www.fictfact.com/BookReleaseCalendar by clicking on Tuesday, May 2.

Guess gearing up for spring vacations and summer reading?

Ladies, what would you do if I told you that the most handsome man on the whole planet will spend three glorious weeks with YOU at YOUR house? And all you have to do is make yourself a pot of jo, relax in a hammock, and of course slip on something comfy but sexy as well and the best part is you don’t have to be on a reality TV show, or sign up for an adventure cruise that would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. It’s free. It’s hot off the presses. And he is the answer to all of your dreams. Ladies, I give you the one man that can actually make my heart do the tango: Richard Castle and his new book Heat Wave.

Yes, I understand that Richard Castle is a fictitious character in the new hit show Castle that premiers Monday’s at 10pm on ABC, but come on! It’s Nathan Fillion. Who doesn’t like a “rugged, good-looking” man on TV these days, and Nathan Fillion is doing a superb job filling in those shoes, am I right or what?  If you have not had the pleasure of seeing the show Castle, then you will need to borrow a friends TV, borrow their cable network and watch every Monday at 10 to understand my feelings (or you can also come into the library, go on YouTube and watch the shows on there for free). If you were fortunate enough to watch Castle, bless you. Still, why the reason of telling you ALL of this when I should be writing about a book that I read?

That famous writer Richard Castle based his novel Heat Wave on the proud, the few, the NYPD.

In Heat Wave, Detective Nikki Heat and journalist Jameson Rook are in charge of investigating the over-the balcony murder of a major Manhattan real-estate developer. As suspects start to pile up, things get a little complicated as people aren’t what they seem, even the victim.

So, how to bottom-line this one?

It’s a who-dunnit, suspenseful storyline with one other overpowering twist to it – romance. The play back and forth between the two characters, Heat and Rook, is fun and unforced, often less predictable than the mystery they’re pursuing.

So come to your local library and follow Heat and Rook through the streets of Manhattan and figure out if the butler did it.

But remember, “It’s like a mystery novel, you don’t just go to the last page do you?”