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.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Richard Castle is the author of numerous bestsellers, including the critically acclaimed Derrick Storm series. His first novel, In a Hail of Bullets, published while he was still in college, received the Nom DePlume Society's prestigious Tom Straw Award for Mystery Literature. Castle currently lives in Manhattan with his daughter and mother, both of whom infuse his life with humor and inspiration.
Note: Richard Castle is a fictional character from the ABC television show, Castle, played by Nathan Fillion. The biography is of this character. His name is being used as a pseudonym for tie-in novels to the TV show.
What can I say? Richard Castle's Nikki Heat series isn't fine literature, but it's as perfectly satisfying and indulgent as the TV show Castle. Between the searing political non-fiction and the high-tech sci-fi, sometimes you just need a little mind candy to cleanse your palate. Naked Heat was deliciously readable, and I'll definitely continue the series.
I’m happy to report, this was a huge improvement from the previous book (Heat Wave). While the first one came through as more of an inside joke, riding the tidal wave of the Castle TV show and seemed more like a fanfiction than an actual book written by a “New York Times Bestselling Author”, this one actually read like a book.
The writing and style was the first obvious improvement, the characters had (a little) more depth— though still not enough for my liking, the pacing was good, and so was the plot, and the villain was a little more difficult to spot.
I’m so glad I decided to read this right after Heat Wave, because it improved my notion of “Richard Castle” as an actual writer in a big way. Also, the fact Rook wasn’t such an idiot was a major plus, though I still have some reservations regarding Nikki Heat. Now I can go back to the TV show (which is still better than the books, even for a big Caskett shipper like me) and wait for the next book in this series.
kad bih ocjenjivao sam krimić, bila bi to solidna trojka. ali sve reference na omijenu seriju, tongue-in-cheek posveta na kraju i činjenica d ase autor ludo zabavljao pišući, podižu ocjenu za 1
"I've been thinking about how ugly gossip is. How it victimizes people, but how as much as we say we hate it, we still feed on it like it was crack.”
This book was really good. I mean, it's no literary great, but it's still good. It reads just like an episode of Castle, with the chapters breaks being where the commercial breaks would be. I wouldn't recommend this to people who have either never seen the Castle or dislike it. The characters in this novel are carbon copies of Castle, Beckett, Ryan, Esposito, and Lanie from the show. Overall, this was an enjoyable read, and I look forward to reading the rest of this series.
14/7/2016 So apparently my reading tastes have changed A LOT in the past five years. Because this was like wading through quicksand, and I could only get through 102 pages before I gave up and abandoned it.
Really, this is self-insert fan-fiction of a fictional world. Like, it's supposed to be written by a fictional character. About a fictional version of himself and fictional versions of his friends. I gave very few fucks about the case, and given that I haven't watched Castle in at least three years, the whole fictional-novelist-writes-the-book-he-writes-in-the-fictional-world schtick was no longer appealing to me.
But really, this is 100% a me thing and a product of my reading tastes having done a dramatic turn down Not This Lane. Also, my copy smells really weird, so making the decision to put it down wasn't terribly difficult...
16/10/2011 Not the greatest book of all time, obviously, but it kept me amused for a day or two.
Como me pasó con el primer libro de la serie Castle, lo he devorado. La verdad es que recomiendo mucho estos libros si sois fans de la serie porque son muy muy parecidos a sus capítulos. Me gustan la intriga que tiene, la cantidad de sospechosos, como están todos relacionados y sobretodo la relación que tienen los protagonistas, es decir, Rook, Nikki, Laury y los Roach.
Me encanta porque no he sabido descubrir quien era el asesino hasta el final, hasta las últimas páginas. Cada vez que arrestaban a uno yo iba como una tonta y lo colocaba en el número uno de sospechosos en mi cabeza. Y luego resulta que había más y más. Y claro, al final tienes que devorarlo para saber como acaba la cosa.
La verdad es que me ha gustado bastante como se ha ido desarrollando la historia y el final. No le doy las 5 estrellas porque sigue gustándome más la serie, pero el mes que viene caerá el tercero seguro =)
I get constantly confused by layers of fiction. Producers create a fictional writer who infiltrates into the fictional 12th precinct where fictional detectives work. Then that fictional writer writes books about the 12th precinct and its detectives using another set of fictional characters.
All in all, as with the Nicky Heat first thriller (third in the series) that I read, NAKED HEAT deserves my 3 stars.
I admit it. I enjoy watching Nathan Fillion. I enjoyed watching Firefly more intensely than Castle, but I’m happy that Castle exists because I believe strongly in this man’s right to have a steady acting job so that I can enjoy a steady diet of his roguish sense of humor.
As a mostly regular Castle watcher, I noticed a smudge in the line of reality when those Nikki Heat books that Nathan Fillion’s character writes on the show suddenly starting popping up in my local bookstore. I resisted buying them for at least a year, afraid that the fairly clever merchandising tie-in masked some not so clever writing.
But last week I gave in. I blame Nathan Fillion’s smile. You know the one in the author photo that seems to say, “Yes, I know this whole thing is a little silly, but don’t you really think it’s kind of fun anyway?”
And you know, I think it’s fair to say that if you enjoy watching Castle, you’ll enjoy these books. Reading Naked Heat is like reading an episode of the show. It’s really quite remarkable. Kudos to the author for that, whoever he or she may be.
(Review originally posted on my blog, bostonwriters.wordpress.com.)
It sounds kind of stupid in this day and age, but this book was written with a kind of sexist mentality. Usually the sex of the (anonymous) author plays only a little into the writing, and rarely detracts from the story, but this whole thing is a bad joke.
The story is supposed to be about this awesome female detective, but it undermines that whole idea repeatedly. It makes multiple commentary within the writing of the character being "balsy" as a positive, (obviously male, and as positive association,) or other characters having "brass balls" (seen by many males as a positive) but when a female reference is used, it is always negative. For example, when interrogating a pair of suspects, the detective was trying to find "the bitch" (obviously negative female connotation) among the two males because "You can always break the bitch(p.80)" (negative female connotation, weakness, dominated). It seems that any reference to her being gutsy were male references, and MANY of the words or terms choosen to describe negative things were female. It was so bad that it actually stood out. (It's much like a males version of a female drawn in a comic book. She may be a great character, but she'll always be ridiculously busty with a "live at the superhero gym" figure. Lame.)
It is not cleverly or covertly but rather overtly sexual, also of little importance to the story.
Lastly, and most strangely, there are grammatical mistakes within the text itself, not just in the use of the spoken text for character coloring. Quite a few of them.
Detective Nikki is on the trail of a murdered, mud-slinging socialite who has more enemies than New York has panhandlers. Among the suspects are a top notch Yankee pitcher, a rock star and his girlfriend, a gourmet chef, and the like.
The writing was great, from the characters to the continuity throughout the story, with her writing friend from the first novel, Rook, back for more quips.
Another installment for fans of the ABC TV show "Castle", "Naked Heat" continues the adventures of NYPD detective Nikki Heat (based on the TV show character "Kate Beckett") about 6 months after "Heat Wave". Although my primary complaint about "Heat Wave" (the constant use of Nikki Heat's full name throughout the narrative) is still partly there, this book is superior to its predecessor in several ways.
First off, there is more to the 2nd novel. Where the first book felt like you were reading a long episode (maybe two-parter) of "Castle", this second book is more epic in scale: more characters (both victims and suspects), more tense situations, and more character development. These are all done well too - it is not merely another example of "the sequel has to be bigger". It is a product of both better writing as well as the sequel's "little exposition needed" advantage over the first.
Secondly, the book makes more implied references to the TV show. In fact, it can become a bit of a game to try to figure out in which episode it was that Rick Castle got his inspiration for the next bit of the story. This makes the tie-in to the show that much more enjoyable for fans of the show: Easter eggs abound!
Finally, the romance angle is played better than in the original. Whereas the first book handled romance like a tequila-laced sledge hammer, the follow-up becomes more about the thrill of the chase, the questions and doubts about feelings and emotions, as well as rivalries and communication issues.
All in all, fans of the show will really appreciate the additional effort that went into this book. It's not Shakespeare, Austen, or Tolkien, but it's way better than your average "bodice ripper" (spoiler?).
This was a strange one that I'm still trying to get my head around. The general idea is that the book is written by Richard Castle, who is one of the leads in the tv cop show Castle. In the show Castle is an author who is shadowing a police officer (Kate Becket) to see how she works and to use her for the basis of the cop in his novels (Nikki Heat). Together they solve crimes and eventually become an item.
So, this story follows the same format only here the guy following Nikki Heat is Jamesone Rook (and I'm slightly ashamed to say it took me too long to put Castle/Took together for the pun that it is). And there in lies the problem for me, although the story was enjoyable enough it felt like an episode of Castle but with everyone having different names.
As for the story itself, well, as I say, I quite enjoyed it. A gossip columnist is found murdered just as she was about to hand over her 'block buster' manuscript (that will put someone in a whole heap of trouble). There are a whole heap of celebrity types who could be tied in to the case and it's up to Heat and Castle, sorry Rook, and co. to solve the case and try not to get in too many scrapes.
Well enough written and keeps you guessing for a good while.
One thing I did like (just because it made me chuckle) - in the series, Castle, the character of Castle is played by Nathan Fillon and in this story there is a passing mention of two police officers called Malcolm and Reynolds. In Fillon's other Big Show, Firefly, he plays the character of...
This second book was written with more confidence than the first. The characters are filling out with more dimension and make my enjoyment of the series even more.
The mystery and murders were well crafted and interesting and I loved the ending!
This is incredibly lame compared to the tv series of all things. Usually, but not always its the other way around. I commend the tv writers and condem this novel. Very lame. 1 of 10 stars
3.5 stars. This is the second in the Detective Nikki Heat series that tie in with the TV series Castle. When ruthless gossip columnist Cassidy Towne is murdered, there's no shortage of suspects. But does her murder have anything to do with the deaths of a limo driver and a concierge? And what do a pop star and a baseball star have to do with any of this, not to mention a coyote and a Texan with a penchant for torturing his victims first? The answer may lie with the missing tell-all manuscript she was working on, but where is it? And why did she withhold the final chapter from her publisher?
This is an entertaining, solid police procedural that once again sees Detective Nikki Heat and journalist Jamieson Rook join forces to solve the crime. There's lots of snappy banter and good plotting. However, the omniscient POV was a bit distant for me. I'm not sure now if it was all the way through. Maybe some of it was third-person POV with head-hopping. But once I started noticing it, it did explain why some of the action/suspense scenes didn't seem as gripping as they could have been. I felt I was a bit too far removed. This is a shame because the author is great at dialogue and interesting metaphors and other turns of phrase. It didn't grab me quite as much as the first book in the series, but I'm not sure if that was because the case itself wasn't as interesting to me or if some of the novelty had rubbed off. I didn't really feel for the victim, so maybe I wasn't as invested in finding her murderer.
However, it was an entertaining read overall and I'll probably read more in the series. If you like the TV series Castle, you'll like the parallels with this.
Naked Heat is book 2 in the Nikki Heat series of books. The series was published as to tie-in with the TV series Castle in which Richard Castle, an author, first comes in contact with Detective Kate Beckett when a copycat killer bases his crimes on the former’s books, and decides to base his next series on her. The books were actually written by screenwriter Tom Straw, but published under Castle’s name and feature his picture as author. Since I enjoyed the series so much, the initial seasons particularly, I had been meaning to give the books a try as well, and now I finally read this one which I’d bought last year.
This one opens with Nikki Heat on her way to a crime scene when she encounters something rather unusual. At the crime scene, she finds a victim who used to drive a truck delivering vegetables and fruit with no apparent reason why anyone would kill him. Almost before finishing with that scene, she is called to a second crime scene. Here the victim is a gossip columnist, Cassidy Towne and the person that reporter the murder is journalist Jameson Rook, who was working on a story on her. Needless to say, Towne was no pleasant person and has an endless list of ‘victims’ who’d wish her dead. We follow Rook and Heat and officers Riley and Ochoa as they interview suspects and try to find out which of them actually did her in. As Towne was a celebrity columnist, this is the world they find themselves navigating—not just a singer and a sportsman but also a politician whose career Towne cut short, and Rook’s connections help get them around a bit.
On the personal front, Rook and Heat have broken up since the article he was shadowing her team for ended up focusing on her rather than the team as a whole which left them all angry, and Nikki feeling wronged. Working with Nikki again on this case, Rook hopes to patch things up with her and the others, but Nikki’s old boyfriend enters the scene complicating things a little.
This is an enjoyable read that plays out more or less like any episode of the show Castle. The characters are basically versions of those—Castle is Rook, Beckett is Heat, Ryan is Riley, Esposito is Ochoa, and medical examiner Lanie is Lauren, while Castle’s mother Martha becomes Margaret though his daughter is not in the book (nor mentioned). The mystery is fairly complicated with plenty of suspects (all with strong enough motives) and some red herrings. We also learn something interesting about Rook; while Heat’s mother’s murder is mentioned but there are no developments in that direction. The only complaint if any I had was that may be it felt was a touch too long; but as someone who really enjoyed the show, I thought this was a great deal of fun.
Estoy encantada con estos libros de verdad. Yo que soy una persona que me he visto Castle desde la temporada uno hasta la octavo y última, de verdad me siento como si realmente estuviera leyendo esos libros que Castle va escribiendo durante la serie o como si estuviera viendo un capítulo. Para mi gusto la trama de la investigación es buenísima, pero además está esa relación entre Nikki y Jameson que a todo fan de Castle le hace recordar la relación de Kate y Richard, que es tan maravillosa, con la que a mi me enamoraron en la serie por ese puntito tontorrón de Richard (Jameson en este caso) y ese intento de no sentir nada de Kate (Nikki en el libro), y que es lo que está consiguiendo que me enamore también de los libros, además de como digo la investigación ya que la hacen de una forma entretenida con bromas y una vez más tal y como era en la serie. Otra cosa que me sorprende es que termino leyendo hasta los agradecimientos, que yo es algo que no leo nunca o rara vez, pero en este caso están escritos como si realmente fuera el personaje Richard Castle y se me hace interesante ver como lo hacen y además me gusta ver lo que ponen de su hija, su madre, de los policias con los que trabaja en la serie, en fin que yo soy muy friki cuando me gusta una serie y eso pues me llama la atención. Es verdad que he tardado bastante en terminar el libro pero he tenido unos días que no me apetecía leer, como nos pasa a todos, es decir que no es porque no me estuviera gustando o enganchando, todo lo contrario. Pero cuando no tengo un día bueno no me apetece hacer nada, ni leer. En definitiva, a todo fan de la serie Castle le recomiendo leer estos libros porque ya que la serie llegó a su fin al menos tenemos algo que nos la recuerde, y os aseguro que no podréis echar en falta la serie teniendo libros que te la recuerden tan bien como estos.
Mini Book Review: I have to read these since I am a huge Castle fan, I just can't help myself. I love the fact that they have a picture of Nathan Fillion on the back cover as the author, makes me giggle. I know they are gimmicky and the writing not the best, but I still really enjoy them. This story was no exception. It's fast paced and filled with fun TV style dialogue. The characters are loosely based on the actual characters on the show which makes it lots of fun. Also some of the plot is taken from various episodes of the show and it appeals to my nerdy humour to figure out which one. My only complaint no naughty scenes between Rook and Nikki, that was hilarious to read in the first installment. A perfect book for a day at the beach and a must have for fans of Castle. I have the first book in paperback and will be buying this one as well when it comes out in that format. Hopefully one day I will be able to get Nathan Fillion to sign my copies, and I am still dying to know who ACTUALLY writes them.
3.5 Dewey's
I borrowed this from Natasha and didn't have to review (But I will be buying my own copy when it comes out in paperback)
It's not quite as delightful as the last novel novel, but this new production of "Richard Castle" or whoever is writing for him is still pretty darn fun. If it wasn't attached to a television show, this would be, at best, a mid-level airplane read -- the kind of thing it would be fine to pass two hours with in an enclosed space that offers limited options. The attachment to the TV show "Castle," though, makes it an extension of a world I'm already amused by, though not exactly in a fan-fiction type way. Half the fun of this book is reading between the lines to what Castle (the fictional writer) is saying about his real life (which is, of course, not at all real). The experience is still vertiginous, offering layer upon layer of fun. It's like spending each week spying on a writer's life, and then getting to see the product of it, once a year -- and yet none of that is true.
I liked it. It was a funny, flirty book, much lighter than the usual mystery genre and much more willing to play with its characters -- both into and against stereotype.
New case with a lot more suspects and a lot more different characters, but the book never looses the proverbial plot. It's another Nikki Heat/Jameson Rook case which you just can't stop reading. =D
If you enjoyed the TV show "Castle" you will like reading the background books. In the TV show, Rick Castle is learning about the job of a police detective by shadowing Kate Beckett. Rick's new book series is about Nikki Heat, a slutter and messier version of detective Beckett. The author uses a lot of throwback comments that bring back the writings of Mickey Spillane's "Mike Hammer" to mind.
The tension ran high between Rook and Heat. The case kept tangling into one big ball of clues, inevitably leading to dead end after dead end. After a suicide attempt and numerous suspects, Nikki Heat had to dig deeper than before in order to solve the mystery Cassidy Town’s murder.